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What a sad, disturbing culture we have if we treat news like this with nonchalance or, worse, rationalization. <br><br>That those who benefit from these DHW offices are low-income families, usually with children and virtually all with hard-working parents, is a given and their lack of access to services, predictable. The poor don't have lobbyists, PACs, or the attention of those in power. <br><br>The don't often have the advocacy of the church, either, when those in society whose religious faith charges them to care for these people too often explain aware both the need and their obligation to remedy it. When Christians forget the poor, it's a sin and a tragedy. Worse, though, is canonizing the active neglect of needy women, children, and men via appeals to the wonders and virtue of the free market, while explaining away the Biblical imperative through vicious proof-texting. Too many Christians today, and certainly in those pastoral blogs originating from Moscow, are enamored of calling government programs for the poor "charity at gunpoint," as if the obscenity of poverty is that taxpayers are called to chip in to provide a societal safety net for the poor -- not the poverty itself, a grinding lack of food, shelter, healthcare, comfort and security they would certainly offer Jesus if he appeared to them in person.<br><br>Sadly for them and tragically for the suffering and oppressed, Jesus himself DOES appear to them in person. He just sometimes shows up as a single mom in Orofino.<br><br><font style="" color="#8064a2"><font style="font-size: 12pt;" size="3"><font style="" face="Verdana">Keely<br>www.keely-prevailingwinds.com<br></font></font></font><br><br><br><br>> From: v2020@ssl.fastmail.fm<br>> To: vision2020@moscow.com<br>> Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 21:16:26 -0700<br>> Subject: [Vision2020] THROW THE BUMS OUT!!!<br>> <br>> http://www.lmtribune.com/breaking-news/1304/<br>> <br>> Breaking News<br>> Orofino Health and Welfare office targeted for closure<br>> April 6, 2010, 1:49 pm<br>> <br>> Associated Press<br>> <br>> BOISE -- About a third of the state's field offices for the Department of<br>> Health and Welfare, including one in Orofino, are being closed and 126<br>> workers laid off within the next two months as the department struggles to<br>> cope with a shrinking budget.<br>> <br>> Department officials announced Tuesday that offices in American Falls,<br>> Bellevue, Bonners Ferry, Emmett, Jerome, McCall, Orofino, Rupert and Soda<br>> Springs would close within the next two months, and some services in the St.<br>> Maries office would be shifted to Coeur d'Alene.<br>> <br>> "The closures will cause hardship and inconvenience for many people, but<br>> resources are not available to continue the current level of office<br>> support," the department wrote in a press release.<br>> <br>> The Legislature left the decision on how to balance the Idaho Department of<br>> Health and Welfare's $138 million general fund budget in the hands of<br>> Director Dick Armstrong. In the press release, the department said it<br>> evaluated traffic at each of the offices, as well as the ability to shift<br>> services to another location.<br>> <br>> Many of the offices being closed had smaller caseloads than those carried at<br>> other offices, the department said.<br>> <br>> Health and Welfare clients will have to wait longer to get phone responses,<br>> have their applications for services processed and meet with staffers, the<br>> department said.<br>> <br>> Officials said child welfare and mental health services will continue to be<br>> provided in the regions affected by office closures.<br>> ___<br>> <br>> For those interested, you can read more double-speak here:<br>> http://healthandwelfare.idaho.gov/AboutUs/Newsroom/tabid/130/ctl/ArticleView<br>> /mid/3061/articleId/1536/font-size2Department-of-Health-and-Welfare-Closes-N<br>> ine-Field-Offices.aspx<br>> OR<br>> http://tinyurl.com/yfz588w<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> =======================================================<br>> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br>> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <br>> http://www.fsr.net <br>> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>> =======================================================<br> <br /><hr />Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox. <a href='http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_2' target='_new'>See how.</a></body>
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