Giving During the Holiday Season; Can You Spare a Few Bucks for the Needy?

I dropped a $5 bill in the Salvation Army bucket on my way into K-Mart yesterday to pick up three prescriptions, shop for a few other things, and order yet another prescription. I know the Salvation Army does a good job. 

Real income (purchasing power) and hence discretionary income for middle-class and poor people people has been dropping since 1976. I think we've felt it most since our daughter entered college and since we bought two used cars since she graduated from college: one by choice and one because some idiot totaled a car we were going to keep on Highway 6 by blowing a red light as he looked for a street sign. He was from out of town.

So while I support Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI), Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), some of the politicians and good causes, like Doctors without Borders (Medecins sans Bordieres), the Wildlife Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, and a few others have had to do without me. I don't feel good about it, but I can't support everyone any more. 

Fortunately, our daughter has taken up some worthy causes with her solid new income. She donated $60 to the Free Medical Clinic in honor of a friend who committed suicide, bought school supplies for children in need, and is buying Toys for Tots for Christmas in Davenport. She found out that Kohl's is selling Discovery Toys, so she wants to buy the foundation for a fort to be covered with blankets. Some little kid or kids will be thrilled!

Our kids were always building forts when they were little. They had so much fun. Once they built a three-story house out of cardboard boxes and Jesse, our oldest, installed a working elevator in the house.

Give what you can to the needy, even if it's just a little. Every little bit counts.

What really needs to happen is for the poor and the ragged edges of the American middle class to stop blaming themselves for their continued and worsening poverty. They/we need to stand on our hind legs and roar over the increasing inequality between ourselves and the rich who are getting richer by leaps and bounds.

Bill Moyers had a guest on this past Sunday by the name of Henry Giroux who talked about what's wrong with American society, which Giroux claimed is no longer a society, but merely a group of savages participating in a survival-of-the-fittest horror show. 

Many Americans have convinced themselves that it's their fault if they're poor and no one should help them if they're poor. We, as a society, lost the capacity to see ourselves as citizens but only to see ourselves as consumers and competitors, Giroux commented.

In one sense, selfishness and greed should bring the poor and the struggling middle class to their senses sooner, since food scarcity and riots are strongly correlated. By cutting food stamps to many elderly with fixed incomes, the disabled, children, and working people paid an inadequate wage at places like Walmart and fast-food restaurants, Americans will feel the pinch sooner and will rebel sooner, if they're ever going to, when the shock of increased want and need has worn off and they stop blaming themselves for the spot they find themselves in, choosing between buying medicine, paying rent, and buying food.