It has long been said about politics that it is essentially about how the rich can oppress the poor, keep them powerless, and take their money. My first editor put it another way as I began my journalistic career by covering a press conference at the Atlantic City, N.J., City Hall: “son,” he said, “just about every story you will cover there is the same story – the rich screwing the poor, again and again.”
This seemed hyperbolic to me, but I came quickly to see the wisdom of it. Today, it is even more true when when I first heard it, or perhaps it is fairer to say it is as true.
The famed British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli struggled with the gap between the rich and the poor, and it is believed that gap is growing wider and faster in America than almost any other so-called civilized or “advanced” nation.
Disraeli described the divide in this way: “Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.”
If you close your eyes for a minute – I did – you can imagine Disraeli doing a stand-up in Washington, saying the very same thing about America today.
Former basketball star Charles Barkley, of all people, echoed Disraeli recently when he said succinctly that “all politics is about rich people screwing the poor.” How curious when Charles Barkley has more clarity and vision than the people we elect to lead our country.
I feel as if I am living in two nations, between whom there is no longer any real intercourse or dialogue, who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts and feelings as if they were dwellers on different planets, or inhabitants of different zones. The rich and the poor, the left and the right.
Perhaps the rich are finally coming out into the open, and screwing the poor without abandon or apology, perhaps there is no longer any reason to hide behind faux compassion or the idea that we are all responsible for one another, even if we can’t transform reality or work miracles.
We used to at least pretend that is unacceptable to screw the children of the poor, nobody is pretending about that any more either.
My family and my faith and my journalism and my live have taught me that the benchmark of humanity, of every major religion on the earth, of every human I have ever respected or admired, has been concern for the poor, even as many of understand there will always be the rich and the poor.
Pope Francis speaks to my heart and faith and my conscience when he says “we have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them.”
You can read other quotes from Francis about the poor here. He also asks us to consider how much money each of us really needs to live in this world. I, for one, have less money than ever, and have never felt richer.
Today, in our upended culture, it feels as people of faith are largely silent, and people who profess to be of faith are acting out the world’s oldest story, they have abandoned the poor.
There is an inseparable bond between my faith and the poor and vulnerable. Selfishly, it may be that show me how to be a human, something I have always aspired to be and will never stop pursuing.