Library Sorrows

[darkelf105]

Okay cats and kittens, I try not to get political on my LJ because I don't like to offend, but I think, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on, we in America need to come out in the open and admit that we are not a very moral nation. And by morality, I do not mean the abortion or gay debate as those are just political smoke screens politicians use to get your vote. I mean real morality. We are the most powerful nation in the world, and yet this is what I deal with on a daily basis. That is a long article, but if you read anything this year, read that. But let me tell you, the problems in this country, the major failings of this country, aren't just of the homeless and the chronicly ill. Everything in this country is failing. Read Nickled And Dimed and New American Blues. What we need to start talking about seriously as a nation, is social contract and why, despite the fact that civilization is founded on one tacitly, here in America, we don't have one. The same people who insist that there is no way such a complex  planet as earth could have not evolved without the design of a Creator, insist that the market, an entity that is inherently chaotic and unpredictable, can solve the problems of the nation. We have been letting the market "solve" the problems of the nation for the last thirty or so years.  Things have gotten worse and will continue to get worse as long as we don't wake up and realize that morality means more than going to church and thanking Jesus. How is that a nation who's very buzz word is morality, has such a problem with the down trodden. How is that a nation that Bible thumps the way that we do, view the outcast, the poor, the disenfranchized with such disregard even though the poor and outcast are mainly  what Jesus preached about and yet reads between the lines on such issues as homosexuality which is mentioned, obliquely I might add, a mere six times in the Bible?

And don't get me started on how education has failed our nation. We were guaranteed a public education and there can be no doubt about it. Ohio becoming a state hinged on Ohio providing public education. So how is it that the kids that come in here can't do a basic search, can't spell, can't use a dictionary, and have never heard of an encyclopedia? I had a ninth grade teacher come in the other day who has never read Hamlet. There is something seriously wrong with that. And the library is supposed to pick up the slack where the school have left off, but you know what my major is Classical Literature and Medieval Studies, not education. I only have so much time to teach these kids what a viable source is, what a works cited page is and how basic grammar. i want to help them, it kills me not to help them, but I'm only a library assistant and I have to run the library, not teach children what they should have learned in school. No this nation needs to shut the fuck up about the false morality it has been talking about and start talking about real morality, the morality that means the most vulnerable of our citizenry are taken care of. That promises are kept, and that the tax money I pay is used for my fellow Americans. That the money that the middle class spends to ensure the viability of this nation, is used for this nation and not to further the interest of corporations, who get away with not paying taxes because they AREN'T citizens. That the half of my pay check that I give up every month gets used for what I voted for. That the middle class does not kep paying for the richest one percent to get richer while the rest of the nation sinks slowly into poverty. It's time we really did become the "Moral Majority" and didn't just pay lip service to it from out multi-million dollatr mega churches.

Comments

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Agreed. In a nation like ours there should be no one who is forced to be homeless, no one without medical care, and no one without access to nutritional food.
I was really interested in the part about the mentally ill because it is so true. It doesn't take a genius to figure out it is better to start by helping people instead of just trying to use quick fixes to cover the mess up.

[owaine.livejournal.com]

I have mentioned being a pastor, previously. Basically, the short version, is that I have been blacklisted by my denomination for preaching this message. I have had the audacity to question the denominations and the bishop's spending and fiscal practices. This is the church, mind you. The biggest sayers of support the poor, and they are as guilty as the rest of America.

What really got me was at a clergy meeting one afternoon. I was talking about the poor here in the south side of Elyria, and how there is nowhere to buy groceries except for a CFM (convenient shopping at luxury prices), they had to walk across town to buy stamps, etc. One of the clergy just sort of chuckled, the rest just looked dumbfounded. None of them had any experience in dealing with the homeless and/or poor, beyond giving out baskets of food at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a good thing that the poor and homeless are only hungry two days a year.

One more point and I'll step down from my lectern. I made the comment in a sermon one Sunday that while our government spends roughly $200.00 USD to wage war, it spends under $0.01 USD to feed the poor. The messages I received during the week were that I should keep my political opinions to myself. The next Sunday I stood up, informed the congregation of the replies I received and told them that I was not espousing political rhetoric. What I was saying was plain, simple fact.

It is not political opinion to say that our government is doing a poor job of taking care of, not only it's neediest citizens, but, all of it's citizens. We need more people willing to stand up and speak out. In the end, it's the only way that things will change.

[darkelf105.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. I stopped going to church a long time ago when my pastor started talking about abortion, but never mentioned why people might have them. Never brought up that since the social conservatives have gotten into power abortions have gone up atronomically, never brought up the poor, the fact that we have children and abandoned them. When I asked what types of programs we should have to support women who got pregnant but didn't want to be, he snapped that it was their duty to have the children regardless of the consequences and that God would help them. I stopped believing in the power of churches a long time ago. It's a shame that Christianity has been taken over by ultra conservative dominionist theorists and zealots and now been merged with the consumer culture at large, because it used to be that the religious minded helped pave the way for radical changes in the culture. Now the pulpit preaches consumption, ignorance and the apocalpse (like that's something we should want). Christians are supposed to live a part from the world, to be subversive, instead, I just see more foot soldiers in the armies of the corporations, more people willing to buy their way into heaven. Martin Luther is turning over in his grave.

[lady-bell.livejournal.com]

:'(