I don’t usually watch the news because the political stuff frustrates and angers me, but the other evening I was doing something else when the news came on television. Sure enough it got my dander up.
They did a piece on a young girl who was with her father at a stop light in a city. To one side of her was a man in an expensive car and to the other side a homeless man. She told her father that if that man didn’t have such an expensive car the homeless man could have a meal. They proceeded home and the conversation continued at the dinner table with her mother and brother in attendance.
During the conversation, she suggested they sell their well over $2 million house and give half the proceeds to charity. Her mother said she wanted to see how far her daughter was willing to go with this so she went along with the idea.
At first, her brother was not on board since he rather liked his room and his lifestyle, but eventually he joined the family who had by then decided it was the right thing to do. He even made a blog about the adventure.
They sold the over-$2.7 million house for considerably less in the current economy and donated half the proceeds (a total of $800,000) to charity and I applaud them the courage of their convictions. What got me angry was the money went to The Hunger Project, which feeds people all over the world. Then we see a picture of them.
Were they standing next to that homeless man giving him and others a meal? No! Were they building homes for people who couldn’t afford to do it themselves with Habitat for Humanity? No! Were they helping people in their own country who by the thousands have lost jobs, homes and everything they had? No, again!
They were in Ghana.
The earthquake in Haiti was a tragedy almost beyond comprehension. I heard that Americans had given over $600 million toward their aid (including my small donation). I’m proud of my country for rushing to their aid and for reaching out a helping hand to other less fortunate countries, but this family should have concentrated on their own country.
That American homeless man got their ball rolling but what did he get from it? Nothing!
My family has always taught me that you can’t help others until you have your own house straight. This country of ours needs so much help now.
Do you see any other countries that we have helped numerous times over the years rushing to help us?
We have too many homeless families with kids trying to do homework in the backseat of the cars they live in or at noisy shelters the family is forced to live in while Mom and Dad work at whatever jobs they can find in hopes of rebuilding their lives.
That $800,000 just in their own city would have given small businesses the help they needed to stay open and hire more workers, fed, clothed and even housed some of the homeless and on and on. It might even have gotten others in different cities started on that road. Instead it went to other countries.
It’s past time for this country to get its priorities straight.
This family had such a great concept, but blew it by not spending that much needed money in their own backyard. For this they made the national nightly news. What does that say about us as a nation?
I’d like to know what you think: Did they do the right thing?
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