Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Merry Christmas to All, with a Special Wish to the Least Fortunate Among Us



Christianity as practiced in too much of the USA really has me baffled these days. Where is the outrage among the hundreds of millions of Christians regarding the 99ers and the 9/11 first responders?

The 99ers are the millions left out of the extension of unemployment benefits and are now facing unemployment with zero aid after exhausting 99 weeks of benefits. The 9/11 first responders are those who were left ill after rushing to the WTC to save lives or otherwise help. They now face crushing health care costs. There are now bills pending to resolve these issues, and I urge anyone with a GOP Senator to contact that Senator and urge passage of these bills.

Much has passed recently during this lame duck session of Congress. Perhaps the most costly and high profile action was the extension of the Bush tax cuts to even the very wealthy--at a total cost of $858 billion. The cuts for those making more than $250,000 will cost $75 billion and will have little stimulative impact.

It is truly morally corrupt and deeply anti-Christian to shower massive wealth on the already wealthy while leaving the most unfortunate among us literally out in the cold this Christmas.

I attended St. Isaac Jogues grammar school and graduated from Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The most vivid lesson from that Christian schooling in my mind is: "That which you do to the least of my brothers, you do unto to me." Somewhere American Christianity seems to have lost that fundamental teaching, at least for too many. I sometimes think that too many Christians in the USA think this is a part of the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the tax cutters, for they shall inherit millions tax free."

So, Merry Christmas to all--and if you wish to help the most unfortunate among us this holiday season I recommend food pantries and a letter to your representatives.

1 comment:

  1. I totally agree with this post. Luckily, with regard to the 9/11 workers, it was passed in no small part to the effort of Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. He spent quite a bit of time bringing this issue to light, and then it started to get picked up by the mainstream news organizations. His last show of the year he brought in the 9/11 police/firemen to ask what they thought about the GOP holding this bill up. Basically shamed them into voting for it.

    I also really love how the 3% tax increase to the wealthiest among us was _so important_ that the GOP decided they wouldn't vote on anything until it was passed. Temper-tantrum politics.

    Sometimes it's hard to figure out how anyone could think that these tax cuts for the wealthy were so important. But all you have to do is read the comments on foxnews.com to see their perspective. Some people are _so_ anti-democrat, anti-Obama, that they hate anything proposed by them. They could introduce a bill declaring apple pie and baseball to be good, and your average fox news reader would rage against it. It's unreal.

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