Thanksgiving Essay (brilliant!)
**Rowland Croucher**
Philosophy of Abundance
Harry T. Cook
11/25/08
"When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a
sheaf, thou
shalt not go again to fetch it; it shall be for the stranger, for the
fatherless
and for the widow . . ." (Deuteronomy 24:19)
Having just finished an article about yet another prospective
multi-billion dollar
federal bailout -- this time of Citibank -- I turned the page of my New
York Times
and noticed tucked away near the bottom of a column this headline:
"Farm's Open
Harvest Draws 40,000 in Colorado."
My spoonful of Shredded Wheat was held, poised between bowl and lip, as
with amazement
I scanned the story's nine terse paragraphs: On Saturday, 40,000 people,
more or
less, came by public invitation to the Platteville, CO, farm of Joe
and Chris Miller
to glean vegetables left over from the harvest -- 600,000 pounds of them
-- because,
as Ms. Miller said, "People obviously need food."
All that whilst federal regulators, having told Detroit automakers to
fend for themselves
on the way to bankruptcy with the concomitant loss of 3 million
livelihoods, were
fixing to come to the rescue of one of the wealthiest banks in the
world. Let there
be, in Bushland, no banker left behind.
Unable to reach the Millers in Platteville, I inquired of a manager in a
nearby
supermarket what revenue that unharvested 600,000 pounds of vegetables
would have
brought the Millers. He said it would, of course, depend on what kind of
vegetables,
but if they were, say, carrots or potatoes, on the wholesale market as
much as $540,000.
The Millers left half a million dollars lying in their fields.
Segue to Washington, D.C., as the federal government gives abundantly to
the banks
with one hand and stiffs the auto industry with the other. One big-time
bank spokestool
was quoted as saying, "Dollars are scarce resources right now." Not all
that scarce
as Citibank joins the supplicants at Washington's door for much more of
Oliver's
"some more."
What the hell?
There is, as my late father would have said, a slat loose in the
floorboards. Something
does not compute.
Timing being everything, in a wholesale sort of kindness, the Millers
opened their
fields to the gleaners a few days ahead of Thanksgiving, assuring that
the families
of those 40,000 people and those with whom they may share their
abundance will be
laden, if not in every case with turkey, at least with the root
vegetables that
are just as important to the culinary nature of the holiday.
Timing, too, I am sure, has been a calculation in all these bank
bailouts as well
as in the denial of help to the automakers. Those now in power realize
that after
noon on January 20, a new reality will have descended upon Washington.
New and more
egalitarian policies will be put in place while the bowls of the swells
will go
unfilled.
Today, the haves are getting and getting more -- much, much more than
they deserve
even as gleaners pick every last potato out of a Colorado field because,
as Ms.
Miller said, "People need food."
What's wrong with this picture is hugely and obscenely obvious -- as
obvious as
the corporate jets and the eight-figure salaries of the hapless wonders
who are
driving the automobile business into the ditch at high speed, as obvious
as the
haughty southern Republicans in the U.S. Senate whose not-so-hidden
agenda is to
bury the United Auto Workers and restore cheap, low-cost wages in
American factories.
Withal, it is time to pause in this madness to wish each other a good
Thanksgiving
holiday -- as good as it can be for as many as possible under the
circumstances.
I am grateful to the many readers of my essays and sermons, especially
to those
who write back in response, whether in praise or criticism. I hope with
all of you
that a year from now -- Thanksgiving 2009 -- our country, its economy
and its political
fortunes both here and abroad will be restored under a government that
works for
rather than against its citizens' best interests.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
© Copyright 2008, Harry T. Cook. All rights reserved. This article may
not be used
or reproduced without proper credit.
--
Shalom/Salaam/Pax! Rowland Croucher
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/ (20,000 articles 4000 humor)
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