The cold hearts of the rich are devastating to millions of veterans and poor families. The poor shiver with the cold and suffer with hunger, while the rich feast. Their bodies are inadequately clothed, and there is little comfort for them in their shacks. Survival, not comfort or happiness, is their goal.
But the rich do not think of their plight. It is their own fault if they are poor, so let them suffer, they think. Veterans, injured in mind and body to keep the rich safe, live on the street because there are no houses for them. Where is the money from the rich to build them houses and give them food?
Families suffer, while a painting is purchased for millions of dollars only to be glanced at occasionally as it hangs on a mansion wall. Men and women in worn shoes walk to jobs that pay a few dollars, while a sculpture is bought for millions to stand on a pedestal as a symbol of wealth. Parents of a cancer-ravaged child face bankruptcy to buy exorbitantly priced medicine, while a private jet flies overhead. A worm digger looks up for a moment as a yacht sails by.
The purchased pleasures of the rich, lasting but a moment of this life, bring them no genuine joy nor the satisfaction from a good deed done, a contribution to the common good, or the betterment of hopeless lives. They do not use their riches to build roads and bridges, to build houses, to create jobs, or to improve the lot of those in need. Like Midas, they hoard their wealth, rather than use it to take care of the needs of their fellow humans. And the riches they pass on will not be used to reduce human misery, but instead to purchase more meaningless pleasures for the rich of a new generation.
Most of us are compelled by our sense of what is morally right to keep others from harm and to help those in need to the full extent of our ability, even if we endanger our safety or sacrifice our well-being. We are prompted by compassion and by our understanding that those measures are necessary to the survival of our civilization and an obligation to leave our children a self-sustaining and peaceful society, not the lack of compassion that threatens to starve our people and bankrupt our nation.
Too many of us, obsessed with distractions, are blind to this human catastrophe, feeling that even if poverty should ruin the lives of others, it will surely pass us by — our children will not starve, even if others do — and we somehow will escape violence and hunger untouched. We shudder at what happens to others, but close our eyes to our vulnerability, trusting that good luck will protect us from the social storm that swirls around us.
Those trying to prevent disaster have no way to influence laws and policies that come from the politicians’ cozy relationship with the wealthy, and no way to motivate the rich to use their money to save lives and help the country. But with social media, public outcry and demonstrations, we can collectively convince others to become active in turning this world into the caring, kind and peaceful place it was intended to be. We have the hearts, minds, voices and energy to shame the rich and relegate them to the lowest level of social acceptability. With a charismatic leader, we can change the world. Gandhi did it. Martin Luther King Jr. did it. Jesus did it. We cannot leave this crucial work to the elusive “someone else,” hoping he or she will do it. We must ourselves accept the responsibility and initiate the action.
Every day we do nothing pushes millions further into the misery of abject poverty and the country closer to bankruptcy, while the rich get richer and flaunt their wealth.
Think, you rich, of the story of Marie Antoinette. Will you open your purses or will you continue to write the sequel to that story and wait in arrogant denial for the reality of its publication?
Edwin Treworgy lives in Milo.