Many conservative argue that instead of government programs for the needy, we should let charities and volunteer organizations provide those services. Let's support churches and local groups who operate soup kitchens and reading programs. Especially around the holidays, we see volunteer groups at their best, ringing bells outside the malls and collecting toys at high schools. It would seem that there is already a vast infrastructure of help for the poor and the sick. 

The reality is that these groups are struggling and only scratch the surface of need. 

The food kitchen that my dad runs is operated by a bunch of 80 year old men. They need help stocking shelves and driving the van to pick up food and toys from local schools. They need younger bodies to do the physical labor involved with the job, and they need those bodies during daylight hours. Nobody is there. 

People are willing to help the needy and the sick theoretically, but they don't want to get their hands dirty. My mom is helping take care of dying woman. People who are dying and in severe pain can be extreme assholes. All of her former friends have deserted her, and only my mom remains to make sure the bills are paid and the woman gets her pain medicine. 

I've often wondered why thousands attend Right to Life marchs, but there are no volunteers for special needs schools or at inner-city schools. Is it because it is easier to support a dead fetus than a 8 year old with behavior problems? Yes.

When people volunteer their time, they want some reward. They aren't expected a paycheck, but they want that warm feeling of doing a good job. A smile and a hug from a photogenic child or a kind wrinkled face grandma. It's very hard to help people who are ugly, disturbed, angry, and dirty. 

We need government support, because there's a limit to charity. There are not enough people who are willing to do the dirty work of stocking shelves during inconvenient times, comforting an old woman with dementia, talking to a sad 9 year old with behavior problems. Simply writing a check for groups that do good deeds isn't enough. They need people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and do a job with no thanks. Because those people will never appear, government has to step in. 

 

UPDATE:  As part of my after school marathon, I end up spending a lot of time talking to moms of children with special needs. These kids' needs are in a whole different league than my kids' needs. Think smearing poo on the wall type of needs. Think never ever sleeping type of needs.

Because these kids are high needs, the families have very high needs. The parents are burned out, stressed, exhausted, lonely, depressed, worried, and often times, financially strung out. There is absolutely no one helping these people. No one. There are no church groups helping them. In fact, so many of these families have been run out of their churches, because the other parishioners don't want to deal with those kids. There are no neighborhood welcome wagons handing out casseroles. These women cling to each other sharing their own private hells.