LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland — I just read that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has extended disaster status to local fruit farmers who lost up to 90 percent of their crop this year. Also, I am a friend of a family that is going through a financially devastating health crisis, with bills approaching $1 million. Their misfortune was that their daughter got sick.

I believe that the larger American society can and should try to help people in crisis. But I often hear lately that the government (i.e., us) should just stay out of the way — that the government is the problem. I don’t believe that’s right. Together we can weather storms that would otherwise wreck us as individuals.

If people really believe that government is the problem, I guess they need to “just suck it up” when disaster strikes them.

Greg Hulsebos
Holland

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland — Henry Idema’s June 12 column, “The unmentionable word: sacrifice,” deserves both praise and criticism.  

I applaud Idema’s call for a clear acknowledgment by our political leaders of the need for sacrifice in the face of our huge national deficit.  Assertions that the Bush era tax cuts should be extended indefinitely or that only the top 1 percent need pay more income taxes are unrealistic.  We cannot expect to correct our existing problems without substantial and widespread sacrifice.  

However, I object to Idema’s claim that all Americans should sacrifice more to reduce the deficit.  Many Americans have already had great sacrifices imposed upon them by the recession: unemployment or underemployment, underwater mortgages, tiny interest rates on savings, and so on.  Measures to reduce the deficit should take into account the burdens that citizens are already bearing.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland — To Congressman Bill Huizenga: I was grateful for the opportunity to meet recently with your legislative assistant Peter Stehouwer. Peter told us that you see deficit reduction as the number one moral issue facing the United States today. It is certainly a serious problem and I agree it needs addressing. None of us want to saddle our children and grandchildren with this debt burden.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland — I would like to respond to Elizabeth Diaz’s letter calling for tighter restrictions on Michigan’s assistance programs (Sentinel, Saturday). After reading materials from the Michigan League for Human Services and Bread for the World, I reached very different conclusions. Consider some of what I learned about food assistance (SNAP-Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps).

Restrictions: Generally, to receive SNAP benefits, one must be working or looking for work. The income of qualifying families must be below the poverty level, which is $1,838 per month for a family of four. A family with one parent working 40 hours per week at minimum wage ($7.40) makes an average of $1,283 a month, well below this threshold. In October, Michigan imposed one of the nation’s strictest asset tests on SNAP eligibility, making many newly unemployed families ineligible for SNAP.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland — On Nov. 1, the Holland Bread for the World team, West Michigan Creation Care, Hope United for Justice and Hope College Campus Ministries held a forum entitled “Climate Change and Hunger: A Call to Action.” Panelist Don Triezenberg presented firm proof of the reality of global warming. Panelist Sara Leeland helped us understand how climate change leads to water shortages. And panelist Steve Bouma-Prediger spoke about our responsibility to care for the earth and its people, emphasizing the pervasiveness of poverty and hunger in our world.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland, MI — When a dictator violently oppresses his people or when terrorists strike, we are often told that our nation must intervene. Our military interventions pour vast amounts of resources into the situation, often with questionable results.

But when people suffer and die from hunger, our response tends to be one of resignation. The number of children who die of hunger and related causes averages 15,000 per day. Globally, approximately one person in seven is chronically hungry.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland, MI — As April 15, Tax Day, approaches, we are more acutely aware than usual of our nation’s tax code. Often unnoticed is our nation’s largest anti-poverty program for working families, the earned income tax credit (EITC), a refundable tax credit geared primarily toward families with children. Equally important is the child tax credit (CTC), which provides up to $1,000 for each child under age 17.

Ronald Reagan called the EITC “the best anti-poverty, the best pro-family, the best job creation measure to come out of Congress.”  The EITC helps bridge the gap between low-wage earnings and the costs of meeting basic needs for over 22 million households. It lifts almost 7 million Americans — including 3.3 million children — above the poverty line.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland, MI — As a Sister of Mercy, I urge our members of Congress to find the political will to invest in job creation and to protect persons who are poor and vulnerable.
 
Members of our congregation of women religious minister every day to persons who seek emergency shelter, who turn to food pantries and soup kitchens, and who need job training to find work that pays a living wage. It is such programs that many legislators are talking about in their proposals to reduce the federal deficit and debt. Yet non-defense discretionary spending, which includes these vital human services, represents just 19 percent of the budget.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Holland, MI — Recent letters on the Sentinel’s opinion page highlight the question of whether or not the government has a responsi­bility to address the needs of the poor.

Bill Freeman (Sentinel, Feb. 26) invokes Scripture to call for changes in Michigan’s tax code to reduce the burden on the poor. This proposal is objectionable to Alan Helvig (March 2), who declares that, according to Jesus, caring for the poor is strictly the responsibility of the church, not the government. Helvig’s position is both non-biblical and nonsensical.

LETTER TO THE HOLLAND SENTINEL: Grandville — Alan Helvig (Sentinel, March 2) argues that God’s teaching in Scripture is that it is the responsibility of the church and not the government “to take care of the  poor, the widow and the orphan.” He further states: “I believe the government needs to get out of the church’s work and that the church needs to take back its responsibility from the government.”

Now, I firmly believe the family and then the church come first in caring for the needy. This does not mean, however, that the government is absolved of all responsibility. Psalm 72 gives the responsibility to government leadership for justice and charity when it states:  “... defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.” Later God describes a good government leader: “For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.”