I spent this morning working at Martha's Table in Washington, DC. Their mission is:
Martha’s Table’s mission is to help at-risk children, youth, families and individuals in our community improve their lives by providing educational programs, food, clothing, and enrichment opportunities.
This morning was "pantry day," when they give two grocery sacks of dry goods to all comers. We served 180 people, probably representing 300 family members total. And that's three times the number they usually get. And it's been this bad since November. And it's going to get worse.
All of the soup kitchens and other human service organizations are short on funds, volunteers and donations. Everyone is cutting back, and the first thing they cut back on is giving to those in need. But the number of those in need is literally increasing exponentially.
Dmitri, the awesome young chef in charge of the operation, is worried. He says he's never turned anyone away, never sent them away without food. But he also ends that comment with the warning "yet." Think of that: no one has gone home hungry on his watch, yet.
He's worried that the Inauguration is going to make it much harder to get volunteers in January, that it will get in the way of serving those who are most in need.
As he was explaining his concerns, he and many of the volunteers (myself very much included) were casually checking our hand-held devices for messages from loved ones and work. Our clothers were shiny, clean and new. We didn't smell like stale smoke and unwashed hair. Our skin is nice and clean. The people we were serving food to were just hungry, and thankful for a bag of canned vegetables, dried mashed potatoes and a fresh loaf of bread for their loved ones. They don't have work right now. And they thanked us, asked God to bless us, God damn it. They thanked us for our four hours of volunteering.
One woman cried the entire time, whether from thanks or shame I can't say.
While we kvetch and moan about how terrible the aristocratic/nepotistic/DLCist/centrist/pro-business/rightwing whatever from warm homes and offices on our devices electric big and small maybe this is a good time to remember how damn lucky we are. Maybe it's time to consider giving something back.
Maybe it's time to think of this country as our own and treat it that way. Not as a bone that we fight with the other dogs over, but as something special, fragile and nearly ruined that we must work to renew. Because we can spend our time together knocking down other Democrats, playing "arm-chair" POTUS, and talking to each other about how unfair it all is, or we can get out there and make a difference in individual lives.
Maybe it's time to realize that our great nation is nearly broken in twain, and that our energies are best put to use fixing what we can so our elected officials have a few less headaches to deal with. Maybe we should look at all the problems in our country and try to lend a damn hand.
Maybe it's time to put our activism to use. Maybe it's time for change. Because if we don't change we're going to be blaming Obama for not saving us all soon.
And he told us upfront that he wasn't going to be able to do that without our help.
My apologies if this was too strident. But coming back from there to here made our debates seem terribly terribly small when three times as many people are starving as were just two months ago.