“Blessed are the poor for they shall inherit the earth.”
“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you. And shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward in heaven.” Matthew 5:3,11-12.
According to Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, poor people receiving foods stamps to help feed themselves and their hungry families, are “parasites” feeding off the rest of us. His remark is just a sample of the contemptuous and repulsive degrading of the poor, which Fox broadcasters have engaged in for the past several months. It’s disgusting. I can’t remember a time when such all manner of evil and hatred of the poor has been so vocally and publicly espoused, without a torrent of public condemnation. Those reviling the poor are beyond our contempt and likely beyond redemption, as they will find out on Judgment Day.
Using O’Reilly’s defamation of the poor the scripture would read “Blessed are the parasites for they shall inherit the earth.” Whatever they‘re called, the poor are blessed by God’s tender mercy.
O’Reilly’s group are against funding preschool for children which helps level the playing field with those of means. Poor children are fed one meal a day in preschool. They’re even against that. They are against providing healthcare for needy children. They would prefer poor kids remain hungry, uneducated, and ill. Why? Because it might save them a buck or two of the millions they are making. What in the world have these kids done to Mr. O’Reilly and crowd?
O’Reilly thinks he softens his position by saying it is not the poor people’s fault they’re parasites; it’s the fault of those who help them. Doesn’t make sense, does it? He seems to imply it would be best to let them perish than have them become parasites, as he calls them. He’s lost his mind.
The right wing insists that a single woman should give birth to a child for whom she cannot afford to care. When the child is born they wash their hands of any responsibility for its care, going so far as to close clinics which the mother needs for her healthcare. These are the same clinics where she might have gotten free birth control pills except for the fact that Republicans in State Houses have shut them down by insisting on outlandish requirements. Then when the mother seeks food stamps to feed the young one to whom they insisted she give birth, she is called a parasite by the likes of O’Reilly. Lord, he angers me so.
For years Republicans have told me they aren’t against equal opportunity. They say they are only against guaranteeing that everyone succeed. They would never get an argument from me if they practiced what they preach. They don’t. They most likely never will.
They don’t believe in equal education which is necessary if an equal opportunity is to be had by all. They don’t care if hungry or sick children have a difficult time learning, so they don’t support preschool meals, or heath care for needy children. They are against low interest rates for college loans which help all young people have an equal opportunity to receive a higher education. They don’t believe in equal opportunity. They don’t believe in equality. They never have.
They are against a living wage for America’s working poor. They continually vote against a minimum wage hike. Here’s a point they never want to acknowledge: Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would remove most all working poor from the ranks of those receiving food stamps and save the government much of what we spend on that program. It might cost O’Reilly 50 cents more for a hamburger, heaven forbid.
I would contend those who take advantage of the working poor by paying wages far below what is required for a living wage are the real parasites. They pay slave wages to workers in foreign countries to make items which they import and sell in Wally World, which also refuses to pay its workers a living wage. They fatten their bank accounts by feeding off the poor. They swarm over them as vultures swarming over the dead and dying, picking their bones clean.
Their spokesmen are the likes of O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, who damn the poor for being poor. As they tell it, they had a equal opportunity to avoid being poor, so why should we help them now? They tell this lie with a straight face knowing they repeatedly supported denying the poor an equal opportunity. It’s unbelievable.
Glen McAdoo, a Churchill County resident, can be contacted at glynn@phonewave.net.