By Lafe Tolliver, esq
Guest Column
“As you did it unto the least of these, you did it unto me.” Jesus.
Well, just when you think that the social fabric that holds this country together was slowly unraveling, a large tear just happened to speed up the demise; to date, the outrage has not been heard.
President Musk and his associate, Donald Trump, have cut one billion dollars from the Department of Agriculture’s budget that funds both farmers and food programs for low-income children to have nutritious meals at their school.
A lot of farmers sell their yearly produce and goods to state, county and local businesses whose task is to make sure that feeding programs at certain schools are intact so that some low-income kids can get at least one decent meal a day.
Now, that promise is in jeopardy unless the states affected by such draconian cutbacks can fill the monetary gap and keep those programs alive and well.
And as for the affected kids, why would anyone deliberately eviscerate a program whose only goal is to make sure that DeMarcus or Lakiesha can look forward to a breakfast and/or lunch at their school?
I mean, what type of craven cruelty does it take to slash and burn school programs that support kids eating a decent meal?
And with the proposed and pending tariffs on farms products, the affected farmers are clueless as to what to plant and where to cut back on. Why plant 500 acres of corn when the projected forecast indicates that you will not be able to sell your excess harvest to USAID or to other local feeding programs?
The retributive mindset of Musk & Trump is frightful to behold and makes one think that Trump has declared war on the country he claims to love, but
the evidence is contra to that false piety.
Trump is going amuck with his executive powers, and he is doing so to see how far he can stretch the rubber band of American civility, law, governance and the basics of compassion and empathy shown one to the other, before it snaps.
For the Trump deniers, he clearly spelled out to the non-believers that his
mean ambitions in the document entitled Project 2025 was his blueprint for his campaign of retribution against anyone, real or imagined, that he believed so much as stared him down.
That is how fragile his ego is and how craven he is towards societal norms of
feeding the hungry and protecting the poor amongst us.
What is also wearing thin and showing the world is that the hype that America is a Christian nation is not what it is cracked up to be.
When you gut the USAID program (the most benefits go to struggling African nations for food and medical needs) and your top concern is to cater to the whims and needs of the uber rich simply because they are rich, America
takes a well-deserved hit at becoming more of a coarsening nation who gives short rift to the cry of the needy.
When the so called White evangelical churches observe what is happening and do not preach against these excesses for fear of being called out, they have
lost their saltiness and are only good to be trampled underfoot.
When the churches in America give lip service to the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes while their main concern is not losing their tax-exempt status or losing favor with the Pharisees and Sadducees in Congress, America is slowing becoming an apostate country before your very eyes.
Food and clothing and shelter are fundamental human rights that should be
both cherished and respected by all but especially so by any church association that professes that they follow the tenets of the scriptures.
I need not cite here the many admonitions and scripture imperatives that clearly speak that Jesus is on the side of the downtrodden and the oppressed and the homeless.
If Jesus was to walk the earth today, he would make a whip cord and drive out the phonies and frauds that populate any church pulpit that only preach a
a soiled gospel of prosperity and living your best live now.
On our coinage, there is the phrase, “In God We Trust” and that is a blatant lie
because we trust our wealth and we give worship to the almighty dollar and do
not cry out about such onerous government cuts to the less fortunate.
If those drastic cuts are not restored or if the affected local governments can not replace those lost federal funds, children will suffer harm and loss, and their educational attentiveness can be affected by a lack of a nourishing morning or lunch meal.
Between an attentive mind and not feeding an empty and growling stomach, the stomach wins out…every time.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com