Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday July 24, 2008

Agnew,Obama and McCain on Poverty

In political campaigns a statement is often termed a "gaffe" yet it hits the bull's eye dead center and the real slip is the politico stating the truth without pre-meditation. Take the one Charles Boswell records in his book, "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The White House." During the election of 1968, Vice Presidential candidate Spiro Agnew was responding to a reporters' question about poverty and Mr. Agnew said:

"You don't learn from people suffering from poverty, but from experts who have studied the problem."

Perhaps Mr. Agnew meant that while impoverished people know the pain of poverty, very few could quote impressive statistics concerning their plight and thus coerce congress into allotting even more money to throw at the problem.

In our current Presidential Campaign we are faced with the choice of electing one candidate who claims to have suffered through Harvard University in an impoverished condition and another more seasoned candidate who claims a vote for him is the last chance the American people will ever have to elect a president born in a log cabin he built with his own two hands, the lumber fashioned from trees he and Thomas Jefferson harvested from President Washington's farm at MT. Vernon, VA. This, my friends is a hard choice.

Unlike many of my sophisticated friends, I do not think that the truly poor in America care all that much about log cabins, or poor little Harvard boys, nor do the ones I know worry so much about people flying around in private airliners saying that they, the anointed ones, feel the pain of the single mother, the dead beat dad being forced to pay child support, or even the pain of being sent back where they came from. The poor of our nation simply care the most about which candidate with throw the most of other people's money at their problem.

The area where the Great Blonde and I fight our way to fifty years of marriage suffered a severe storm the other night resulting in trees being scattered all over power lines in several counties. No one lost their life and for this we are thankful. The next morning the area looked like a war zone, and this was said, mind you, by the neighbor across the road who has served three hitches in Afghanistan.

The said Great Blonde and I have launched a debt reduction program and the thought of paying the exorbitant price the local motels are getting because the Colts are coming to town this week for their summer training camp was just ridiculous, so the dear child bride and I are experiencing, as are many of our neighbors, the severe poverty of no running water, unless you run to someone whose power is still on, but figuring the cost of gasoline, it is cheaper to buy said water and carry it home. How many of my erudite reader have ever taken a bird bath? Once you get in the wash basin, and over the shock of unheated water it really isn't all that bad. As the Blonde and I both rise around 4 AM we have had a blast getting ready by the light of Duracel, and they have kept shining away. PTL. Joyce did get eyebrow goo in her eye instead of on the lash, but other than that, she is more appreciative of my childhood experience of non-flushing facilities. Several of her co-workers have remarked about her new hairdo. And the folks around town are now noting that many Northsiders are into more aromatic deodorant. Other than that we are living in such poverty that four or five billion earthlings would gladly sell a grandchild to enjoy our current lifestyle. To be honest we could enjoy it more if gasoline were not selling at the price of moderately priced French Perfume.

And to think that the calling on my life began its earthly chapter long ago in a barn in Bethlehem is mind boggling.

Larry Lilly Copyright (C) 2008 Use with credit.

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