Had an interesting, mostly enjoyable T-day yesterday. With a couple buds I went to Pacific Beach, where we met another bud in front of a local Lutheran church. There we stood in line for a free turkey dinner served by a couple dozen smiling, gracious Lutherans, really nice folks.
They had arranged their spacious community meeting area with a couple dozen tables for eight, and every seat was filled, with a line of folks waiting at the door. Some of them, like me, weren't particularly needy, but just wanted to have a meal in the company of fellow humans rather than be alone with a television or a computer. Sadly, I would say at least 80 percent of the guests were plainly impoverished, in need of a lot more assistance than a plate of food. Of the hundred or so people seated, all but a few were men.
My group found a table within ten minutes, not far from the door. Lutherans have been doing this sort of thing for many years, so they're really quite efficient. We were immediately served small dixie cups of apple juice, Styrofoam cups of milk, and there was a carafe of coffee at the table that was kept full.
The man to my left wore ear buds, kept his eyes down on his food and just kept eating. He needed a shower, which was true of at least half the guests. The gentleman to my right insisted several times that he could have eaten at a restaurant (so could I), but he preferred to eat with people (so do I). Through the din I tried to catch details of his story, which included his age (82), the fact that most of his friends were dead, he lived alone in some kind of senior condo, and he walks a lot for exercise. Actually, he didn't look that old, and I told him so. His age put him smack dab in the middle of World War Two veterans, but he didn't mention it.
The food was brought to us on those thin cardboard plates divided into three spaces. One had a mix of beans and corn, one had potatoes, and the main area was filled with turkey, stuffing and a nice warm roll. There was also a bowl of red cranberry sauce and another bowl filled with orange carrots, green celery and black olives. We ate with plastic forks, as usual not needing the knives and spoons.
The food was tasty and nutritious (a bit bland, but hey, we're talking Lutherans!), and besides offering more full plates they offered to bring us take out containers with more food. There were a lot of those take out containers. In fact, at one point they announced that they had to stop filling them so that they wouldn't run out of food for the seated guests. People actually applauded the lady who made the announcement, and she looked embarrassed to be in the spotlight.
I must say that the whole time I was there, not a single word was spoken about God, Jesus or anything else religious. The Lutherans were simply very polite, very friendly, seemed genuinely glad to be helping, and they asked for no donations. They didn't even point to the donations box until I insisted. It's odd that so many other sects don't seem to understand how much more persuasive are good deeds without pious words.
I am an atheist, but I will say that within a governmental and social system that is rapidly breaking down, the Lutherans were bravely taking the edge off a few people's hunger for one day. Unfortunately, they can offer only temporary, stop-gap solutions. Feed a man a fish...
The real problem is that today American government at all levels (but especially at the federal level) is criminally incompetent. We face not just a failure to provide a secular safety net for the poor and unfortunate, but an almost complete failure to develop and maintain a robust recovery system to help people get back into productive, gainful employment. BushCo isn't even trying to help.
The Lutherans were friendly, but we cannot expect them to feed all these people every day. Meanwhile, our own government "of the people, by the people and for the people" has become distinctly unfriendly to the people, seeming to prefer stepping on the people for sake of global corporate profit. Meanwhile, some of the poor at this free meal doubtless did have jobs, but at a disgusting seven-something per hour, they have no chance of making ends meet. Let's double the minimum wage, and see if it doesn't cut in half the number of people at next year's Lutheran Thanksgiving.