Brother, can you spare a dime?
By Mary AllanReporter, The VOICE
"Brother can you spare a dime?" This ionic song, from the great depression, never seemed more apropos than now.
Many Americans will not even give up a dime for their fellow man.
Donations to charitable organizations are down in this country, as the need arises. Some of us are getting to be a bunch of tight-fisted, mean-spirited tight-wads.
Folks who went through the depression tell many stories of people sharing their last piece of bread with hobos, as they used to be called, who showed up at the back door. I believe that these acts helped people leave the depression with their sense of dignity and decency intact.
What does it say about this generation when a group of Wal-Mart shoppers, United State Citizen's, stampeded and killed an employee while trying to get to shopping bargains? They then griped and moaned when the store insisted in closing down because of the tragedy.
What I am about to say may seem like a stretch but bear with me; this time period not only reminds me of the great depression but of the era of the great robber barons, today's evil ones being Wall Street types and corporate executives.
The dirty little secret regarding this fact is that today we want to be like the robber barons even as they screw us.
Greed is good. The last decade has been about Cadillac Escalades and Mc Mansions.
This whole financial situation that we find ourselves in is based on greed by the bankers (creative financing) and home buyers (house envy).
There has been a lot of discussion lately about a concept called Creative Capitalism. This is a term popularized by American entrepreneur and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The ideology calls for a new form of capitalism that works both to generate profits and solve the world's inequities, using market forces to better address the needs of the poor.
I may be prejudiced, but this sounds like the type of direction President Elect Obama would like to lead this country. I hope so.
I hope that the millions of people, who voted for him, did so, not because of race or because of Bush. I hope that they believe in the search for a new positive direction in this country.
If this financial catastrophe teaches us anything I hope it is all about what is truly important. I know this sounds sappy, it sounds sappy to me. But something has to change. People are being trampled to death for a $19.99 trinket.
If we want to get through this crisis with our sense of dignity and decency intact, I am not going to be the one to tell you how to do it. Ultimately, I believe in most Americans.
I feel that our hearts of hearts, Americans already know, what is right, what is kind, what is true.
Give that brother a dime.
