When A Society Wants To Care For Itself

It takes a village.

A theme more or less explored in our politics in general.  And sometimes in specific.  For example, President Obama touched on it during his now famous firehouse stop in Virgina.  There, on the stump, Obama extolled the crowd that successful folks are successful in large part, some part, to those that have come before.  Their success is due, in some measure, to those who’ve built the infrastructure.  Therefore, the logic goes, it is now up to those successful individuals to “give back” and embrace a higher tax burden.

The central idea being that we’re all part of this thing and we all need to contribute.

It takes a village.

Further, this is a concept I resonate with and embrace.  We DO rely on each other.  It’s the volunteer firefighter that makes sure our homes are safe.  It’s the teacher that slaves away tirelessly at 10:00 at night.  There’s the pastor watching over the kids during summer break.  I love the fact that my son’s karate teacher watches him as he walks down the block to the dance studio to wait for his sister.

It DOES take that symbolic village.

Which makes this and this all the more frustrating:

A woman may be fined $600 for each day she provided free food to children in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood for the past few months.

Angela Prattis, 41, of Chester Township has been distributing free healthy lunches in a neighborhood that has a per capita income of $19,000 a year.

Prattis made no money from the meal distribution, and gave out food provided by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The “lunch lady” ran the charity out of her garage, to which about 60 children came, five days a week.

After the city council was alerted of the free lunches, it ruled that she would have to acquire a variance to give away food next summer – or pay a fine of $600 a day. The council considers Prattis’ deed a zoning violation. Three months of distributing food would instigate a fine of more than $50,000.

60 kids, 5 days a week.  Free.

PHOENIX –  The city of Phoenix is facing a possible lawsuit after a woman claimed a city worker told her she could not pass out free water in the Arizona heat without a permit.

Dana Crow-Smith tells ABC 15 she was passing out water bottles in the 112-degree heat along with others in an attempt to share their Christian beliefs with people attending a festival downtown last month, when a city worker ordered them to stop. She said the worker told the group they would be cited if they continued passing out the water because they did not have a permit.

Admittedly, the second case may not involve city officials in real authority, but the point remains that there is this idea that the city has these regulations.

It’s important to remember that the villagers created the village.  Not the other way around.

7 responses to “When A Society Wants To Care For Itself

  1. I’m 100% with you on this, these are outrageous. Giving away food a crime? In a great book about the financial collapse “All the Devils Are Here” by McLean and Nocera, they tell of one guy (I can’t remember who and I loaned my book out so I can’t look it up) that ran one of the notorious divisions that sold derivatives who would routinely load a truck up with food and deliver it to the homeless in New York. When the collapse hit and this guy realized he would be blamed as one of the villains, he was ready to kill himself. But saved him was thinking of the people he helped. He gave them food, they helped him choose to continue living. I’ll see if I can find on google more info on this, but once we make helping others illegal, we’ve crossed a boundary that can be very harmful to society.

    • But saved him was thinking of the people he helped. He gave them food, they helped him choose to continue living.

      I would like to think, and maybe I’m naive, that most people who are successful realize that life is hollow without giving back.

      • I think that the happy ones realize that. The others probably have a whole in their heart they are trying to fill with material possessions but can’t. I suspect a lot of middle and even low middle class working folk are happier than some very wealthy elite — money isn’t everything!

  2. I know Angela Prattis and another woman not mentioned that went through this in Chester City Pa Next town from Chester Township. I am being prevented from doing food drives to feed these very same families because towns want permit fees which they can wave but won’t! If I do the food drives without a permit I can go to jail! Each permit has a filing fee, then a cost fee and other fees, one permit can cost over $200.00 per store that we do a food drive at. Giant has 60+ stores alone in Delaware county IfI had that kind of funding I would buy the food and give it away.

    • I am being prevented from doing food drives to feed these very same families because towns want permit fees which they can wave but won’t! If I do the food drives without a permit I can go to jail! Each permit has a filing fee, then a cost fee and other fees, one permit can cost over $200.00 per store that we do a food drive at. Giant has 60+ stores alone in Delaware county

      Just another example of how government can get in the way of good people doing great things. Which, by the way, would make a dependency on the government unneeded!

      • pastorwilliambarhorst

        Exactly why I need everyone to share this and also register on our website so I can keep you informed, especially if I do get locked up so all can rally at their city halls until I get released for doing a Religeous Freedom. We are about to lose so many of our rights and freedoms and if we do not make a stand, we will lose them, just like how prayer was taken out of schools, and how all pictures, phrases, in all government facilities and schools, public places, have taken anything off that mentions God, thanks to Mary Madaline O’Hare. I pray you all register now. Read the articles about this on our website at the comment I left with the link for it. Thank you and God Bless!

  3. pastorwilliambarhorst

    http://www.bofmissions.org/make-feeding-hungry-across-usa-a-religious-freedom/
    Our website link has a lot more information on it on this topic. Please check it out.

Leave a Reply to pastorwilliambarhorst Cancel reply