Charity
       by   Brant Copeland
            August 13, 1997

An Article in the August 10th Tallahassee Democrat regarding the plight 
of poor people in our community hit the nail on the head.  We would like 
to think that social service agencies in town had enough resources to 
help families who are down on their luck, and that churches are always 
there to fill in the gaps.

Not so.  Last week I had a parade of folks come to the church office.  
All were "worthy cases", if by "worthy" one means that they were truly 
poor, had small children, and were unemployed.  Some had cut-off notices 
from the City utility company.  Others had been without electricity and 
water for several weeks.  All had tried to get help from the Red Cross, 
Echo, and Catholic Social Services.  The plain fact is, the need in our 
community far exceeds the available resources.

And those weren't the only ones.  Add the families evicted or about to be 
evicted, the single men asking for enough money to buy a "picture i.d." 
so that they could work for one of the labor pools, and the folks 
stranded in Tallahassee hoping for a bus ticket back to North Carolina, 
Tennessee, New York, or wherever.

It's not that the local agencies don't care or that they don't cooperate 
with each other.  It's not that all these folks are skilled at 
"manipulating the system".  I think it's the case that these agencies 
just don't have the resources to help these neighbors.  By my rough 
calculation, it would have taken at least $3000.00 to get the folks who 
came to see me or phoned me last week housed for another month in 
accommodation with utility service.  That's 78% of the entire expenditure 
of the Minister's Discretionary Fund for 1996.  Remember, I'm talking 
about ONE WEEK'S worth of cases.

If you think it's bad now, brothers and sisters, wait until the full 
impact of "welfare reform" hits our area.  If we don't find solutions 
soon, there may well be women and children begging on the streets of 
Tallahassee.

Do you think that's alarmist?  Not from where I sit.  I keep hearing a 
familiar and uncomfortable voice:

"Thus says the LORD:  For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I 
will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for 
silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals - they who trample the head 
of the poor into the dust of the earth, and push the afflicted out of the 
way..."

Amos' message wasn't popular, but he was telling the truth.  He still is.