by Ray Newman, radio and television commentator, attorney, educator, author

Sunday, September 27, 2009

THE FORGOTTEN NOBLE CONCEPT

This post is in honor of a single concept...a concept that has been remarked about since Biblical days, though the full beauty of it seems lately to have been forgotten.

The Merriam-Webster Thesaurus lists the following as synonyms or as related to the honored concept:

benevolent, eleemosynary, good, humane, accommodating, obliging, helpful, kindhearted, sympathetic, thoughtful, considerate, affection, attachment, love, goodwill.

And let me add: rational solver of many of the world's problems, rewarding to those who indulge in it, legal, moral, spiritually ordained.

A concept worthy of all that is certainly worthy of great honor, no? Worthy of enhrinement on our monuments and in our hearts...worthy of universal practice.

So why then do virtually all of the world's leaders and presumed experts, when contemplating the dire needs of the poor and impoverished around the world, ignore totally the concept of Charity--the free, voluntary giving of aid to those in need--and fail to use it as the linchpin of their solution, resorting instead to the use of force against the innocent?

Think everyone should have needed medical treatment, a college education, a roof to sleep under, adequate food supply? Think Charity, think freedom to give if you wish, as much as you wish. Do not think coerce, compel, command, demand, require, force. Those are not the honored words. They are words of shame and degradation and dehumanization.

And no matter the alleged honorable purposes to which they are put, they will forever remain ignoble and alien to man's free spirit and loving soul.

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