Why we are fasting

[Guest hitoallusa]

I don't know whether you guys read it but I think it is an article that will put us in a right perspective.

From http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/why-were-fasting/

I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry.

By doing so, I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living. But the decision was easy after I spoke last week with David Beckmann, a reverend who is this year’s World Food Prize laureate. Our conversation turned, as so many about food do these days, to the poor.

Who are — once again — under attack, this time in the House budget bill, H.R. 1. The budget proposes cuts in the WIC program (which supports women, infants and children), in international food and health aid (18 million people would be immediately cut off from a much-needed food stream, and 4 million would lose access to malaria medicine) and in programs that aid farmers in underdeveloped countries. Food stamps are also being attacked, in the twisted “Welfare Reform 2011” bill. (There are other egregious maneuvers in H.R. 1, but I’m sticking to those related to food.)

These supposedly deficit-reducing cuts — they’d barely make a dent — will quite literally cause more people to starve to death, go to bed hungry or live more miserably than are doing so now. And: The bill would increase defense spending.

Beckmann, who is president of Bread for the World, made me want to join in just by talking about his commitment. For me, the fast is a way to demonstrate my interest in this fight, as well as a way to remind myself and others that there are bigger things in life than dinner. (Shocking, I know.) I expect I’ll learn something about patience and fortitude while I’m at it. Thirty-six hours into the fast, my senses are heightened and everything feels a bit strange. Odors from the cafeteria a floor away drift down to my desk. In the elevator, I can smell a muffin; on the street, I can smell everything — good and bad. But as hungry as I may get, we know I’ll eat well soon. (Please check my blog for a progress report.)

Many poor people don’t have that option, and Beckmann and his co-organizers are calling for God to create a “circle of protection” around them. Some are fasting for a day, many for longer. (I’m fasting until Friday, and Beckmann until Monday. And, no, it’s not too late to join us.)

When I reminded Beckmann that poor people’s hunger was hardly a new phenomenon, and that God hasn’t made a confirmed appearance recently — at least that I know of — he suggested I read Isaiah 58, in which God says that if we were more generous while we fasted he’d treat us better. Maybe. But a billion people are just as hungry, human, and as deserving now as the Israelites were when they were fleeing Egypt, and I don’t see any manna.

This isn’t about skepticism, however; it’s about ironies and outrages. In 2010, corporate profits grew at their fastest rate since 1950, and we set records in the number of Americans on food stamps. The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all American households combined, the effective tax rate on the nation’s richest people has fallen by about half in the last 20 years, and General Electric paid zero dollars in U.S. taxes on profits of more than $14 billion. Meanwhile, roughly 45 million Americans spend a third of their posttax income on food — and still run out monthly — and one in four kids goes to bed hungry at least some of the time.

It’s those people whom Beckmann and his allies (more than 30 organizations are on board) are trying to protect. The coalition may be a bit too quick to support deficit reduction, essentially saying, “We understand the need for fiscal responsibility, but we don’t want to sacrifice the powerless, nearly voiceless poor in its name. As Beckmann knows, however, deficit reduction isn’t as important as keeping people from starving: “We shouldn’t be reducing our meager efforts for poor people in order to reduce the deficit,” he told me by phone. “They didn’t get us into this, and starving them isn’t going to get us out of it.”

This is a moral issue; the budget is a moral document. We can take care of the deficit and rebuild our infrastructure and strengthen our safety net by reducing military spending and eliminating corporate subsidies and tax loopholes for the rich. Or we can sink further into debt and amoral individualism by demonizing and starving the poor. Which side are you on?

If faith increases your motivation, that’s great, but I doubt God will intervene here. Instead, we need to gather and insist that our collective resources be used for our collective welfare, not for the wealthiest thousand or even million Americans but for a vast majority of us in the United States and, indeed, for citizens of the world who have difficulty making ends meet. Or feeding their kids.

Though Beckmann is too kind to say it, he and many other religious leaders believe that true worship can’t take place without joining this struggle: “You can’t have real religion,” he told me, “unless you work for justice for hungry and poor people.”

I don’t think you can have much humanity, either.

[Lucky]

There is another movement like this, it's all about not posting for several days as a way of supporting those whose rights have been silenced. Try it!! I'll let you know when the time is up!

[Guest zipperzone]

The richest 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all American households combined, the effective tax rate on the nation’s richest people has fallen by about half in the last 20 years, and General Electric paid zero dollars in U.S. taxes on profits of more than $14 billion. Meanwhile, roughly 45 million Americans spend a third of their posttax income on food — and still run out monthly — and one in four kids goes to bed hungry at least some of the time.

