are we any different?

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

Mark 8:36

Are we any different than the countries we condemn?

What place on earth can you find people huddled together sleeping outside? What nation has the elderly and disabled eating out of garbage cans? Where in the world do you see families waiting in line for a hot meal?

Would you say Haiti, Japan or some war- torn nation? No, this is at 14^th and K, two blocks from the White House. If you live in Washington long enough, it is hard to overlook disparities of rich and poor. It is not uncommon to see someone sleeping outside, someone asking for change or someone mentally ill screaming or picking through a garbage can.

Unlike other countries that use terror and tyranny as an economic system for their citizens, we use free enterprise as a means to have power over ordinary citizens. Code words like gentrification and privatization have replaced words like segregation and discrimination. Value is measured by credit ratings, ability to make money for your employer or how many homes or cars you have instead of whether you make society better or raise the quality of life for all.

It concerns me when someone in our country can go to Morton’s Steakhouse and spend $300 for a meal and at the same time have contempt for a single mom who needs food stamps. While we have troops patrolling Afghanistan and Iraq, we have cut the police force in our own inner cities. Is it communistic to ask why we are building up countries who do not want our help, when our bridges, roads and railways are in decay? Is it “leftist” to ask why we are building schools and universities in third world countries while condemning our teachers here and loading college students with debt?

Is it “socialist” to think everyone should have decent living conditions, whether they have wealth or not? Every person who works for a living is entitled to basic necessities. If you get sick or injured should someone profit off your calamity?

Are you a leftist to question capitalism as undemocratic and immoral? Do free markets benefit the majority or is it a rigged system where a few prosper? How are we different than the dictators we condemn, bomb, and occupy in the name of free markets?

While we condemn dictators around the world for human rights violations we don’t treat our citizens very humanely in our country. To me there isn’t much freedom in free markets.