The Social Basement

   Who are the people (real people) living in the social basement? Does it really matter when votes are cast? Depending upon what view you choose and what floor you live on will tell us. This sub-terranian landscape is the one that is mostly ignored. In the world of some politicians, the basement contains 47% of the country, and amount to nothing more than a number. To others, the actual number of us on welfare is 1.5%. These numbers will no doubt be shifting as time goes on. I have lived very close to the basement in past years. Working 60-70 hours a week while paying half the power bill, putting off rent for a week or two, surviving on grits and eggs, and considering peanut butter and jelly a square meal. Pawn shops became our banks for the early years of my family. I didn't work in the service industry where people are the purest form of wage slaves; I am a caftsman who took the time and commitment to learn a craft, and because of this, I made pretty good money. We were living on the "second floor". Despite not being in the basement, our constant uphill (or upstairs) battle left us looking at a fireman's pole to slide down, or an impossible sand stone cliff to climb up.
   What is below the basement other than graves? Our safety net. In a country that insists on straddling the Capitalist/Socialist fence, our safety net is made of Marxist reality, fed by a capitalist tip jar. What is to blame for this status even existing in our country of wealth and excess? Why are there empty bellies? Why is there a huge group in the US who pretend poverty doesn't exist? There are many groups that see it for what it is, and help.
   There are many more groups that are otherwise pre-occupied with cultivating drones that believe in the same capitalist ideas that haven't been operable for decades. It's the religious version of the failed "trickle down" system of economics. The help never makes it to the bottom. No matter how well the church indoctrinates its followers to prosper, it seems to come up short, every generation. The gap between sinking and swimming has traditionally been filled by charities and church groups. The gross irony is that many of those Christians subscribe to current political affairs, rail against liberals for seeing a need, rally against government interference, all the while ignoring their duty of caring for the poor. News Alert: You have laid the poor in the lap of government in your pursuit of the American dream, while ignoring the American nightmare.
   In the wake of a great and eye-opening election cycle, I hope the message gets through; the message that more of us disagree with antiquated, backward, selfish politics, and that a house cleaning is in order for the "Old" party.
   I have attended many churches, and only a few out of many denominations made an attempt to hold themselves accountable financially by printing weekly, monthly, and year-to-date buletins. The list usually has a "required to date", and "recieved to date" section, and maybe a "missions fund" update. This is good but so many do not offer any meaningful disclosure at all.
   The greatest muscle flexing politics in churches andthe most diligent campaigning Clergymen come out when a new building is in order. My wife and I, sitting next to each other, have both been given colorful booklets with the proposed "campus" or "worship center". I am all for expansion, but expansion in space and numbers of the same kind of people over again is not really expansion; it is simply another machine, building wealth for itself. The explicit goal of Christianity is to be among the world, and not in it, I think. Maybe some love would be in order, mercy perhaps. The food bank should have food that is not out dated too. I know this is easy to ignore when the new building slogan is "Equal Sacrifice". It can put a strain on the lesser programs funding. Some of these buildings cost multiple millions too, so we can't be too hard on them.
   The organizations that the government has been able to depend on for so many generations are broken. They have taken advantage of the government gift of tax exemption, and used it for themselves.
   If anyone can break this down, and tell me that our "safety net" isn't woven from the wool of Socialism, only to be forced to hold hands with it's more successful cousin, Capitalism; I would love to hear it. Until then, the population living in the basement of society will grow. Failure to adapt our thinking will only make it harder to merge into the country that has the basic ability to feed it's own starving children.
   The next time you feel anger toward the current elected administration, ask yourself how your agenda wound up on the losing side despite the millions of dollars that your church representatives spent lobbying Congress. Realize that you are losing at your own game. Quit whining about where your tax money is spent by the Fed; you might not even know where your church tax is being spent. Decide which one you trust, and get involved. Most of the happenings in our government are public knowledge if you look hard enough. Your church should be the same way because it is a mini version of what a Theocratic society looks like; the few leading the many, the many, easily led.