The poor you always have with you

19th December 2011   ·   0 Comments

By Fr. Jerome LeDoux
Contributing Columnist

“We do not want to be able to say, ‘One billion served!’”

The allusion, of course, was to the boastful claim of the Golden Arches. As Director of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Heather Reynolds gave the keynote address at the organization’s annual fundraiser with several hundred supporters in attendance. Their reward was a medium-sized, non-vegan chef salad. Oh yes, I passed.

“We don’t want to see returnees from those whom we have served,” was Heather’s noble quest. “We want to see the poor advance from the ranks of the poor until there are no longer any poor anywhere. We would like to work ourselves out of business.”

Alas, the words of Jesus in Matthew 26:11 have hung over us for almost two millennia and seem to be truer each day, “The poor you will always have with you.”

We’re not gaining, folks, but rather seem to be losing ground in the War On Poverty a la President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Ironically, from that declaration of war in 1964, the number of those designated as poor in the United States has increased annually, so that our prospects of winning this war seem to be dimming by the hour.

Considering the plight of the near 1.5 million homeless in the United States, one can ask several questions, such as, “Why do many homeless folks think certain jobs are too menial for them?” Something like pushing a broom at a service station is enough to gain the $10 needed to pay for one night in a not-too-desirable but se­­cure bunkhouse.

Somewhere in the mix, there has to be a formula for matching the needy with a job that will get them in at ground level, enabling them to begin the slow trek away from a dependent handout to a gainful upward movement toward independence.

Insinuating itself into this conversation is the oft-quoted saying of Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, “Give a man a fish; feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish; feed him for a lifetime.” The key thoughts here are either a dependency on a handout from one who gives a fish, or independence stemming from being taught to forage one’s own fish.

Finding the formula for matching the needy with a job appears to be a sizeable part of the answer to the burning question: Since the United States is hands down the country with the richest overall resources in the world, why cannot the reputed bright minds of the U.S. Congress and the world of business devise a system that eliminates poverty?

The “Glory to God, and on earth peace to people of good will” of Luke 2:14 is the main thought of the season, but peace can hardly survive in the throes of abject poverty. Is the Christmas message lost in lavish gift-giving amid hordes locked in poverty?

In its variety of definitions, poverty has grown steadily as the world population has exploded. For years, the U.S. has tried to define poverty by annually updating tabulations and thresholds for price changes. The 2009 weighted average poverty threshold of $21,954 for a family of four represents the same purchasing power as the 1963 threshold of $3,128. In developing countries, that “meager” $21,954 has to be a cruel joke.

How can all this be in a land of plenty and of surplus far beyond plenty, even to a surfeit of totally extravagant proportions? Far beyond the “amber waves of grain,” I’m referring to the mind-boggling, untold millions of tons of surplus grain that American farmers are holding in elevators all around the country, restlessly awaiting price rises.

Without simply giving away the hard-earned crops of farmers, it seems irrational that we cannot or will not come to grips with the moral, legal and fiscal issues inherent in using all our resources to feed, shelter and care for all our citizens of all conditions.

Another glaring fact we must deal with is our wasting 50 percent of all the energy we purport to use, while wasting 50 percent of the food we claim to eat. In effect, to come close to 100 percent efficiency in consuming our food and energy would amount to doubling all our resources and enabling us to help twice as many people.

Unless we diligently promote glory to God and peace on earth to people of good will, we will continue to suffer instability in our environment resulting from the absence of peace, especially among the homeless. Violence, not peace, is everywhere, but against the homeless it is increasing at an alarming rate, and many perpetrators are teenagers.

This article was originally published in the December 19, 2011 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper