Friday, June 03, 2011

Aiding, Abetting or Enabling

Posted by Reverend Ref + at 7:28 PM

When I got back from our vacation to see the in-laws and then clergy conference, I was greeted with a revolving door of people needing to talk to me. A homeless couple asking for assistance, a 15-year old girl needing a quiet place, and a mother dealing with her daughter's impending bitter divorce were three of the more memorable visits to my office.

Since that then I've been dealing with the homeless couple on almost a daily basis. Last weekend I sprung for a hotel room for them. I've allowed them to keep what few belongings they have in the furnace room at church. And I've put them up for several nights where we really aren't equipped to allow people to stay.

All this while promised jobs have fallen through, the local shelter is already filled to capacity and unable to accept more people, and it's been raining pretty steadily on top of it all. Which means that I receive daily calls, usually involving tears and/or panicky tones, describing all of the above and wondering if there isn't anything else I can do or if "we can stay there just this one more night" because the only place left is under the bridge.

So I agree to help them again. And I get frustrated that I can't do more, or that I don't have a better solution. And I go to bed and wake up wondering if I'm aiding, abetting or enabling these two people.*

*Okay, maybe not really "abetting," since I'm not encouraging or helping in the committing of a crime, but it made the title of the post better.

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3 comments:

Padre Mickey | 6:57 PM, June 04, 2011  

May I, as an estadoünidense living abroad ask, WTF is going on in the U.S.A.? I just received a message from an old friend from High School in San Jose, CA. I was able to call him and learned that he has lost everything and is living in his car. I live in a third world country and we care for people much better than what is going on in the land which is supposed to be Democracy's Beacon. I probably deal with less people in dire straits than you do in the U.S.A. and I'm in a freakin' third world country!! At least people here can get medical attention and even recieve help for their children. May I suggest, that everybody rise up and make it clear to the Authoritarian/Conservative/Republican/Tea Party Axis that you will no longer stand for the destruction of all that the U.S.A. stands for? I can't believe my wife wants to return there.

Reverend Ref + | 12:17 AM, June 05, 2011  

The problem is, is that the right-wing, tea party, rtc republicans got to where they are because enough people in this country think they have the right answers.

And then there was this little gem out of Nebraska recently where the state legislature wants to deny abortion coverage for victims of rape and incest: When asked if women should plan for rape by buying insurance Rep. Pete DeGraaf said: "I have a spare tire in my car....I have a lot of things that I plan for."

Yeah, so . . . We seem to be following the Roman Empire in that we're rotting from the inside.

Ecgbert | 7:12 AM, June 09, 2011  

But the authentic right, the libertarian one, didn't cause this depression; the establishment Republicrats did. So the answer is not more of the same, big government even if run by well-meaning mainliners.

(The Tea Party is mostly a sock puppet for the establishment GOP. I think we can agree: talk about slashing the war budget and bringing the soldiers home now and maybe I'll take them seriously.)

OKing abortion for rape and incest says, 'Your mother has the right to kill you because she understandably hates your father'.

We see many of the same problems - people like Padre's friend being screwed - but disagree on the political solution.

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