I'm Just Sayin

A few nights ago, my wife and I watched the movie, "A Christmas Carol" staring George C. Scott as Ebenezer Scrooge. That movie was released in 1984. Of course, you know that Charles Dickens wrote the novel 'A Christmas Carol,' in 1843. Dickens was disturbed and moved by England's poverty and its profound impact on children.

Oh, likely as you, I've read the novel and seen various movie depictions of the 'mean' Ebenezer Scrooge but this time my wife and I watched carefully with a focus on the homeless and poverty stricken we see in some streets of Decatur. We also noted some similarities of 1843 attitudes towards poor homeless people, of which Dickens wrote and those same harsh condescending attitudes that exists today.

I will leave it at that and thus stop short of politicizing the movie's message. I will share this: My son and daughter-in law have apparently taken it upon themselves to keep a vigil on a homeless couple across the river from their Granite City home. This homeless couple sleeps near the St. Louis Arch on blankets spread upon the frozen ground under a plastic canopy. He is a Iraq War Veteran who struggles with emotional trauma issues. He is also a non-believer while his wife asked my son and daughter-in law to bring her a bible should they return.

Daughter-in law Kathy was most upset about another nearby couple who held a two-year old child in their arms in the frigid nighttime temperatures.

Well, Steve and Kathy have returned several times. They have been there with an East St. Louis minister and another educator-coach. They have returned with blankets, gloves, fire wood, portable propane heaters and also with the loving message of Jesus Christ.

My wife and I sent some money to our kids to help with the cause and I also sent a warning. I told them, "Be careful those situations of street people can pose great dangers." The answer coming back from them came in the form of a question: "How do you ignore the voice of Christ?"

And to 'think' we argue in this great nation about the solutions to this problem or worse, dismiss it because "it's their own fault."