Reading Rep. Greg DeVries’ column on “charity” vs “state-funded” welfare in the Dec. 18 Boulder Monitor led me to wonder if he and I were living in the same century.
He recommends dismantling the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services over 20 to 40 years, saying in effect that we the people of Boulder, through our churches, civic clubs, friends, neighbors and family members, will lift up the poor, the handicapped, children in dysfunctional families and those with health challenges, foregoing any state or federal funds. I mention federal funds, because those funds are administered by DPHHS.
Our society is increasingly more mobile. Growing up in the Midwest over 70 years ago, my neighbors lived in the same homes for all the years I was growing up. They knew my parents and had our phone number written on the outside of their phone book and vice versa. We often knew each others’ challenges, lending a hand when needed. However, even the local Community Chest had neither the financial resources nor training to sufficiently address them.
Now virtually everyone has cell phones, without a book listing those numbers. Now we are more diverse racially and culturally. Social media, outspoken political leaders, and others tweet us to fear those who are different than we. We are told to build walls, not bridges.
We are no longer Mayberry or Little House on the Prairie, if we ever were. Government is not perfect, but neither are neighbors, friends, churches, civic clubs or family members because we are all “flawed,” subject to the enticement of greed, hatred, and fear as well as generosity, kindness and respect.
As a former pastor reminded me, we are all “works in progress,” challenged each day to offer a welcoming embrace to the “stranger.”
Rep. DeVries’ letter to the editor, especially over Christmas, hearkens back to Ebeneezer Scrooge. – John Ilgenfritz, Helena
