DI complaint indicative of what's wrong with society

By John Florez
Published: Sunday, March 5, 2006 7:14 p.m. MST
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I don't know what's the complaint some Draper folks have with the Deseret Industries thrift store. The only beef I have is they cut out that 10 percent senior citizen discount I used to get on my $4 shirts.

But, I wonder if this is not the kind of thinking by some that tends to divide our society between the haves and have-nots.

Think about it for a minute. Over the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays, people start having thoughts about helping the less fortunate and want their kids to know the joy of giving — like the lessons taught on Sunday. So, it's the time to practice what is preached. Clothing and food are collected; then the kids are packed in the SUV and hauled all the way to Salt Lake to the homeless shelter or the food bank. There the children drop off the donations and maybe even see a real poor person. Good deed done until next year.

If the DI were close by, you could save yourself a lot of time and travel. Just go to your friendly neighborhood DI, drop off the stuff, and look around to see if you can find any poor people. Oops! You may find your neighbor trying on a J. Jill outfit and also find it's hard to pick out the rich from the poor. They're just people.

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But those of you Draper folks that don't want people from "different demographics" in your neighborhood, don't feel alone; matter of fact, you have company. Just observe the legislators and the people lobbying for laws so their children won't have to go to those public schools with all sorts of different kids. Some would rather argue about gay clubs and intelligent design in schools than support that science stuff that will help youths get jobs in today's global economy. Legislators come up with creative ways to try to fund soccer stadiums but spend endless hours arguing about taking the tax off food that would help the working people and ignoring the elderly, the disabled and those in need of health care.

The TV pictures of the Katrina victims brought out the worst of us as a society — how divided we are between the haves and have-nots. The government officials seemed to have no understanding of the tragedies people were experiencing. Their solution — people should get on the Internet and contact FEMA. Closer to home, we have elected people who seem to have the same level of compassion for those working Utahns struggling to survive in a changing economy. They give cursory attention to the minimum wage issue and seem not to care that raising college tuition will dim the dreams of students hoping to go to college. They appear unaware that if we are to thrive as a state we should be investing more in students and higher education.

Somehow, we have forgotten the lessons learned from parents, grandparents and all that "brother's-keeper-and-love-thy-neighbor" stuff. In catechism, I remember someone saying the poor will always be with us, but that's now gone by the wayside. Forget the poor, we will pray for them and get back to them next Christmas.

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