Saint? Communist?

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” --Dom Helder Camara


I am almost constantly, lately, reminded of this quote when I think of the current situation in the United States, with our bailouts for big corporate banks and car companies and the like.

Sure, giving money to the "big guys" is absolutely okey-dokey and gets the big thumbs up, all 'round, either because they're "too big to fail" or whatever.

But request money for education in this country in virtually any form and what do you hear?

"WE GIVE TOO MUCH MONEY TO THE SCHOOLS ALREADY!"

And while it's true that some school districts have been awash with cash (research Kansas City, Missouri School District) with really, disastrous results, the fact is we end up spending far more in our society and country putting people in corrections institutions--particularly people of color--than we do educating them.

(And while we're at it, could we give up on the idea that ALL children have to be completely proficient in ALL subjects, in order to pass our school system? Can't some of them who are especially good at mechanics, or electronics or even, for pity's sake, plumbing, be allowed to go to vocational schools for those jobs instead?).

Anyway, back on my point.

This morning, on the way to work, listening to NPR, as always, I heard part of a new series on people with "Moxy" in our times. This particular story was about people down on their financial luck, who also happen to have no health care.

And right then, I knew, this is one of those stories where, because it's on NPR, people who hear that automatically call the network "liberal".

Apparently, FOX News isn't liberal because it reports on businesses and wealthy people and their situations and/or problems, while NPR and others like them (a colleague of mine said CBS's "60 Minutes" does this horrible thing, too, as an example), report on people in tough economic situations, thus making them that awful thing--"liberal".

It makes me wanna scream.

Folks, we have problems in this country. And we have a LOT of people in tough financial straits in this country.

And we should be able to report on them.

And we should be able to report on them or listen to these stories and not be labeled "liberal", like it's a bad thing.

Or "socialist".

Like that's a bad thing.