I am no longer a political writer or police reporter but grateful for both. They are partly responsible for the good in me and the bad. I learned a lot from both about life and what it is people want to hear and what they are thinking. I’ve learned much about what is good and why it is essential.

In the past few years, I have noticed that the most popular presidential candidates and their followers say nothing about people with low incomes or about doing good. Our national politics seems more interested that vengeance than goodness.

As I grow older, doing good is more important than ever. What, I wonder, is wrong with me that I could be so out of step with so many people?

The idea of helping people experiencing poverty has mostly disappeared from our civic and political life. The people who talk about it are pushed to the edge and ignored, desperately seeking money and help from people who readily worship money but not love or kindness. There is just not enough money to reach all of the needy.

I seem to have a knack for going in the wrong direction, but I’m sticking to my own values, God or not. Doing good may be the most critical social policy in the world, here and everywhere.

In all the vast waves of information sailing through and over us, people with low incomes, people in need, people experiencing homelessness, people who are sick, and the vulnerable, are no longer mentioned unless in anger, contempt, and resentment. There are too many of them, and we can’t afford to care for them.

They are stealing what is ours.

That seems to be the policy.

There are no gains in our civic life right now from helping people experiencing poverty; the more popular approach seems to be attacking and blaming them for being poor.  

Helping the poor is just another chapter in the “woke”ideology.

One candidate rails about compassion and generosity, and the other promises lies and vengeance; the third rarely speaks. I often wonder why people don’t want more than that. Help us help people experiencing poverty is a powerful message, fading increasingly into the background. Do good.

It still sounds right to me.

The poor are increasingly considered parasites sucking our blood. Our leaders are struck dead silent, trembling, hiding, and winking at lies. Fighting for good is dangerous. The moral people are quiet or drowned out.

I remember that when I was writing about politics every serious politician seeking office promised to help people experiencing poverty; it was an almost universal idea, a campaign pledge, not a partisan one or one from the left or right. They both promised to do good. It would have been shocking to promise to do wrong. That seems to be the new party agenda.

Politics feels like our new poison pill. We need a God of one kind or another, and fairly soon.

I have this strange idea that the more we turn out backs on people with low incomes and people experiencing homelessness, the more there are. Am I just being naive and blind?

Helping people in need is my cornerstone moral idea, and I wish to be moral, despite my many flaws.

I think of us a a generous people; my work with the Army Of Good has reinforced that.

But every time I look at the news, I shudder. The country is floundering amid a moral breakdown.

It will come back. It always does. Can we blame the Internet? Or is that too simple? I sometimes wonder if we should look to the collapse of the idea that there is a God, which they wanted us to do.  God has his shortcomings, but he got a lot done. Our politicians of today didn’t care to challenge him then.

Caring about people experiencing poverty is a part of the “woke” ideology one candidate openly promises to wage war on.

Many so-called Christians have enthusiastically embraced the idea of turning their backs on the needy and cheering on the people who propose it and relish the persecution of children.

I feel a cold chill coming from the ambitious people who want to run the country now. None of them show compassion or empathy, only anger and deadlock. They better hope there isn’t a God or that Jesus is coming back.

A friendly priest who e-mails me often reminds me that Jesus did not say, “Blessed are those who care for the poor,” he said, “Blessed are the poor.” That’s a big difference.

That meant caring for the poor was a sacred mission for those who believed in God. Where have they gone?

I am at a pivotal point in life. It’s time that I finally know who I am, who I want to be, and what I want to be.

I want to help. I want to do something for people in need. I’ve chosen the Mansion elderly and the refugee children as my focus. I work to be a gentler and softer person.

Some of you have graciously come along with me. Thank you.

Helping people who need help is a noble impulse all its own. When it was widely believed that it was God’s blessing and will, it seemed much more popular for people to do it. Since I’m not sure what God is, I’m going it alone. I have to offer my blessings. I very much like the idea that needy people are blessed.

As I sense a moral hole forming around me, doing good has become my center of purpose and faith. Without that faith, as I learned as a  hospice volunteer, I would have burned out. How is it possible to keep caring for people experiencing poverty when people experiencing poverty only get poorer and more numerous? How can we comfort the dying when their deaths seem to bring only more grief and suffering?

The idea is a Christian one, a Jesus one, even if I don’t worship Jesus as a God or as the son of one.

I’m unsure if there is a God or what they look like, but I believe doing good and helping the poor and the needy is a holy blessing from those we choose to allow. I agree with Jesus, even if his followers have abandoned him.

I’m not the one who is blessed to help them. They are the ones who are gifted for letting me and trusting me. That is a Godly thing to me.