“Please, Sir, I Want Some More”

by Sheila Velazquez
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 14, 2005

The national debate over the use of the phrases "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" in place of "Merry Christmas" has resurfaced as the true meaning of the season is once again overshadowed by the words that describe it. Words like love, compassion and charity have disappeared from our holiday lexicon. God, if (s)he exists, is surely weeping as (s)he peers down upon our failures and excesses in a time of increased want around the world, including in America. We contribute billions in international food aid, yet much of it never reaches the poor and hungry. Malnutrition and hunger kill 25,000 people a day, more than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, while wars on poverty and hunger that could be waged in the United States are unfunded in favor of other "wars".

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released "Household Food Security in the United States 2004," which states that hunger increased nearly fifteen percent in one year. It is likely that the 2005 report will reflect that it is now escalating even faster due to more recent events, such as natural disasters, inflation, and lack of good jobs. More of us are poor, nearly forty million in 2004, and more of us are hungry, but media mention of food continues to be limited to the yearly admonition to cook our turkeys properly, lest we poison our families. More of us can't afford that turkey or its equivalent, particularly in black and Hispanic households and those headed by single women. Approximately twelve percent, or more than thirteen million, American households are "food insecure," which is to say that they are unsure of their ability to provide "enough food for an active healthy life for all household members." Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. Many times they juggle bills or forego buying necessities in order to fill their shopping carts. More than a third of that number are so food insecure that the USDA classifies them as "hungry."


The USDA reports that the greatest shortfall is in the South and West, where amber waves of grain sway grandly in field after field, but where the highest number of families are food insecure. Among the hungry are the homeless, and their numbers are growing. Montana, which is fifth from the bottom in personal income, has more than its share of needy families. Even in the very few Montana cities and towns where the living standard is higher, there are the hungry. It’s hard to keep track in big cities, where tens of thousands of hungry and/or homeless compete for diminishing services, while in Bozeman, MT it is more easily studied because of the smaller scale of the problem. And the man who probably understands Bozeman’s problem best is missionary chef Paul Thomas, who serves between forty-five and sixty meals a day from his old Ford van. Beginning in June 2000, Thomas has parked on downtown East Main Street to serve morning breakfast, and near the local Wal-Mart at the other end of town for lunch. He calls his mobile ministry "His Soup" and leaves home each day at four a.m. to begin "His Work," which is not connected to any particular religion, but which does operate on faith. Most of the food Thomas offers comes from the local food bank and the Salvation Army, and the mobile soup kitchen and Thomas’s family are supported by donations. He has never solicited funds, but he manages to get by with help that comes in unexpected ways.

Thomas says that whenever he has a need, it is somehow met.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

how much just a few extra dollars a week will help out their local food bank. I round up several posse's at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and Mr. Sui and I go regularly all year long and bring tons of food to our local food banks, and also to the special Dallas food bank that helps families with AIDS.

If anyone here wants to spend 15 dollars for butter, 10 dollars for flour, and twenty dollars for canned veggies, frozen veggies & meats, etc., you will walk out of the door of the foodbank feeling like a million dollars.

Just go do it. It's not hard - take a friend. Walk on air for the rest of the day knowing you did something that matters to somebody and their family, today, in a very real way, and then pass it on.

There's nothing like regularly doing something for someone else that will knit you a whole life, and show your kids and friends what is REALLY important.

All year round, not just at the holidays.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

and helped them all year long.. school supplies, Mother's Day shopping with the kids, car repairs, job training..

Not a lot, but one family got elevated and got enough breathing space to get on their feet..

That's really all it takes in most cases.. Just a helping hand holdiing their heads above water between the waves..

One mother went on to be a full time employee (and a good one) of one of our member's husband's office. All she needed was her car problems addressed and a little help with child care.

I need to do more, and I feel helpless.

especially when they grow out of religious convictions. But I look at this whole War on Xmas absurdity, and the War on the Ten Commandments, and the Queer Marriage Scare, and I can't help thinking "How stupid are you?" I am dumbfounded by the extent to which these people are driven by fear and paranoia. Fundies and thumpers exercise a degree of control over our nation totally out of proportion to their numbers; one could argue that they control two and a half of the three branches of gov't as well as a goodly portion of the MSM -- and yet they are obsessed with the idea that they are a persecuted minority and they hop on any bandwagon that their bigoted preachers and/or the GOP send their way. Last night there was a story on Atlanta TV about a conservative talk show hostess who is mounting a "silent campaign" by distributing "Merry Christmas" signs in Gainesville GA. Miss Thing whined about how it was a "Free Speech" issue -- never mind that it is no such thing (anyone who wants to say "Merry Christmas" is free to do so), and never mind the fact that given any other issue these are the first people in line to flush the First Amendment down the hopper. Once again we see the fundie mindset exposed as petty and childish, in desperate need of validation and constant reinforcement from others. It's not enough to wish someone Merry Christmas -- not when you can go on TV and cry and put up signs so that all of your neighbors can see you saying Merry Christmas.

This is about something else entirely.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

I felt like venting about the hypocrisy of the War on Christmas discussed in the opening paragraph. Certainly I'm not the first poster to go off on a tangent.