Blessed Is the Full Plate

Sorry. Your goobermint gave all your money to Boeing, GE, Bechtel, Brown and Root, Israel, Africa, Columbia and you ALL were too stupid to put Ron Paul in office.
Now you have either Rambo or Mike Tyson.
Ahhh. Your CIA woulda taken out Ron Paul anyway.
Enjoy your demise.

Can I hear "Amen," somebody?
And now, will someone please take us voters and those whom we have elected to task for the shameful lack of funding for housing and treating the mentally ill in this country? Even without the Omaha tragedy, the numbers of untreated and homeless among the mentally ill has been yet another thousand-pound gorilla in the national living room. Someone has got to start acting for the common good and promoting the "general welfare" of the nation, and not for the profit of the few wealthiest in the nation. Either we're together, and that means we all have to give up a little bit of what we have so that everyone can have what they need, or we're isolated, cut off from each other, and without honor. Eight years of profit taking by the rich is enough. Time to clean house before a hungrier, more honorable nation does it for us.

Can I hear "Amen," somebody?
And now, will someone please take us voters and those whom we have elected to task for the shameful lack of funding for housing and treating the mentally ill in this country? Even without the Omaha tragedy, the numbers of untreated and homeless among the mentally ill has been yet another thousand-pound gorilla in the national living room. Someone has got to start acting for the common good and promoting the "general welfare" of the nation, and not for the profit of the few wealthiest in the nation. Either we're together, and that means we all have to give up a little bit of what we have so that everyone can have what they need, or we're isolated, cut off from each other, and without honor. Eight years of profit taking by the rich is enough. Time to clean house before a hungrier, more honorable nation does it for us.

My name is Rachel. I want to be a girl of few words: Thank you. Thank you for putting word out there that America is far from perfect; we need help just like other countries. The world would be a better place if more people were to think like you. Many of us say we will volunteer when we have time. But this sets me to thinking: We should MAKE time to help others. I volunteer all the time and after reading your article I am glad to know that it is benefitting the real crisis in this country. The issue is not whether we should help others abroad, but whether or not we can even help ourselves at home. If America can't take care of herself, how are others going to expect us to take care of them? Why has the American culture become so concerned about material and self-interested matters that we find it so hard to help? Why do most of us find it so hard to give? I believe that what we should be doing this Chrismas is giving, not getting.

My name in Areeba and I too am considered of Hunger in US. We worry about affluenza than what really matters which is to help the poor. Even though I may not know what Hunger is truely but I am sure it is difficult to get through so I Thank you Anna Quindlen from the bottom of my heart for reminding people that there are people in need of help and charity.

My name is Ken, and at one time I too was considered as are most street people are, a vagrant. Mostly broke and seeking many of my meals not at soup kitchens, but out of the dumpsters! Nobody wants to talk about americans going hungry, for it is not what the politicians want to admit they are responsible for! Know in your hearts I speak the truth, yet the sadest part is, it's only going to get worse! Our Government is 9 trillion dollars in debt and it grows by the billions each day. There is very little hope for this world and its ways of dealing all the cards under the table and off the bottom of the deck. Just so those who have can have more the those who need get less. However there is as someone once said; "Behind every gray cloud there is a silver linning." The times of today are not about war, hunger, terrorist and roadside bombs, for the times of today are more about the fact that we are finally reaping what we have sown. For many generations man has been chasing after the almighty dollar, instead of seeking the Lord God Almighty. Sadly those who sought after the big buck's and went bust because of overextended credit they couldn't possibly pay back, have gotten just what they were seeking the emptiness that comes when one out of greed, envy, and lustful coveting what the neighbors has. I am sorry my fellow americans, but the time is upon this nation when you shall see before your very own eyes the complete and total coplapse of the American Economy because of the massive overwriting of bigger and bigger debt. Hang on though, for when the US goes down many other nations will follow just like a row of dommino's. One after another until there is nothing left but accumulated poverty. the whole world will enter into a stage of poverty that has not been seen on the earth ever before. so great shall it be with the starving and dying people they will seek out anyone and all who propose they have an answer, Like vultures feeding on a corpse of the little that is left mankind shall see the greatest failure of the capitolist based economy in history! Then one shall rise who wil lead the people like sheep to the slaughter . For He will be able to give a starving world that which it desires, for a price? All you have to ask yourselves is, are you willing to pay what that price requires of you? May God's Mercy be With us All, Amen

when i was reading your column it really put into presepective for me of how bad people really have it. its a joy to hear that some people are really out there doing amazing things to try and help these people. There really are good people in this world

i loved your column and it really put into prespective for me of how bad people really have it, and that some people are really doing some amazing things to help these people. This Church is really doing a good thing.

