Last week, after finishing my tax return, I sat down to relieve my mind of the stress of having waited until the last minute, again. The O'Jays' recording of "Love Train" came to my mind as I sought some music to relax. And before I was stopped, I had replayed it four times or five times. Those who are familiar with the song will remember that it calls out for the countries of the world to board the "Love train."
It starts out with an invitation extended to the people of England. It invites the people in Russia and China, too. Then, it invites the brothers in Africa, and those in Egypt and Israel, too. The song was written and recorded at a time in the 1970s when the United States was commonly believed to already be on board.
It is, indeed, sorrowful that within 40 years, the appeal is now for the United States to get on board. And if the writers were to rewrite the lyrics today, they might be appealing to the people of Florida. They might be appealing to those in Texas and Kansan, too. The second verse might appeal to the people in Tennessee, and also invite those in Virginia and Georgia.
We were aboard then, but there are those committed to our nor riding that train again.. The problem? We're singing a new song, inviting the world to board a new train: the greed train. Accumulate all of the wealth you can has become the new gospel, proclaiming that God wants you to be rich, no matter by what means wealth in obtained or who is hurt while getting it. It's a greed train that everybody wishes to board, but there is limited seating. Some folk are able to force themselves aboard, but others are being pushed out on the other end as a consequence.
President and Democrats want to make the train longer, add more passenger cars. Wealthy Americans don't mind more wealth cars. But they want them filled with their own children, grandchildren, great-grand children, siblings, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, even, friends and others who will not have earned a seat on board. This is what most people would be doing if they have the wealth to do it. But Americans are supposed to be a team, a family, and, as Christians, all brothers and sisters. We should, at least, want the least among us to have the means to afford a comfortable--if not extravacant-- quality of life.
What would be happening on an American "Love Train"? Would the wealthy on board be helping the poor get on board, or using any means at their disposal to keep them off? There is quality education on a real "Love Train." There are good jobs and housing, too. And there is no shortage of quality health care on board.
But the most important quality aboard the "Love Train" is love. Love does not refuse help to those in need, those whom we are able to help. Love cannot ignore the condition of the poor as if neither they nor their condition exists. On the "Love Train," people aren't comfortable having plates and platters of food, while seeing others aboard starve or be threaten with starvation. Wealthy people, therefore, are not so distant from the poor that they can pretend they don't know they exist. They cannot say what they would have done had they known the limitations that poor people have to endure to survive, often even each other. But love on the "Love Train" makes the wealthy want to know badly enough to find out where and how to help. Why? It's because of the love thing, the will and the ability to help.
But there is another problem. Conservatives are not completely wrong about conditions aboard the American train. Newt Gingrich talked about schools giving poor kids work to do around school, and paying them for their work so children whose parents who don't bring in pay checks can experience and develop an appreciation for the pay-for-work ethic. He talked about the poor needing not only to be provided a safety net but a trampoline to elevate their hopes, expectations, preparation and opportunities for economic success.
You see, there is work to be done on a "Love Train." There are floors to sweep, dishes to wash, food to cook and serve, tables to cleared and cleaned, windows to wash, linen to laundry, luggage to be carried on and off the train, locomotives to be driven, electrical equipment and appliances to be fixed, sick people needing tending, diesel engines to service, maybe even rail lines to be constructed and repaired. That means there are opportunities for even the poor to earn a living on board the train.
But there must also be quality opportunities that guarantee all aboard learning to earn. And there must be enough jobs on board for every person who wants to work to earn a living.
And should, as many conservatives contend, those who are unwilling to work be thrown off the train at the next stop? Republicans are suggesting that, if you throw enough poor people who don't want work off the train at the next stop, there will be fewer--and eventually none, including those who cannot help themselves--needing to be thrown off at future stops. They're saying that sometimes the love required to get people on their feet and keep them there, even on a love train, is tough love.
Finally, another question, though, Is there a place on the "Love Train" for tough love? And how would we distinguish between actions reflecting tough love and those reflecting just not caring about certain other people?
Let's, first, try to distinguish between two types of poor people on board the "Love Train" who need help finding or keeping jobs. There are lazy riders who just don't want to work, and there are those who haven't been able to keep a job because they don't know how to work; that is, they don't know how to give quality work performance because they don't know what quality performance means. There, of course, are those who only want high-paying jobs for which they are not qualified, but there are among them those who have had no quality opportunities to prepare themselves for these jobs.
There are many reasons why people's attitudes toward work are different, and most of them grow out of conditions and circumstances that were beyond the ability their control. Children grow up in the hands of parents and teachers. Their preparations for the future are in the hands of others.
But they can be motivated to control how they will react to present realities. Someone said--and I paraphrase--we can't control where we came from, but we have considerable influence on where we will go. And I might add, that is especially true on a real "Love Train."
Ronald
E-Mail: rcspoon@earthlink.net
Blog: ronaldcspooner.blogspot.com
Twitter.com/@ronaldspooner
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