Letter to the editor: War on the poor

Three blocks from the theater where I saw “A Christmas Carol,” a gray-haired woman sat on the sidewalk with her two grandsons. Both under 3, they couldn’t open their granola bars and gnawed at the wrappers instead.

Her sign read “Please help.” My son and I bought groceries, then accompanied her and the toddlers to her room at a Downtown shelter. There, staff warned that these little guys were not welcome after 11 p.m. Grandma said “OK,” but it wasn’t clear what would happen later.

Upstairs, her cell-size room was ajumble with all she owned. We parked the bags and then Grandma hugged my son and me and bade the boys to wave “thank you.”

Flush with cash, corporations and CEOs give generously to top politicians in exchange for massive tax cuts. Meanwhile, conservative politicians “fix” the revenue loss by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Program and other “unaffordable” services for the poor.

When Congress cuts taxes for the rich and food stamps for the needy, they turn America’s back on grandmas and toddlers with their cardboard pleas and little mouths.

Has the war on the poor brought us to Dickens’ era of indifference, hate and humbug?

Tom O’Brien

Mt. Lebanon