On giving
To the Editor;
I have heard that I should not give to the homeless who hold signs and ask because the money only goes to drugs and alcohol. And yet we are taught to judge not. It isn’t about the dollar you hand out the window. It is about the act of kindness.
If we try to believe for a moment that our money is wasted and we stop giving (performing acts of kindness) then we are creating an “us” and “them” scenario. Addiction is not just a homeless, low-income problem. It isn’t a black problem or a white problem. It isn’t a gay problem or a straight problem. Addiction is a social problem.
One only needs to look in the halls of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and addiction centers across the country to find addicted lawyers, ministers, priests, doctors, judges, and maybe your neighbor. Yet every year we pay many of those same people to work for us and we give hundreds even thousands of dollars for their services never questioning where they spend.
On the other hand kindness can be given without even thinking twice about where that is being spent. If I give an ounce of kindness it can stretch farther than any of us can imagine.
I recently encountered an acquaintance who complained of lazy welfare recipients taking all his hard-earned money. Yet, no mention of the billions of tax free dollars the churches make or the billions of dollars in corporate welfare. Why? Because it is easier to look down on “them” than to feel like “them.” Because ultimately, we are “them.”
In reality corporate welfare wastes more than the welfare given to the poor in billions of wasteful spending and loopholes. In addition, if churches spent more on the needy than on the million-dollar mega-churches there would be fewer poor. If corporations paid their due taxes there would be fewer. So when I hear someone complaining about working for the “millions on welfare” I will remember that they are just too scared to be a “them.” Ultimately … there is no “them” only an “us.”
The next time I hand that dollar out the window I will do it with the biggest, warmest smile I can because ultimately it isn’t really about the dollar; it’s about “us.”
Nancy Rotkowitz
Dover-Foxcroft