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Dorothy Day

“There are two things you should know about the poor: they tend to smell, and they are ungrateful.”

I remembered those words by Dorothy Day as I walked through my community garden plot yesterday, discovering that some dirt bag had stolen half of my winter squash: my non-gmo, organically-fertilized winter squash, the kind I don't think you can even buy. The food that I planned on feeding my family this winter, to help assure my kids get at least a little bit of non-gmo food every season of the year.

I was, to put it mildly, angry.

And I remembered that I had an organizational meeting for a local St. Vincent de Paul Society that evening. My thought, "Screw them. The poor just take what they want: by theft, violence, or the voting booth."

But of course, taking through the voting booth is merely a form of violence: "I vote for Politician A to take your money and give it to me . . . and if you don't give it to me, Politician A will take it by force and give it to me."

That's what a vote for Hillary is.

And that's the kind of vermin who stole my winter squash.

So with all those thoughts swirling through my mind, I attended the organizational meeting anyway. I figured there would be good people there, and there were. I'm not totally sold on the idea that we have that many any deserving poor, but that Dorothy Day quote reminds me that we probably haven't had any deserving poor in the United States for nearly 100 years. Since the Gospel enjoins us to help the poor, I guess you help whatever poor are available, so you help the type of pajama-pant-wearing, low-grade, undeserving poor your community offers.

Beggars can't be choosers, or something like that.

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