“The perennial question in any democracy is always, how is the public interest informed and influenced by the most vulnerable in our society?“–from Democracy Matters by Dr. Cornel West

I chose this title, and that quote, because so many things recently have struck me as relevantly irrelevant.  Go ahead and blame Bush for the war.  Blame Obama for the economy.  Look for the fattest paycheck you can find.  Just go home tonight, and sit around (and fail to see past) your dining room table.  Forget how lucky or blessed you are to have a dining room table in the first place.  Give away that bag of groceries during the holidays (as the good word tells us to) and accept the existence of homeless shelters and food banks (as long as they’re not in our neighborhood), but vehemently raise the sword of righteous indignation at the prospect of seeing taxes increased to support programs that might actually reduce the need for those services in the first place.

When I refer to the “most vulnerable in our society”, I’m not talking about children.  I’m not talking about our elders.  Or the disabled.  And I am most definitely not talking about YOU or ME.  We might be in danger of losing our jobs, our homes, our cars, or dare I say, our dignity.  But allowing ourselves–our middle-class, well-educated, big-screen-TV watching selves–to be labeled as ‘victims’–whether it’s in the debate on health care, the prolonged recession, or school assignment plans–is a bunch of crap.  And the fact that our media and leadership continue to paint us as such is insulting to say the least.

Tonight, somewhere in the greatest country in the history of humankind, a frightened woman and her daughter will be told that they can’t park in that neighborhood overnight, or that they are not allowed to sleep on that bench.  A runaway child will prostitute himself for a meal.  A veteran of our armed forces will be arrested and thrown in jail (or called a ‘scumbag’) for performing a necessary bodily function.  These are the people I’m talking about when I bring up ‘the most vulnerable among us.’  The ones that aren’t even looked at as human anymore.  The ones who don’t have a place to ‘legally’ perform normal biological responses like sleeping, eating, and relieving themselves when nature calls.  The people who we’re more than happy to help, as long as we’re able to get what we deserve and it helps us feel better about ourselves during the ‘season of giving’…but we’ll be damned if we’re going to allow those thieves in office to take one more dime out of our paycheck to put a roof over that person’s head.  Or help that person gain access to the same education we had, or more nutritious food for their table, or better health care.  Because we don’t think it’s fair.

Give me a break.