There But for the Grace of G-d . . .

[A very dear friend of our family died horribly last Friday in the last tormented stages of Multiple Sclerosis. She has been in terrible pain for more than the past year. We tried to be of as much help as we could from a distance and were paying her television bill so as to provide some distraction from both her pain and dire circumstances. But she was a very proud New Englander and would not let us do more. She was at that age where one is trapped -- not yet eligible for Social Security -- only disability benefits. Her husband, a deputy sheriff, had died recently, but his pension was only minimally available to her. The cruelest cut of all as she struggled with mortgage and other expenses on a limited budget, was that her food stamps were cut back to only a few dollars a month on a technicality, so that she was hungry some days despite a shunt draining her body.

Sadly we are a most cruel nation so far as turning our backs collectively on those not suffering publicly before our eyes -- and even with some of those who are homeless. Perhaps those who believe in the g-ds should reread the Hebrew prophets who had some things to say about the wrath of g-d directed at such greedy and cruel conduct?

There but for the grace of g-d goes any of us. Ed Kent

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Why the Hungry Refuse Help
Bureaucratic hassles imposed by New York City may be
discouraging hundreds of thousands of eligible people from
getting federal food stamps.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/13/opinion/13thu2.html?th&emc=th
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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