Don't get me started or I'll once again rant about Walmart and the Walton family, three of whom are listed as the 15th, 16th & 17th richest Americans each worth about 16 BILLION DOLLARS, and the bastards won't pay their workers a living wage.

[Guest hitoallusa]

Lol.. I love it. You are so witty. Good to see you are in a good spirit.

There is another movement like this, it's all about not posting for several days as a way of supporting those whose rights have been silenced. Try it!! I'll let you know when the time is up!

[Guest zipperzone]

Lol.. I love it. You are so witty. Good to see you are in a good spirit.

Lucky is always in a good spirit (or into good spirits) after 5:00 p.m. - it's the martini hour, you know

[Guest hitoallusa]

I have been alcohol free for 4 months now. I feel great. People tell me I look much younger but you never know they might just sucking up to me. lol..

Lucky is always in a good spirit (or into good spirits) after 5:00 p.m. - it's the martini hour, you know

[KYTOP]

I commend you for taking a stand for something you believe in. With that said our country cannot continue to keep spending non-stop. Hard choices will have to be made and we elect people to make those hard choices. If they make the wrong choices we always have an opportunity in the USA to replace them, some is as few as 2 years. Most countries do not have that luxury.

Now let me make a comment about the WIC program you mentioned. Just because there are cuts to the program does not mean the program is being eliminated. Now about WIC from a personal perspective.

A few years ago while in the grocery line there was a young woman in front of me with several gallons of milk, large amounts of cereal, and other food itmes. She gave the cashier a WIC voucher to pay for the items. I noted that instead of the grocery brand milk (I was buying) she was getting name brand milk that cost 75 cents or a dollar more. I understand our state, that administers the Federal WIC program here, now requires the cheaper store brand to be bought saving Federal dollars. BUT, they still allow name brand cereal and other items instead of requiring the store brands.

I recently visited my elderly mother and she asked me if I ate Cheerio cereal. I said not very often, Why? She said my niece, who has 2 pre-school age children on WIC, gives her cereal and Milk each month because they get more than they can use in a month. My mother now has several boxes of name brand cereal and was wanting to try to get rid of some it by giving it to me. So my mother, who the WIC program is not intended for, receives it's benefits because they give my neice too much each month. I don't blame my niece, especially since the Milk would spoil if she did not give it away. But the WIC program has also become a subsidy to the Dairy producers and companies like General Mills who benefits from people not being required to buy a cheaper store brand with their vouchers and getting more Milk than they can use.

So IF the WIC program would make a small reduction in the amount of milk and cereal they are giving, which would not effect my niece's family at all, and require the purchase of the cheaper store brand cereals then the WIC program can be cut without creating masses of starving children.

What is a shame is that there is probably waste in every Federal program like this and someone has to say enough and change things.

As for people constantly saying "the amount is only a drop in the bucket in the whole budget". When I was in business for 30 plus years we always had a saying... pennies make dollars.

I am not aware of all the details of HR 1 nor am I schooled on the details of every Government program it affects. But as for WIC, cuts can be made if you force the necessary changes and no child will be forced to starve because of it. I am sure the same can be said for thousands of other out of control Governmant programs.

[Guest BeachBoy]

I want to say that I read all the posts in these threads and what I am about to ask is with much respect for, as KYTOP said, "taking a stand for something you believe in."

But, what difference it is going to make if you fast until Friday, or Monday? Who in Congress is going to care? Other than Ghandi, when has anything like this ever been recognized as changing anything? Why are we not instead making a scene on capital hill with brutal graphics and loud, loud shouts, like the right-to-lifers do with their fetuses?

I feel like the most logical and sane among us have it wrong. I feel like you have to be a little whackjobby to really get the point across. And I think a (relatively) small group of people choosing not to eat is a slap in the face to people who have nothing to eat.

Thoughts? I really would love to hear a serious and real dialogue about this.

[Guest CharliePS]

I commend you for taking a stand for something you believe in. With that said our country cannot continue to keep spending non-stop. Hard choices will have to be made and we elect people to make those hard choices. If they make the wrong choices we always have an opportunity in the USA to replace them, some is as few as 2 years. Most countries do not have that luxury.

Now let me make a comment about the WIC program you mentioned. Just because there are cuts to the program does not mean the program is being eliminated. Now about WIC from a personal perspective.

A few years ago while in the grocery line there was a young woman in front of me with several gallons of milk, large amounts of cereal, and other food itmes. She gave the cashier a WIC voucher to pay for the items. I noted that instead of the grocery brand milk (I was buying) she was getting name brand milk that cost 75 cents or a dollar more. I understand our state, that administers the Federal WIC program here, now requires the cheaper store brand to be bought saving Federal dollars. BUT, they still allow name brand cereal and other items instead of requiring the store brands.

