From: Joe Barr 


Good for you, Rich.

Gee Dubya was widely quoted over the holidays as saying there were no
hungry (people) in Tejas.  Some friends got together and made up a 100
really nice lunches to distribute in downtown Austin.  It took 8 of us
about 2 hours to prepare the meals, and about 15 minutes to pass them out. 
One of the do-gooders was amazed at all the people who suddenly appeared. 
"And the invisible became visible," he muttered to himself.



Richard Hong wrote:
>
> >> I'm not going to sacrifice myself in spite of the idiocy and opposition
> to constructive change evinced by so many others. <<
>
> Randall,
>
> So what you're actually saying is that all else constant, YOU are unwilling
> to do ANYTHING requiring any personal sacrifice in order to make things
> better.  Nice.  And your aside about smaller government is a meaningless
> distraction; I haven't been talking about government at all.
>
> You have the skill set to be a part of constructive change in at least some
> peoples' lives, and you gladly pass up on the chance.  It's one thing to
> fail to help absolutely as many people as we can; that's human.  It's
> another thing to refuse to help anyone at all.
>
> I have to admit that your messages caused a change in my personal behavior.
> I've been on a business trip, staying in a downtown area where there are
> many homeless.  Previously, I always believed in giving to homeless shelter
> programs rather than to people on the streets.  Thanks to your messages, I
> will no longer do just that anymore.  I decided that I can't just walk past
> a homeless person and ignore them, not with so many people sharing your
> cavalier attitude toward the plight of the poor.  So I took a Biblical
> principle of tithing and extended it again: whatever I spent on meals during
> the day, I made sure I gave at least 10% of that amount to homeless people I
> passed on the streets.  I'm not giving it all away, but at least I'll use a
> Biblical principle to establish some sort of proportionality between what I
> spend on me and what I spend on the poor.
>
> So you see absolutely no reason to ask yourself: did I help a fellow human
> being today?
>
> Rich

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