I went to to my niece Stephanie’s wedding in November and they gave us a free copy of the Oregonian at the place where we stayed.  I didn’t read it at the time and then it sat around my house for weeks unread.  I read an article about teachers that basically said that we are not getting good teachers because people don’t respect the profession enough as shown by the amount of money we pay them and the constant bad mouthing they get.

But the part I saved, after I skimmed the rest, was an article in the editorial section by Robert Ellis Gordon called The Nation’s Soul.  The moral questions came first for Bobby Kennedy, and they should to us. It was related to the tax cuts for the wealthy.

My son has given me the same sentiment at times and he and I agreed with the opinion expressed by Gordon. “…the very first question(s) Bobby Kennedy would have asked…would be:  Would extensions of the tax cuts be moral?  Would it be moral for yet another child in the inner city to be bitten in the face by a rat while the wealthiest one percent received a second opportunity to go shopping for yachts courtesy of the U.S. Congress?  Would it be moral for yet another infant in the Mississippi Delta to starve to death while the wealthiest 1 percent get another opportunity to purchase, perhaps a third yacht?”  (or a second home or a third home and a third car etc.)

Gordon wondered why no one was asking about the inequity, lack of fairness, the simple right or wrong as well as  about the human toll.  He pleads with his fellow journalists to ask the moral questions first and the political questions second.  I agree.

I ask if it’s moral to allow our children to go to poor schools in poor drug infested neighborhoods.  Is it moral to take away needed services to the poor rather than raise taxes on the wealthy.  Is it moral to worry more about the defense budget than American families and their children?  Is it moral to complain about runaway government spending, while cutting taxes for the rich and adding $700 billion to the nation debt while saying we need to cut spending.  And of course defense spending is off the table.  We have to make sure the big defense contractors make billions at the expense of the American people.

My son and I expected that President Obama would ask these questions, but he hasn’t.  He needs to make his leadership one that takes on the right over moral issues.  The right is always talking about moral right or wrong while ignoring Jesus’ teaching to love one another.  He promised justice to the poor and said, “… it is harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.” It’s time to we take on the Republicans on the moral issues instead of letting them act like they have the moral high ground when all the time they show no inclination to love their neighbor unless he/she is rich.