I recently visited my elderly mother and she asked me if I ate Cheerio cereal. I said not very often, Why? She said my niece, who has 2 pre-school age children on WIC, gives her cereal and Milk each month because they get more than they can use in a month. My mother now has several boxes of name brand cereal and was wanting to try to get rid of some it by giving it to me. So my mother, who the WIC program is not intended for, receives it's benefits because they give my neice too much each month. I don't blame my niece, especially since the Milk would spoil if she did not give it away. But the WIC program has also become a subsidy to the Dairy producers and companies like General Mills who benefits from people not being required to buy a cheaper store brand with their vouchers and getting more Milk than they can use.

So IF the WIC program would make a small reduction in the amount of milk and cereal they are giving, which would not effect my niece's family at all, and require the purchase of the cheaper store brand cereals then the WIC program can be cut without creating masses of starving children.

What is a shame is that there is probably waste in every Federal program like this and someone has to say enough and change things.

As for people constantly saying "the amount is only a drop in the bucket in the whole budget". When I was in business for 30 plus years we always had a saying... pennies make dollars.

I am not aware of all the details of HR 1 nor am I schooled on the details of every Government program it affects. But as for WIC, cuts can be made if you force the necessary changes and no child will be forced to starve because of it. I am sure the same can be said for thousands of other out of control Governmant programs.

I agree that large government programs to help the needy almost always contain a lot of waste that is easy to find. However, programs that help the well-off are also full of waste of a different sort. I wish the same people who are eager to eliminate whole welfare programs because of the waste weren't often very eager to protect programs that help the well-to-do, such as farm subsidies to agribusiness, or tax write-offs on multimillion dollar second homes.

[Guest Conway]

Rather than engaging some pointless ideological display, why not donate some money or your time at private sources that feed the hungry such as your local food bank or soup kitchen. If the 4000 people choosing to join this fast would, in the alternative, do something to provide food for a hungry person or family for ten days, their efforts would be far more productive than some useless protest and would not even require an expenditure of tax payer funds.

For years, I have volunteered at a shelter in Chicago that feeds the homeless and provides them employment training so that they can feed themselves versus taking handouts of hopelessness from our government. I have volunteered as a cook and server every Saturday morning at breakfast in the past. And, even though I don't live in the city anymore, I still underwrite the cost of and cook and serve one dinner a month.

If the participants in this forum can afford $300 an hour escorts once a month, they can certainly afford to contribute to the well being of the less fortunate in their own communities. I know I can and I do.

Our country is financially insolvent as KY has noted. We have to make tough decisions and limiting the scope of WIC to those who are truly in need of it is one of those decisions that we have to make.

[RA1]

Conway-

I agree. There are plenty of organizations that can do the same job and cheaper than any government agency. Volunteering certainly lowers the cost. Here we have MIFA which costs less than 16% in administration and fund-raising expenses. They make it very easy to donate. For instance, you can add $1 or any amount to your utility bill and it goes entirely into MIFA.

Yes, it is "faith" based organization but they don't preach or require any attendance at any of their functions. It is just easier to do it that way here in the Mid-South.

They do meals on wheels and food for families and transport for seniors and much more. I believe their only requirement is that you need help.

Best regards,

RA1

[Guest Conway]

Conway-

I agree. There are plenty of organizations that can do the same job and cheaper than any government agency. Volunteering certainly lowers the cost. Here we have MIFA which costs less than 16% in administration and fund-raising expenses. They make it very easy to donate. For instance, you can add $1 or any amount to your utility bill and it goes entirely into MIFA.

Yes, it is "faith" based organization but they don't preach or require any attendance at any of their functions. It is just easier to do it that way here in the Mid-South.

They do meals on wheels and food for families and transport for seniors and much more. I believe their only requirement is that you need help.

Best regards,

RA1

MIFA seems like one of those organizations of which I speak. The one I volunteer for, Inspiration Cafe is not faith based. However, I will note that I appreciate the good that Christian and Jewish organizations do in my community. I may not share their religious ideals. But, that doesn't mean that we cannot work together for the good of our communities.

[Guest hitoallusa]

I agree. They actually do a lot for our community. I help local shelters. Used to make lunch bags on Saturdays but I don't do that any more since young kids took over. I just donate money. I think there are many things we can think about in the article. We can all do a little something in many different ways to make a difference.

However, I will note that I appreciate the good that Christian and Jewish organizations do in my community. I may not share their religious ideals. But, that doesn't mean that we cannot work together for the good of our communities.

[Guest NeedSome]

By doing so, I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living.

Man, that is a nice gig if you can get it.