Something has been troubling me lately.
I was wondering, do our leaders ever gaze out across the bleak winter landscape, a landscape so barren for so many of our fellow citizens that it is devoid of hope. A landscape so grim for so many, that life is little more than a daily battle to survive. Do our leaders ever do this and pause for a moment of reflection and think, there but for the grace of God go I?
Do they recognize the hurt and suffering in the land? If they did, surely they would drop to their knees and look to the heavens and plead for forgiveness. They would tremble in shame before the Almighty. They would see the destruction they have wrought and they might utter there but for the grace of God go I.
When they send our young men and women to war, ill-equipped and ill-trained, do they think,
there but for the grace of God go I, or my son or my daughter or my niece or my nephew? Then do they slink away and breathe a heavy sigh of relief because they're sending to war, to perhaps die, the child of someone they will never know. And then do they think again,
there but for the grace of God goes my child?
When they increase the co-pays for Medicaid beneficiaries, the poorest of the poor, the most vulnerable among us, do they think, there but for the grace of God go I?
When they look across the nation and they see 46 million lacking access to health care, without health insurance, do they think, there but for the grace of God go I?
When they swindle the elderly of our nation. When they lie and tell them about the bounty of the Medicare Drug Fiasco, do they look at their own aging, infirm or elderly parents and think, there but for the grace of God goes my mother or my father or my uncle or my aunt?
When they mock entitlements, when they brag about slashing entitlement spending while increasing their own pay, when they ridicule those Americans for whom these pesky entitlements mean the difference between life and death do they ever think, there but for the grace of God go I?
I worry that in the corridors of power, very few are saying or thinking, there but for the grace of God go I.
God help us.