Givers,
the Sick, and the Dispossessed
Published in Marietta (GA) Daily Journal,4/25/20
Think
about it before you dismiss the next sentence. Never have newspapers and
television been so full of good news. Who would have thought it? I didn’t say
that the bad news has been diminished. It hasn’t. But example after example is
being given in the news of givers – groups and individuals as well – who are
attending to the needs of others.
“People
who need people are the luckiest people in the world,” chortled Barbara
Streisand, quite beautifully, 56 years ago this summer. People who help people
are also lucky, if you believe in luck. Some people don’t. They view luck as
the meeting of preparedness and opportunity. Currently across our country
millions are prepared to receive. That includes the sick, the families of the
48,061 who have died from the coronavirus, and the 26,000,000 who have lost
their jobs.
One
of the best examples of givers I’ve heard about is Freedom Church in Acworth.
This past Tuesday the Marietta Daily Journal reported that Freedom Church has
raised $1.6 million to wipe out medical bills of over 1,000 families in Cobb
and two nearby counties. I’ve been told by a friend who attends there that the
loud music at Freedom “rocks the Highway 41 traffic as it zooms by.” Even so,
it must be music that inspires members to love God and serve people. What with
the loud music, the majority of the people there are probably on the left side
of 50. If that’s the case, it’s younger adults with families who have so
commendably committed themselves to being givers. Kudos to them.
Both
the sick and the 26,000,000 need our attention and concern. Unfortunately we
have been thrown the question, “What’s more important, the economy or lives?”
The premise behind this question is flawed. It pits the sick against the
26,000,000. It implies that one can live without commerce, that is, without
creating and marketing, buying and selling, and working. It’s commerce that
builds ventilators, allows us to purchase medicine, and provides pay for dedicated
doctors and nurses. Without commerce, capitalism in action, how can we continue
to meet the needs of the sick?
“Stay
at home” has undoubtedly checked the spread of the coronavirus. It has also led
to the 26,000,000 who are virtually dispossessed and who come overwhelmingly
from small businesses. It’s easy to forget that small business is the backbone
of our economy. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, there are between 25 and 27
million small businesses in the United States that account for 60 to 80% of all
U.S. jobs. Does it take brain surgeon smarts to realize that with so many small
businesses shut down the economy will continue to crumble?
Yet,
the mayors of Atlanta, Savannah, of other cities, and CNN have blistered
Governor Kemp for his plan for opening up, slowly, our state’s economy. The
governor’s critics should be asked if their own incomes have come to a halt.
They are among the elites showing contempt for the protestors who cry for the
economy to open up. The protestors, however, are refusing to yield to their
betters. They probably understand that not all doctors agree with the shutdown
strategy, one of the most prominent being Dr John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist
at Stanford University. Ioannidis has stated, “Risks are much lower than has
been hyped.”
Many
who are not hurting economically are pushing village-guilt on us. Governors and
members of Congress are not hurting. The commentariat is not hurting. Speaking
of which, why are the glitzy commentators on the networks and cable stations,
along with academics and other elites, so critical of the several governors who
have begun opening up their states? The bulk of the pro-shutdown group is
progressives, Democrats, liberals, socialists, and leftists. Repetitive
synonyms, I realize, and their abstract love for the village has blinded them
to the concrete reality of individual villagers. That’s why some of us never
liked the nice-sounding expression, “It takes a village.” It takes more than a
village. It takes some individual villagers who are job creators.
Democrats
can’t deny that their ideas and policies since the days of Lyndon Johnson and
the Great Society have been socialism-lite, or worse. Their presidential
candidate Joe Biden is huge on keeping the country closed down, further
hindering the dispossessed. It’s not conspiratorial, but reasonable to conclude
that a leftist cabal is trying to level what we have so they can build what
they want.
Meanwhile
as the lockdown rebellion builds, givers like those at Freedom Church will
attend to those in need, those so often neglected in our great war.
Roger Hines
4/23/20
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