‘No one ever gave me anything,” my father said a few months before he died. He didn’t say it with self-pity. It was just a fact that seemed to have suddenly struck him.
He wasn’t talking about small gifts that celebrate occasions. He got plenty of those. He was talking about big-ticket items that come from parents or rich relatives: Money for school, for a car, for a wedding. Down payment for a house. An inheritance.
Comments
Beverly, Thank you for this piece. It is at the core of our national debate. But we ignore it all day long. It is at the core of "Christian" values. But many "christians" have abandoned the concept of brotherhood. They have traded it for "you are wrong and/or lazy, and we are right". I think Christ would be embarrassed. Are we going to act and function as a nation that is a community? Or are we just going to pick at each other, constantly struggling for power and wealth? There are important "conservative" principles that Republicans and Democrats can share...especially on fiscal issues. There "liberal" minded ideas that all of us could agree on: tolerance, personal liberties, freedom of speech and religion. Could we try focusing on those common beliefs and then work together to get something done for ALL OF US?
I'm reminded of the senior citizen who loudly proclaimed, demanded, that, "the government stay out of my Medicare."