Posted on 11/21/2004 1:33:34 PM PST by rface
Maybe he's so tied to ideology that he can't bring himself to admit that the economy is bad and people are hurting.
Or maybe it was just the OxyContin talking.
Wendy Glick sees life in circles. Circles that link every human being. Circles that surround and protect. Circles that mark our paths through life sometimes.
Even the social circles we move in.
"You know what you live," says Glick, director of The Lord's Diner downtown, meaning people too often observe the world in all of its breadth from inside their own insular world.
That's why she seemed so patient in her response to radio rube Rush Limbaugh, who recently implied that some of the people waiting in those long lines every night at The Lord's Diner didn't really need the free meal the diner provides.
Reading an Eagle report, Limbaugh mocked Glick, who had said that new families showing up for help looked uncomfortable.
"They're wondering if they're going to get away with it, Wendy!" Limbaugh said on air.
Rush could learn a thing or two from Glick.
"First of all," Glick says, "I think it's awesome that Rush Limbaugh reads The Wichita Eagle. But The Lord's Diner is here to serve, not to judge."
People have more than one kind of hunger, she said. People hunger for fellowship as well as food. Some people come to the diner terribly lonely and hungry, and they get nourished in the way they need to be nourished.
Maybe Limbaugh found himself scrambling for program material and thought the diner an easy target.
Maybe he's so tied to ideology that he can't bring himself to admit that the economy is bad and people are hurting.
Or maybe it was just the OxyContin talking.
That last comment might seem like a cheap shot. Limbaugh admitted on his radio program last year that he'd been addicted to the painkiller since an unsuccessful back surgery and later hired lawyers to keep his medical records sealed.
But a rich talk radio host bashing poor people who can't afford lawyers to hide their pharmacological peccadilloes is pretty doggone sorry, too.
As I said, he could learn a lot from Glick, who, a few years ago, began living a larger life.
After selling off her Skate East and Skate South businesses, and as she says, doing the stay-at-home-mom thing, Glick felt her faith pulling her into volunteering for Catholic Charities, which serves the poor.
There, she formed her own part of the circle with people outside her usual orbit.
And they notice when she's styled her hair differently and they think enough of her to tell her. They smile and thank her constantly. They see fatigue in her eyes and encourage her to please go home and rest.
She said, having been tucked away in an east-side community, she had no idea of the need in our community. "If you don't live it, you just don't know it," she said. "Just a lack of knowledge."
Now she's so in tune that she can watch a family standing in the food line and tell they are there for the first time because they don't know the procedure. They're holding documents that other charities require before helping anyone. But The Lord's Diner requires no such documents. All you have to do is sign in.
And as welcoming as the staff at the diner tries to be, it still can be very humbling to stand in line for food, Glick said.
"I just wish that he (Limbaugh) could make statements with more knowledge," she said, adding that she'd gotten a contribution Wednesday in his honor. "I invite anyone who'd like to see The Lord's Diner to come on down for dinner."
I think Rush should visit and live something he doesn't know.
He should stand in line with the people for whom The Lord's Diner exists as the most benevolent of blessings. Sit with them and tell them that they're freeloaders. Step out of his glass-encased recording booth into a new, larger world.
One that begins and ends with individuals, people to whom we're all linked.
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Reach Mark McCormick at 268-6549 or mmccormick@wichitaeagle.com.
It was a parody.
I heard Rush talking about this the day it aired. This woman IS being taken advantage of, but she doesn't care. And the people that fund her don't care.
It's a feel-good exercise by that particular organization. I mean, I give to my Food Pantry on a regular basis, but I, too, have been re-thinking it because I'm not 100% certain the foodstuffs are going to the people that really need it.
Gotta look into this further. See? This is what I LOVE about Rush. I may not always agree with him 100%, but he always makes me THINK, and I then go on to research topics that effect me directly. That alone, is an awesome (free!)service, thanks to Rush. :)
According to the dims, the economy is always bad, unless they are the ones in power
True believers know that the only sure way to insure peace and harmony is to hold hands in a circle on a mountain while humming.
Which while admirable is not an argument that the economy is in sad shape, or that there is a mass of physically neglected.
I'm from Dayton OH and I remember hearing from my grandparents telling stories for years about all of the well-to-do people who showed up for the annual Elder-Beerman free Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe this is how the rich stay wealthy, by eating meals intended for the needy.
"A liberal condemning someone for being "judgemental" by being judgemental."
Good point.
Yeah, then they give away all our money and tell us the economy is good when its bad.
I need some help here. What "sensible drug policies" is he "railing" against? That looks like a cheap DU-type shot. (but I really want to hear your explanation).
Look, I'm a Bush supporter but I can think for myself.
Sensible drug policies? Holland has less drug abuse than we do. How's that?
It's none of the government's business if I choose to do drugs. I'm over 18, I pay my taxes, I pay for my own health care, and it's none of their business.
EVER HEARD OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY?
If they want to make it their business, then they should set up programs to help people who want to be helped. I think it's just another social welfare program, but so is sending people to jail for $35,000 a year because they want to do ilegal drugs.
Rush believes that people who do illegal drugs should go to jail. He doesn't believe they should "take responsibility for their actions", he believes they should go to jail. So I really don't care if people want to take cheap shots against him on this issue. He doesn't believe that PEOPLE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR OWN DRUG USE- He believes the government is.
When he has enough compassion on people who use drugs to argue for leaving them alone, I'll have compassion on him. Otherwise, why should I?
And by the way, why has everyone become liberal wussies when it comes to Rush? Hmmmm?
hmmmm, I wonder if this group's concern for the needy extended to 'helping' them VOTE this past election...
Apparently, unlike "Lord's Diner", Mark McCormick of the Wichita Eagle DOES.
What a self serving cheap shot.
My Crack-Head sister and her Crack-Head friends eat at the Lord's Diner here in Wichita, I am not joking about this. They can't feed themselves because it cuts into their drug money. BTW, all are on Welfare and other assistance. Pathetic bunch.
Yes, many of the poor choose to live that way.
But, your attitude is not one Christ would want us to have.
And, it is no a very good American one either...we have the attitude in crime that it is better for 100 guilty to get away with murder than for one innocent to be imprisoned. I think it should be the same with ministry. Yeah, some are freeloaders. But, that doesn't make such ministries bad...they are vital.
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