Common Sense Political Thought™

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This is the political website of Ken Vermillion and Dana Pico, mostly conservative, sometimes not, usually Republican, but not always. We believe in the Bill of Rights, we believe in free enterprise, and we believe in an aggressive foreign policy.  Most of all, we believe in telling the truth. Political correctness will not be found here. Fighting Anti-Semitism  Pajamahadin  Born on the Fourth of July The City of Brotherly Love  The Supreme Court The European Union  Keith Thompson's  Sane Nation Pro-Life Main Page        Archives  June 2005  May 2005 April 2005  March  February  January  2004  Political Blog List         If you have a website, and wish to have it linked here, in exchange for a reciprocal link, please contact us here. All material on this website is copyrighted by Common Sense Political Thought™.  It may be copied and posted, free of charge.  We ask that we be notified, at this address, and that proper credit is given.

Hey, buddy, can you spare a day?   How many of us, seeing the pictures of the devastation along the Gulf Coast, don’t feel at least something of a desire to help?  If we could get there (which is difficult), we’d all pitch in and help clean up things, rescue people still trapped on rooftops, basically whatever we could.  And we’d gladly take a day off of work to do it.   If we’d be willing to work hard, helping the people of Gulfport and Biloxi and New Orleans get back on their feet, and miss a day of work to do it, would we be willing to work hard for a day at the jobs we already have, and send that one day’s pay to the people who need it more?   Even for Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, calling off sick once in a while (even if some people don’t get sick pay) just happens.  Some people like to justify it as a “mental health day” or something similar, and their thoughts are usually more along the lines of will they get in trouble for skipping a day more than the pay that they have lost.  We manage to survive even with missing one day’s pay every once in a while.   What I think we ought to do is not skip that day, but set aside one day, across the country, for people to go to their regular jobs, and send their pay for that one day to one of the charities trying to help out the thousands and thousands of victims.   It’s easy to donate.  The Red Cross is easily the most famous organization trying to raise money, but the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities are also set up to help.  Click on any of the links, and you’ll be able to donate online.   Or speak to your pastor: your church is probably looking for ways to help; that’s what churches do.  A whole church community coming together, to put all of their parishioners’ donations together, can bring the community closer.   Why a day’s pay?  Because our fellow Americans need it, that’s why.  Too often people give $10 or $25, and while those donations do add up and certainly help, I think that it’s time to do something larger.  An entire day’s pay might seem like a lot, but if we are honest with ourselves, it’s not something we can’t afford, just once a year.  And if we all go to work, on say Thursday, September 8th, knowing that we are working for people, for just one person, who has lost everything, we can add a feeling of pride in what we are doing, for just that day.   There are many thousands of people for whom Hurricane Katrina has meant far more than the loss of one day’s pay.  Thousands upon thousands, perhaps into the hundreds of thousands, have lost their jobs as well as their homes.  They have no place to stay, and no jobs to which to go.  Is it really so much for those of us who were spared the storm’s fury to give up one day’s pay to those who really need it?   Posted by Dana       Thursday, September 1, 2005                                Permanent Link __________________________________________