So if you were a legislator, and you sat and watched how many major disasters had happened this year already, with over a month left during hurricane season, would you think it was a good idea to cut funding for programs like the Legal Services Corporation, which gives Lone Star Legal Aid (an organization that I’ve written about before in a series of diaries- A Story About A Small Office Building Downtown, Please Help Those Who Help Others, and Please Help Lone Star Legal Aid Help Harvey Survivors) a huge chunk of the funding that allows its employees to provide legal aid to disaster survivors and marginalized communities? How about getting rid of grant programs run by HUD that provide relief funds to states and localities? Or how about ending the AmeriCorps program that sends volunteers into areas hit by disasters and helps survivors begin the rebuilding and recovery process?
Most likely, you, being the decent and compassionate person that you are, would sit back and think that gutting disaster relief programs like those would be a bad thing. You'd probably even be appalled at the callousness and inhumanity necessary to see what events have transpired and the pain and suffering they've caused and think, "Eh we don't need those programs because they just get in the way of tax cuts for the wealthy and more corporate giveaways."
Well if that's how you feel, I've got some good news bad news for you. Good news, that means you're not a Republican member of Congress which is in and of itself a very positive development in your life, and means that you've made some good decisions leading up to now.
Bad news, those cuts are exactly what the GOP is proposing for next year's budget as the 2018 House Majority Budget proposes completely defunding the Legal Services Corporation, eliminating HUD's Community Development Block Grant program, and eliminating the AmeriCorps program.
People of good conscience wouldn't politicize disaster relief, but we have far too many people in the halls of power who have no problem doing just that. Those people are showing time and again, in every conceivable way, that they simply do not care about the safety and well being of their fellow Americans.
But you, as a person of good conscience, should take a stand. You should fight to protect programs like these, not just because you yourself might need them one day, but even more importantly because its the just thing to do. Share this information with others and let your legislators know that you don’t support kicking fellow Americans when they’re down. Helping others in need is the right thing to do, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, whether its a family member, a co-worker, or a member of Congress. When you look back in twenty years, or when you talk to your kids or grandkids in the future, make sure that you can look back on moments like this and say that you didn't stay silent in the face of injustice or back down from a fight for what's right.
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”- WILLIAM FAULKNER