Look me in the eye!

WE DO LIVE IN THE THIRD WORLD

I was listening to CBC Radio this afternoon, (On the Go) and caught the tail-end of a story on the School Lunch Program.

The crux of it was that this important initiative was under funded. The host asked the listeners, “why?”

Every time I hear a story on this issue I promise to comment and then the time never comes. This time it has. The answer to the question is simple. It is under-funded because we, as a society, don’t give a damn. If we did the lunches, which have proven to be beneficial to students who for whatever reason do not have food, would be available.

Answer me this; how does a child get to pick a family to grow up in? How does a child get to choose a house, a car, a neighborhood, or for that matter parents that are suitable to give them a reasonable start in life? They don’t! That’s the point. They don’t!

As for some of the parents; well many of them also began life in poverty, victims of abuse, or a single parent that is left with all the responsibility as the other parent skips off without a thought or maybe a parent that has died, been killed, or completely debilitated.

What do we say? Well that’s the way the ball bounces. Yeah right!

Yet we run to aid victims of a natural disaster in a foreign land, including our wealthy neighbors to the south. We rally behind the Portnoys while our own families are leaving in boatloads as a result of federal government mismanagement. If we kicked up as much fuss and put as much effort in saving our own people and their children as we did with this family, who stayed illegally in this country with a hope that time would help them skip the line and break the rules, as people became close to them; as is our way, then maybe Marystown and other rural giants would remain healthy and grow.

I’m sorry but watching the legal bills get paid for the Portnoys while a mother in Harbour Breton, a Newfoundlander, leaves her child with her grandmother to work in another province, I get sick.

Just think about it for a minute, don’t turn your nose up and walk away from the reality. If we as a people came together and garnered media day in and day out, marched on government buildings, wrote MP’s and MHA’s, started a website, hired a lawyer and fought for our culture and communities like we fought for that one family from Israel we would soon get reaction out of Ottawa and Williams as well.

As hundreds of Newfoundland and Labrador families were packing their bags and loading their trucks, those that were not repossessed, to leave their homes and culture we were all on open-line arguing the Portnoy’s case. We are not helping this family, we are killing our own and our children are hungry. Can you imagine the single mom or dad watching television to witness the generosity shown the Portnoys? Can you imagine they might like to live in the sanctuary of a church hall or basement with clean clothes, food to eat and yes even presents under the Christmas tree? All they know is they are Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and they are hungry. What’s worse imagine the 10 year old who looks at the news and sees that somebody is being fed and it’s not him.

We are giving people, we have given it all to everybody else for as long as I can remember. What happened to our resources, our natural wealth? The truth is we would rather give it away than have our neighbor benefit. The truth is the only Newfoundlanders and Labradorians that are benefiting are the same families and politicians who have always benefited, and to those people we would kiss their arse and fill their mouths.