i just wanted to say this is what we should be dealing with rather than what were doing in all those other countries around the world

Anna,
As we sat down to dinner tonight, my wife said she had read something she needed to share with me. It was ???Blessed Is the Full Plate" She was half way through when I noticed the tears trailing down my face. Thank you for your article. As usual, you seem to remind us of who we should be, refocus our priorities, and direct our conscience in the right direction. It gives me hope, a welcome respite from despair.

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There are, I am told, quiet a number of other places in America where the scenario writtent by Ms. Quindien occurs daily. And each reader's response to it shows what kind of person he or she is--and that may not be the one he or she considers him/herself to be!

As so with the American Society: how does she respond to the fact of poverty, of hunger, amidst her plenty, her power, her fantastic resources? Such as failure may be read into this, it does not belong to the individual American who is comparatively (vis-a-vis other peoples) just as if not more compassionate, a do-gooder, a person of good faith. What we have here is a failure of leadership--leadership all across the social spectrum, from politicians, businessmen, educators, religious authorities, opinion-makers and/or disseminators, etc. In fine, the failure is that of culpable negligence, of failing to tap on the goodness of the American people, of channeling their latent intents and quiscent desire to help others, with or against which no problem could remain long unsolved. And I mean virtually, no problem is impregnable to an aroused America. America has so proven time and again... so, I read Ms. Quindlen's soul-shaking missive and sigh: Where are the leaders who will inspire America to the greatness that should be her destiny? Not another bureaucracy, or ideology, political party, or layer of programs, what we need are such heroes/ines.
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This day is called "Black Friday" , a day following an holiday called Thanksgiving in which we pause to reflect upon our many blessings. Unfortunately, we as a nation turn from a day of thanksgiving and mar its special meaning by turning the weekend into a circus inhabited with the revelings in greed and avarice. How better it would be if those so richly blessed with Providential benefits could bestow some of their own blessings upon the poor and unfortunate fellow human beings who living in poverty and the least of any subsistence. Then possibly we would not hear such accounts like those in Anna Quindlen's article of soup kitchens, missions and homeless shelters that are feeding the less fortunate who go there for food, clothing and warmth and find that the coffers of America's charities are dwindling due to lack of concern and caring. Thank You Anna! You are a voice crying in the wilderness that endeavors to get our attention off of ourselves and our selfish interests and our eyes and hearts upon those very ones that Providence has placed us upon the earth to convey His Grace toward. Matthew 25:40 says in the latter portion of the scripture, "...Inasmuch, as ye have done it unto one of the least of these m brethren, ye have done it unto me". Perhaps Christ still intends for the American churches to extend the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the poor in spirit and to also feed the poor in body!

Thank you, Ms. Quindlen for another passionate and eloquent column. I too am disheartened by our society's obsession with wealth, fame and power. True these vices have existed for as long as man has walked the earth, but that still does not excuse our blind allegiance to them. We are a country filled with bright, caring and capable people. We must work harder to demand more from our leaders whom we entrust with our health and safety. We needlessly squander billions in helping those who seek only to help themselves. We ally ourselves with dictators and mass murderers all in the name of Democracy. Worse still, we allow our spiritual leaders to denigrate and brutalize those who express divergent viewpoints. I love my country but I fear she has lost her way. We have traded compassion for pity, action for inaction, and spirituality for apathy. As we enter the height of the holiday season, let us pledge to be better citizens, to help those in need and to do so without being asked. In short, ???Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.??? John 3:18

Comment: I wonder about humans ever being concerned about individuals of the same species. Aldous Huxley wrote about a programmed existense in his "Brave New World", where people were born, than lived, to fulfill society's needs. He also wrote about some people feeling that they would be better off if they were allowed to take a different path. Is there a compromise?

