The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern

I read the following two pieces in my local paper this morning. One is an opinion article and the second a letter to the editor. I'd like to share them with everyone.

We are suffering as a nation while a very select few are experiencing the greatest wealth in U.S. history yet paying less as their share to society than at anytime since before the Great Depression. I believe we are losing our soul as a nation. We're losing our humanity, our vision, our purpose.

There are times when it all makes me so angry I say things I later regret. I feel powerless watching the lies reported on the news every day, powerless against the failure of supposed journalists to set the record straight, and powerless against the disastrous policies being foisted on us at the state and national levels by people whose goals are so diametrically opposed to what this nation stands for that I sometimes wonder if they aren't foreign invaders masquerading as politicians, foreign invaders hell bent on destroying us and our nation.

The article below is by a local former history and economics teacher and union leader. The short letter from a local reader addresses the same issues, issues that are central to who and what we are as a people. Issues being addressed by the Republican Party in a way that makes me often wonder how Republicans can use religion to their advantage when they are in fact 180 degrees opposite the teachings of the person they claim to consider the Son of God.

I hope you all take a moment to read these two pieces.

http://www.nj.com/opinion/times/oped/index.ssf?/base/news-1/130457432897791.xml&coll=5

Republicans long for the past
Thursday, May 05, 2011
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

"From Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine -- and even New Jersey -- to Washington, D.C., the radical agenda of the Republican Party and its vocal Tea Party component brings to mind two widely divergent memories.

The first memory comes from 1964: "The Roar of the Greasepaint (The Smell of the Crowd)" opened on Broadway. Starring Anthony Newley and Cyril Ritchard, it provided what its CD dust jacket calls "a comic allegory about the class system in contemporary Britain." Ritchard's character, Sir, is one of the "haves," while Newley's character, Cocky, is one of the "have-nots." One lyric in the play that is so striking today is the reprise of "Things to Remember." In it, Sir sings:

"There are so many things to remember

From the deeply revered days of old

When living was gentle and gracious

And working folk did as they're told.

They were wonderful days, I remember,

When a feller could live like a king;

And children were working in coal mines

And life was a beautiful thing."

The goal of the Republican Party to march inexorably back to a time before the New Deal is manifest in Rep. Paul Ryan's, R-Wisc., proposal to roll back the top tax rate to be paid by millionaires to the lowest level since 1931, the year before Franklin Roosevelt was elected. Additionally, Gov. Scott Walker, R-Wisc., and Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, have championed laws to deprive public employees of collective bargaining rights."

Read the rest at the link above. Here is the short letter in its entirety.


http://www.nj.com/opinion/times/letters/index.ssf?/base/news-2/130457431997790.xml&coll=5

We shall know politicians by their fruits

"In response to "Plan: Cut health care for the poor" (April 30), I would encourage all politicians and voters who consider the Bible to be the word of God and a guide to how we should live to consider Proverbs 29 : 7 : "The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern" (New International Version).

There are many other verses in the Bible concerning the poor and the rich. Current proposals and policies at the federal and state levels to give even more tax breaks to the rich and to cut programs that assist the poor cannot be considered to be in accordance with biblical teaching. Of course, we have separation of church and state, but many of the politicians beholden to the rich and trying to balance budgets on the backs of the poor claim to be Christians; I wish they would start acting like it."

Whether you consider yourself religious or not, are an agnostic, atheist, or whatever your beliefs, we are better than than this.

Well said by both writers.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

The rich folks stole all that wealth created by labor fair and square. And now you think they should give some of it back? Socializm!