by James Glaser
December 26, 2003

If Christ was ever emulated or his teachings ever practiced by the American public, it was a long time ago. Yes, we still flaunt the church as a cover for everything we want to do. Today the Christian "good" is attacking Islam's "evil." American warriors are being baptized in the rivers of Iraq, by military high priests with gold crosses on their collars.

America is attacked by terrorists and the Presidents asks us to go shop. The economy of the United States depends on the buying spree that now starts before Thanksgiving and ends with the "after" Christmas sales of late December and half of January. The birth of the Prince of Peace is celebrated with 10, 20, or even 50% off sales.

Children now know that they are bad if they don't get piles of presents. The poor children of America are being taught that Santa does not bring gifts to those that have done wrong. Think of the self esteem issues for a young child at school after Christmas. You got one present from some social service agency, while others in your class got a dozen or more. If you are that child, how does that make you feel? What if you know that both of your parents are working as many hours as their bodies will let them and still their low pay keeps your family down.

In America today, if you are from a poor family, you are looked at as somehow evil or criminal. People with money are good, they keep the economy going.

Being poor is a real mark against you, being homeless is worse. The State of Minnesota has been giving homeless people one-way bus tickets out of State to rid us of them even being in our presence. We say to ourselves that we could never fall that low and in this Christian land we forget about helping the, "lest of our brethren."

This is not an isolated case of one or two incorrigible homeless beggars being dumped on some other city, no, the government that represents each and every citizen of the State of Minnesota has sent 4,500 people on one of these one-way bus trips. They even have a name for this program, "A Bus Ticket Forward."

"That's no way to deal with homeless residents," said Roxane White, the chairwoman of Denver's new Commission on Homelessness. At least 63 people have been sent on a one-way ride, from Minnesota to Denver, Colorado. Ms. White went on to say that Denver would never do that to a homeless person. She said, "Homeless people are part of our community. We should be embracing them and finding them a home and providing for the stranger in our midst, not sending them away."

I don't know if Ms. White is of the Christian or of the Islamic faith, maybe she is a Hindu or a Jew, it makes no difference because all faiths teach that God wants us to help those less fortunate than ourselves.

Treating the poorest of the poor like they were cattle that you can send away and hope they do better on some one else's range is, yes, evil. It doesn't matter what religion you take as your own guide through this life. We can all agree that "dumping" human beings by giving them a one-way bus ticket is wrong, but not as wrong as other practices our government carries on with our approval.

Our nation goes around this globe killing people. Millions of innocent people have been killed by the United States Government since the start of World War II. This is not a secret, but a publicly known fact. America has been in an almost constant state of war with some country for generations.

These people we are putting on the bus are lucky that they are Americans, because in other countries we have other ways to remove people that don't fit into our plans for a society.

Now with this new War on Terrorism we can go on and on killing whoever we want in the name of Peace and Democracy. This over 60 year killing spree has hardened the American public. Today some American citizens are not worth the effort to help. How many other states are shipping undesirables from one State to the next? The government can say, "We are not killing them," but this treatment is a death sentence for many. Despair will kill you, and if you are only worth a bus ticket, what is left of your self respect?

Overseas we don't use a bus ticket to remove undesirables, we kill them. Groups of people we don't like or that don't like us can be eliminated with one or two bombing runs. Foreign Politicians that have different political beliefs than the United States, can be taken away in the night to languish in confinement until they see the light or die.

Our domestic treatment of American citizens is a sign. Soon we will be putting American citizens we don't like, in prisons with no hope of release. No trial, no lawyer, no charges, and no rights. Wait a minute, we are doing that already and those people will stay out of sight until this President says they can be set free.

Soon there will be one-way bus tickets to foreign lands, unless we think a bullet would be cheaper. Remember, the way we treat the poor at home, may become the way we are treated in the near future.

The way we treat those less fortunate than we are here at home, tells the rest of the world what is in store for them if we come to "help" them. Other faiths look at America's brand of Christianity and wonder which God we really follow.

Post Script:

I know that on Fridays I write about life in Northern Minnesota, but when I read about our State sending homeless people away, anywhere, as long as we didn't have to deal with them, I had to write something. Christmas time is supposed to be a time of family, friends, and giving. If you have ever been to a bus depot you will know that we should be ashamed of ourselves for what we are doing to the poor of this country.

I believe our years of killing others, has hardened the American citizen to the point that it will not be that long before we start killing Americans that don't fit in to our new plans for the future of our country. Sad huh?