Letter to the Editor
I'd like to thank Johnny Edwards for writing such a compassionate article ("Concentration of working poor rising," Aug. 12). I applaud Devon Harris for his work with Full Circle Refuge Youth Ministry.
The article made me think of Gene-sis 4:9: "Am I my brother's keeper?"
My great-grandfather J.P. McMichael, a local butcher, would, every Friday during the Great Depression, load up his Model T Ford with meat, and distribute it to the poor of Augusta. I remember when the late Mayor William Jennings, M.D., would make free house calls to treat those who could not afford medical care. These were men of character and ethics -- something that is lacking in today's political and religious leaders.
I feel it is a shame that political leaders in Augusta are more concerned with the special-interest groups that line their pockets with money.
I also feel it's a disgrace that a church would create policies that keep the very people away they should be serving, such as denying an elderly woman the right to hold her family reunion in the church her ancestors helped to build only because she no longer attends regularly because of advanced age and compromised health issues.
Instead of helping the poor in their community, our political and religious leaders would rather take money that is paid in taxes or put in offering plates to support their larger agendas. Why can't that money be used to help rebuild Augusta's failing infrastructure, or bring companies back so our citizens can have jobs again?
I ask Augusta: What has happened to the humanity and compassion of our political and religious leaders? We need to hold them accountable for their actions. We are our brother's keeper.
W. Michael Strickland, Atlanta
