Will Rogers was one of the great American humorists and comedians to come out of Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.
He once noted that “America is the first country in the world where it citizens were driving themselves in their automobiles to the poor house.” He said this during the Depression.
And he was right.
Fast forward to recent weeks when we watch with amazement on television long lines of late model automobiles carrying families waiting patiently to pick up food from a food pantry line.
Here in Everett, food pantries are saving the day for many poor working families who have been put out of business by the virus and the economic collapse.
Right here by our newspaper office on Church Street, the lines spread long, all the way down the street, for Everett residents waiting and needing food to feed their families.
All of us who don’t have to be in this line must ask our- selves how can this nation, that we like to call the greatest in the world (and it is) fail to feed its poorest citizens during an epidemic?
As good as we are as Americans, this is a question we all need to ask ourselves.
We are better than this but sadly, it does not look that way when you stare at that line on Church Street of the working poor waiting for food handouts.
And to think many of us are complaining about the mental discomfort of having to remain in quarantine!