The history of the human is really abominable. Scientific progress has enabled some of the world to live a good life, (at least by today's standards) but obviously a large part of our world is, in a way, trying to play "catch up". Remember the stories of the poor who lived in Rome at the time of the Roman Empire. Effort was extended to make life at least livable for the poor. Apartment buldings were bult for them and grains etc. was passed out to them, to keep them from starving. We still are doing that when we open food centers where the poor can eat, the way most of us eat. Ala the "Holy Apostles", just one of the many shelters set up to help at least some of those who for some reason have been dealt a short deck. In ancient Rome, however, the government tried to fill the vacuum. In our nation today, we have turned that responsbility over to the "haves" and the handfull of indivduals who extend their efforts to help those in need.

This has proven to be a failure. True, in some parts of the world the problem of hunger doesn't exist to the extent it does here but it seems to be only in countries that have far more effective social programs than those that exist here. Also true is the fact that such programs can run amock, causing abuses that human beings, regardless of class, are ready to exploit.

If one thinks of the wealth that exists in this nation, it defies logic that any hunger exists here at all. It's obvious that the system in this country has failed, and sometimes I wonder if humanity is capable of making it on this planet for as long as the dinosaurs did.

If we needed any further proof that Anna Quindlan is the best active essayist in the States, possibly the world, here it is. You may want to add to your holiday joy by purchasing her lastest book (a twenty minute read with a twenty year resonance): "Good Dog, Stay" We are all blessed by the intellectual reach of this woman.

Anna: Thank you for one of the best articles addressing the vast and deep chasm between the "haves" and "have-nots" that persists in the USA. It's shameful and needs to be brought to the forefront every single day. How can we run all over the world telling others how to manage and run their citizens and governments when we can't even propoerly feed such a growing number of our own children? How can we criticize a single other ruler in the world for the way he or she treats its citizens, when we're spending a billion dollars a day "fighting terrorism" when people are sleeping in cardboard boxes less than a mile from the White House?

Secondly, your point about the ridiculous ways our federal, state and local governments DO choose to spend our tax dollars here is right-on. WHY, why do municipalities, for instance, continue waste time, staff and money to chase down prostitutes? The people of the US are screwed every day by our current president, vice-president, and most of our congressional representatives (that last term being an oxymoron); you don't see the cops staking THEM out on local street corners, even though a good number of them have prostituted the Constitution to the point that it seems to be considered "just a guideline" for our democracy.

It appears from the comments I reviewed that many others think you're right-on. It must be uppermost in our minds. How very sad that the current administration and our unrepresentative representatives will no more pay heed to that fact than they do the true wishes and will of the people they represent -- make that, the people they pay lip service to and ignore.

Ms Quinlan seems to be saying that 1) the church in the article is doing something good, and 2) government (especially the federal governement) should do more. I agree with #1, but not #2. Perhaps the easiest way to tell a liberal from a conservative is to watch them deal with important problems like this. Liberals feel that the government the first place to go the get the problem fixed. Conservatives feel it is the last. I think the specifics in the article support the conservative position. Basically, the church, a non-government agency, is doing good, and government (especially the federal government) isn't. Ms Quinlan feels we need more polictical courage. I think we need more individual involvement at the local level with non-government agencies that are actually accomplishing something -- like that church. The federal government simply isn't constructed to feed the hungry. What would political courage get us? A cabinet level department of the hungry? A national network of soup kitchens? Money thrown from hilocoptors?
If there is any hand wringing to do, if there is anything this society needs to re-think, it's the (possibly unconscience) desire to outsource individual responsibilty to a third party -- the federal government. This is perhaps best exemplified by an earlier post about this article which read: "A refreshing look at a problem that should be at the forefront of our domestic agenda. Well written, thank you." Wow. I guess that guy has done all that he can do -- suggest what should be at the forefront of our agenda. Individual involvement doesn't have to mean voluntering. If we don't have the time, contributions are sometimes even better. How many of my fellow posters, the ones who think this such a wonderful article, are willing to mail a check to the church in the article or some other non-government orgainzation in their own town? Probably not many. If they think its a great article, they probably think the government should just take care of it.
It shouldn't just be "the liberal, self-righteous millionaires like the author" as suggested by a rather ranting post. Middle class conservatives should particularly do it. I wonder what would happen if just half of the money contributed to politicians and polical action committees was redirected away from the world of politics. Frankly, I think the real political courage would be if a conservative politican stood up and said that the government is going to get out of the fix the hunger problem business, and return the power to the people.

If Ms. Quindlen could win the Pulitzer Prize for just one article, she should. This should be the spirit of America, not I have mine, so you may not share.