Earlier today I responded to a comment Liberal Journal Man made here at Wandering the Ether, and I am having a difficult time moving beyond it. I think it would be accurate to say that the sentiment behind my reply is now devouring the periphery of my thoughts. Part of me yearns to have this question answered, while the rest of me knows it probably never will, because that would require that we (all of us) acknowledge that these problems exist.
It really is the right thing to do. We spend so much of our time and energy (socially) focusing on religion, claiming that without it humanity would have no moral compunction to honor one another, but what I see is a society that hides behind the illusion of ethics while laying claim to the world's largest population of homeless, preventing it's citizens from being healthy. All the while making it extremely costly to seek a higher education.
Is that the goal here? To have as many people as possible homeless, sick, and uneducated?
Education. Health care. Homelessness. In my mind these three issues represent our greatest social challenges as Americans. Or rather, these are the three great taboos that we seem collectively intent on avoiding. There is plenty of discussion, but where is the funding? Where is the reform? Of what value is all the talk, sans the walk? Would anyone mind explaining to me how we can scrounge up the money to pay
corporate hit men to
kill people, but we feign bankruptcy when it comes time to
heal people?
Did you know that according to the
U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, as of 1999 roughly
1 in 4 homeless people in America were veterans?
Did you know that the price of college tuition
again rose faster than the inflation rate this year, climbing 6.6 percent at four-year public schools and outstripping increases in financial aid?
Did you know that in 2003 the U.S. Census Bureau
reported that the number of Americans without health insurance jumped sharply for the second year in a row, up 2.4 million to 43.6 million, 15.2% of the population?
The reason I mention religion in the original quote, is because so many of us seem intent on using that as a crutch. Most of the Americans who affiliate themselves with a religion believe that in doing so, they are automatically living their lives in accordance with a higher moral principle. Yet these problems still exist within our society, despite the 2001 American Religious Identification Survey revealing that
80% of the U.S. population claims to be Christian.
My Christianity may be a bit rusty these days, but even I am aware that modern American culture doesn't come close to mirroring the world Christ spoke of, and this brings me to the very precipice of the question which currently burdens my thinking. If 80% of America's children claim to be Christian (caring, compassionate, giving, loving, nurturing), WHY DO WE HAVE THESE PROBLEMS?
Image borrowed from Democratic Underground
