The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

I had the honor this morning of emceeing the Stanwoodopolis/Camano Food Bank Fundraiser, an event to help kickstart and support the new grocery store style food bank in town.  When I mentioned to a buddy last weekend that I would be doing this shindig, he wanted to know why they needed more money.   Now understand, we’re talking about donations from biznesses and the public, you and me and the shops on the island and in town.  What I never understand and never will are the folks who begrudge the homeless, the hungry, the deprived, the single mom trying to raise a kid or two, the people who lost their job, the downtrodden begrudge just giving them a helping hand.  They think, I guess, that these folks are losers or drug addicts or alcoholics or they’re just lazy good-for-nothings.

Life can be cruel for a lot of us.  Society has a game that’s rigged for the privileged, the white, especially us males, for those whose parents could live in the right places, send their kids to the right colleges, feed them well, love them, educate them.

But … for a lot of us we might have been created equal, that doesn’t mean we have equal opportunities for life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  Don’t kid ourselves.  And don’t listen to the hard hearted who had an easier time navigating the American system.  Folks get left behind, folks become homeless and hungry thru no fault of their own.  We don’t have to blame anyone, not them or the government or the American Way of Life.  We just have to find it in our hearts to help the folks who never had the same advantages, who fell on hard times, who ran into a streak of bad luck.  We just have to be part of the safety net.  We have to help these people who, after all, are part of the family.

This is what I said to the assemblage this morning.  But ya know, I’m preaching to the choir.  My buddy wouldn’t have ears for this.  He’d tell me the government gives the foodbank subsidies and grants, why should he be obligated to spend his taxes or make a donation.  Why should anyone get what my buddy thinks is a free ride.  He made his, they could have too.  Like I said, I’ll never understand this kind of thinking.  And he’ll probably never have to walk a mile in their shoes.  Or even a few yards.

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