Armchair Politicians

Did you help any poor people today? You know, that's always a possibility--you can just load up your car with food and clothing and drive to the nearest shanty town or, for you city dwellers, project, and start spreading the wealth. But I am betting all four of my limbs that not one person who is reading this now did anything remotely like that, or even thought of it. Yet everyone gets their shorts in a knot when Mitt Romney says he is "not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net for that." They are busy misinterpreting his statement, which he made on a morning news show and which has spread over the Internet like the flu. No doubt it will be discussed to death by all the talking heads on TV tonight, those "experts" who make their livings by sucking the blood of famous people who actually do productive work.

Here's an idea: Don't just say something, do something. As for me, I did nothing to help any poor people today. But then, like most people I'm not running for office so I don't have to do anything good, ever. And to be perfectly honest, I did not even think about poor people today. Instead, I was consumed with my own petty problems. I will say, however, that a recent article I came across in a scholarly publication that reported there are no starving children in America helped me relax. That, and the knowledge that if there were any, their parents could hock their iPhones and iPads and flat-screen plasma TVs and computers and $500 Air Jordan sneakers to get some food.