DEAR DEB: February 2012

As luck would have it my deadline this month is MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY.  I find this inspirational in light of the questions and comments my readers have raised regarding how we, as individuals, congregations and communities can respond and have an impact on current conditions of inequality and poverty.  A friend on Facebook posted a link that contained a couple of Dr. King quotes I want to share with you.

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. “

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. “

One reader told me she watched the steady physical and apparent psychological and economic decline of a fellow parishioner.  She became disheartened and felt rather hopeless to provide any help or counsel.  One day in church prayers were raised for the down and out woman.  Finally our reader gathered her courage and asked the woman why she had never said anything about her need for assistance until now.  The woman raised her eyes and said, “Why didn’t you ever ask?”

Another reader despaired that, he, as one individual, could do so little to help the masses that are so deeply in need.  Other readers have asked how they could become volunteers and what are the specific needs of those living in poverty and without homes.

What I make of all this is that if we knew how to help, how to make a difference, we would try.  Lately I’ve been thinking of poverty and homelessness in terms of return on investment economics.  This may sound a bit cold but I think the separation of altruism and charity from the broader economic concerns of our world is a mistake.  How many studies have been done showing the long-range benefits of providing education, health care, meals, housing, transportation and childcare to those in need?  Always the lifting up of this segment of society allows for economic gain for the larger society.  Other studies show if we do not make this type of investment we pay a much greater price to incarcerate those who have fallen to lives of crimes. We pay a price in failing to provide education in that ignorance often leads to bigotry and hatred and results in war, greed and domestic violence.  When each citizen of our world is alone in the need to survive and has no community to provide for basic human needs some few people will rise above the fray and become wealthy and powerful.  I think this is what Dr. Martin Luther King was saying when he said, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

This is all to say that I believe the answer to “what can one person do” has become a moral, political and economic question.  But it’s more practical than that too.  It’s an issue that requires us to put our money where our politics are to at least the extent we focus on issues regarding the good sense and feasibility of a new Vikings Stadium or the addition of more upscale housing when the need for affordable housing is pressing.

I’m a common sense kind of gal for the most part.  I like to ask, “How much does it cost?  How much will it benefit?”  Lately as I ask these questions as they relate to lifting people out of poverty, the initial price tag seems tiny.  Let’s see if we can exemplify the life of Martin Luther King in our concerns for our community and for the future of our world.  Write to me and let’s keep the conversation going okay?