On the Soapbox Again

At my office, there are distributed copies of USA Today on a daily basis.  Though I have subscribed to the Kansas City Star for 40 years, Keith reads it in the morning with his coffee, and I look at USA while I eat lunch, so it has become "my" paper.
One of the headlines today was that there was a 3.9% hike in food prices last month.

I ask you how poor people are to eat?  In a nation as rich as ours, how on earth are parents and old folks and singles out on their own to stretch their food dollars? I grew up in a stable neighborhood, with two parents, two brothers and a little sister.  It was not uncommon that we had six or eight porkchops or other pieces of meat on the table each night for dinner.  Having hamburgers was a treat... that wasn't considered a "real" dinner.  Now, members of my own extended family, including one of those older brothers, are on foodstamps.  One of my grandchildren gets free breakfast and lunch at school, his mom has been unemployed over a year and her benefits have long run out.

Shame on us for not doing more to make food more equitably distributed in this great nation of ours. 

Calamity Acres is trying to do it's part... our eggs, with the exception of some going for personal use, and some to my brother, go to our local food kitchen.  Yes, there is a great need for the other food donated, and the protein-rich eggs.  I wish we could all do a little of this, to help those still in need.

We remember tonight, also, the poor people of Japan who are dealing with so much grief and destruction still.  It will be years before their lives are back to normal. 

We pray for the people in the Mideast, whose lives are in constant danger and uproar. 

We hope that gas prices come down, so food prices will, too, eventually, and people can get to the jobs that they have. 

We pledge that this year, we will save as much of nature's bounty from our garden as we can, to share with family and friends, and to feed ourselves without waste.

We hope and pray that the good people of our nation can find jobs that show them respect and pay them a living wage, and that they are able to provide for themselves and their families with the money they earn by their honest day's work.

My own prayer is that I learn as much as I can weekly from those of you reading and writing these wonderful blogs on the web about gardening, about raising animals for food, about saving the harvest, and about getting along in this wonderful nation of ours. 
I thank all of you, again, for your comments and suggestions.  I read your blogs with wonder and amazement and feel akin to all of you.  I know you are the people who stop your car to move a turtle across a road, and thrill to the cries of the geese overhead. 
Thank you!

Ranger thanks you, too!