Speech delivered by the Rev. Dr. Neal R. Jones, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, (a member of the SC Progressive Network) at the April 1 People’s Stimulus Rally
A great teacher once told a story that went something like this: Once upon a time, a man was traveling down a winding, dangerous road, and he was set upon by thieves, who beat him and robbed him and left him half dead. By chance, a priest was traveling down that same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. Later, a Levite came down the road, and when he saw the man, he too passed by on the other side. Then a Samaritan came upon the man, and when he saw him, he had compassion, and he went to him, bound up his wounds, and took him to an inn where he could be cared for. Jesus concluded his Parable of the Good Samaritan by telling his listeners, “Go and do likewise.”
This story was told long ago, but it is as current as today’s news. For the people of South Carolina have been left lying in the ditch, beaten down by the second highest unemployment rate in the country. We have been robbed of our health insurance. Over 300 persons per day are losing their health insurance in South Carolina, so that 16 percent of us are uninsured, one of the highest rates in the country. We have been wounded by a ìcorridor of shameî that runs through the heart of our state, where our neediest children have been consigned to a ìminimally adequateî education, as if that were morally adequate. We have suffered from a minimum wage that is not a livable wage and does not reward the hard work or respect the dignity of working people. In the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, all Americans are hurting, and South Carolinians are hurting the most.
Yet we have a governor who, like the priest and the Levite, has chosen to pass by on the other side. Perhaps he is too busy promoting his own political aspirations to attend to the needs of his state. Perhaps his anti-government libertarian philosophy does not allow him to see that an unfettered, unregulated free market is what got us into this current predicament and that government intervention is necessary to protect our most vulnerable citizens. Perhaps it is difficult for a man who has lived in the lap of luxury to understand what it means to work for a living and to be beaten down by forces beyond your control.
Governor Sanford, don’t pass by the unemployed, the uninsured, the uneducated, and the unfortunate people of our state. Hear their cries for help. And if you can’t hear them from inside the Governor’s mansion, then go to Allendale County, where one out of four workers is unemployed. If you can’t see the dilapidated schools along the I-95 corridor, then go to Dillon and visit J.V. Martin Junior High School, built in 1896, and see firsthand the holes in the floors and the paint peeling from the walls and the rain leaking through cracks in the ceiling.
Governor, now is not the time to save for a rainy day. The deluge is here, and we are drowning in the flood. Stop playing political games, and take the stimulus money. We pay federal taxes here in South Carolina. We deserve the stimulus and we need it. We need it to keep our teachers, our Highway Patrol, and our social service case workers employed and not push our state deeper into recession. We need it to keep college tuition affordable, unemployment benefits available, and health care for our children accessible. We need it to build new schools, new roads and bridges, and a new infrastructure for a prosperous economy.
South Carolina desperately needs the economic stimulus because our state is in the ditch. We are at the top of everything bad and at the bottom of everything good. We are suffering from a massive deficit of leadership, and the only person that should be unemployed is our Governor. I pray that he would follow in the footsteps of a true leader, who had compassion for hurting people and whose policies helped to bind up their wounds. President Franklin D. Roosevelt told a nation crippled by depression, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Governor Sanford, go and do likewise.