Yes, contradictory title on purpose.
I am stuck. I want to believe the best so much so that I was
traveling home from a bookstore with a copy of “The Political and Social Ideas
of St. Augustine: Whether that has anything to do with my mind set, well it
doesn’t. I haven’t read the book yet.
I bring it up because as a good Christian we are taught, yes
even required to help the poor. So it was coincidental that I had this book
when I saw what I saw.
As I was driving there was a long line of cars and then I
saw the sign. It was a volunteer group, looked like it was at a church giving away
food. Yes big sign free food bank, they even had one of those large blow up
figurines dancing in the wind. This line was off to one side on a side road of
sorts. I drove by the line of cars.
What I noticed is what bothered me. Almost every car in that
line was better than mine, some even much better. I have a mid size SUV a few
years old. It is nothing fancy, but it is paid off so we keep it. What I saw
was some pretty nice cars in this line. And sure poor people or working class
people can by chance have a nice car, but not in droves.
So how bad is it that people that appear to be well off are
in a food bank line. It can happen. Who knows. The markets could crash
dramatically and all sorts of people are hungry. Food inflation could become so
rampant that everyone needs help except the very few. I haven’t heard of
anything dramatic, yet it was worrisome to see. Do I need to rush out right
now?
Or could our society be so shallow that people who don’t
need resources still take advantage of this opportunity and the people that
need it are left out? I don’t know. The visual didn’t look good. I haven’t
heard of a complete market crash. Sure the well off might be able to react
quicker than the poor if the economy tanks so they would be first in line, yet even
that sounds like people are getting screwed.
I could be completely wrong. There was traffic so I was
going slow, but I only saw free food bank signs. Hopefully the people I saw
were donating and I am way off base. I didn’t see a sign that said donation line
or anything similar. Every car seemed to be in the same line. I won’t say it
cannot happen, yet donation lines don’t usually queue up. Usually you see them open
and people come and go through out the day. Hopefully I just missed something.
Like I mentioned I want the best, but the ten to fifteen seconds I drove by
seemed odd. The line was long. It circled back around the building where they
were lining up. This was the middle of the day so people are out, but also
people are at work and doing other things. You just don’t expect busy people to
spend time in line unless something is needed or wanted.
I didn’t circle back, yet for some reason this stuck in my
head and caused me some consternation so again I hope I am wrong otherwise it
says too much about us right now. The
more I think about it the more I hope I am an ass for these thoughts.
People do not usually comment to these posts, but any
thoughts are always appreciated.
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