ARE WE SO FAR REMOVED FROM HISTORY THAT IT NO LONGER MATTERS?

WHAT IS TO BECOME OF THE POOR? IS IT YOUR BUSINESS?

“It is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.” The reply, “Are there no prisons?” The response, “Plenty of prisons.” The reply again, “And the Union Workhouses? Are they still in operation?” The answer, “They are. Still, I wish I could say they were not.” The response, “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigor, then?” The answer, “Both very busy, sir.” The retort, “Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course. I’m glad to hear it.” The explanation, “Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude, a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when want is keenly felt and abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing,” Scrooge replied.

“A Christmas Carol,” by Charles Dickens, isn’t just a seasonal tome meant for hearthside reading. It is about kindnesses bestowed throughout the rolling year, to help others help themselves. It’s an old story. A work of fiction. Yet unlike many books, it is still a timely, relevant, and revered story about suffering, greed, indifference, yet resolution, restitution, kindness and the good graces of spirituality. It still reminds many of us that there is no finer characteristic in civilization, than charity toward the less fortunate in all circumstances. As Scrooge found out, it is always better to give than to receive, and that a good feeling in heart is in itself, the greatest wealth one could hope to achieve. I have been smitten by the insightful work of Mr. Dickens, and his character, Scrooge, since I was a child. My boys were exposed to this wonderful story from childhood as well, and it has been a mainstay at our homestead, here at Birch Hollow, certainly at Christmas.......but as they will vouch, the moral isn’t any less pronounced in February, April, July, September, October or November. It’s an everyday matter of conscience. I will never distance myself from Dickens message, that “mankind is our business.”

When I get angry these days, about local governance, indifference of politicians, and electioneering, it can all be traced back to this historic novel. Does that seem a little flimsy for a critical blogger, to stand-up for the poor and less fortunate, boldly reciting Dickens work of fiction? Well, knowing what was going on in England, at the time Dickens was writing this book, and his knowledge of the history of poverty in his country, the observations are pretty close to the actuality, he witnessed in his life to that point. I wish so much, that I wouldn’t be able to see, and experience such close Dickensian parallels to our own modern times, when indifference is so abundant and frightening. It is indifference that destines our society to tolerate the poor but not much more. I make no apology for consulting Dickens, or asking politicians to pay attention to the suffering of the less fortunate. I’m always discouraged when dynamic initiatives for the poor are lost in the shuffle of more prominent and profitable issues, like jets and G20 Conferences.....and the building of a fake lake, while food banks have clients leaving without full bags of life-sustaining provisions.

There should be no greater emphasis today, by government, than on matters of common health and welfare of this nation’s citizenry. It is a growing and debilitating characteristic of modern times, of indebtedness and post recession recovery, that the less fortunate find themselves unable to escape.....or find a step up to a better, more prosperous future. There is, for many, no spark of light at the end of the tunnel. Just a tunnel. Black and ominous. While the politicians touch on it, everso briefly, to show some tenderness, it is their lack of keen awareness that makes them more like Scrooge and less like the humble Bob Crachit, the working stiff trying to support his family against incredible odds. What makes our leadership find the poor so unappealing, and unworthy of heartfelt attention? Politics is a pursuit for the well endowed, and government is about power and privilege to govern as they see fit. The issues of the poor, and what to do with them, just don’t make for sexy, alluring, sensational, glamorous government. The only reason political hopefuls will wind-up in a soup kitchen or food bank, during this election, is because handlers and public relations advisors, think wearing the poor like a pin on the heart, will show their candidate’s humanity and sensitivity. If this was an election about Canadians, as they boast it is......then they’d start paying some serious attention to the millions of votes that belong to the ranks of the poor. I’m real sick of hearing about the needs of the Middle Class, above the absolute requirements of the less fortunate of our society......who are hungry.

When these election movers and shakers dictate the campaigns the candidates will follow, they can’t find many reasons to waste time on those of limited means. I’d love to see their notepads and rough jottings from brainstorming sessions, in those electric backrooms, to see if I’m right about this......that holding court at a soup kitchen or food bank, or visiting a homeless shelter would be for a photo-op only, to fit perfectly into the “we touched all the bases,” scrapbook, compiled at the end of the campaign. It’s a feel good moment.....or split second, to shake the hand of a homeless person, or scoop a little soup into a bowl, or extend a hand with a package of crackers to someone who may only have one meal a day. Do they, at that moment, feel any sensation of compassion, or come to the point of enlightenment that “this isn’t right in our wonderful country, to have so many doing without?”

What I truly want to see, and experience, is a candidate for election, who flips the bird to handlers, and visits a food bank or soup kitchen because it’s morally, socially, culturally important......realizing that there is suffering right here at home.....in Canada, in Ontario, in our municipalities, because of government indifference and ignorance to the issues of the poverty cycle. I want to find a politician who isn’t out for the photo-op, but has enough awareness of the actuality of poverty, to become immersed, without a safety line, in a social-economic circumstance that is damning the welfare of our country. Avoidance is what we experience. Will this ever change? Will a food bank ever be worth a politician’s time on a busy campaign hustle? My answer is a simple...... “No!”

With the ever-rising food, fuel, hydro, water, taxes and shelter expenses, now seriously affecting food banks and soup kitchens across the country, my advice to all elected, and soon to be elected politicians, is that they take some advice from the good Mr. Dickens. This will become a nightmare scenario that they won’t be able to bypass as they do now. They will be held to account for their inaction. They are forging a length of ponderous chain.

But how encouraging it would be, to find a politician, who would saddle up to a guy like me, and share a good story......like the one written so long ago....that has every relevance to the way we have chosen to live and govern in this so called modern era. A modern era with the same cancer as it had in the early 1800's.

Of the poor and destitute, Scrooge so poignantly noted..... “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

Are we so cold and heartless that we might blow off such a statement, as being irrelevant, and the just the imagination of a novelist of yore? Or should we heed its warning that our indifference, and lack of enterprise to help the less fortunate, is as much an indication, many of us do, in fact, choose to look the other way......and feel thankful that we have more than others.

Give us a spark of humanity on this election trail. Show us what heartfelt means to political agenda. And we should be visited by the spirits. It may be our last hope.