The Blues

One of the songs that has always stuck with me is “God Bless the Child.” I first heard it when I was in college. It has always resonated with me and the pain in the lyrics has always reinforced my desire to help others.

 

Them that’s got shall get,

Them that’s not shall lose,

So the Bible said and it still is news.

Mama may have, Papa may have

But God bless the child that’s got his own,

That’s got his own.

 

Yes, the strong gets more,

While the weak ones fade,

Empty pockets don’t ever make the grade.

Mama may have, Papa may have

But God bless the child that’s got his own,

That’s got his own.

 

Money, you’ve got lots of friends

Crowding round the door,

When you’re gone, spending ends

They don’t come no more.

Rich relations give

Crust of bread and such,

You can help yourself

But don’t take too much.

Mama may have, Papa may have

But God bless the child that’s got his own,

That’s got his own.

 

Mama may have, Papa may have

But God bless the child that’s got his own,

He just worry ‘bout nothin’

Cause he’s got his own.

 

There is so much pain in the blues and in torch songs but I love them any way. I always remember the lines from “Teahouse of the August Moon” which say “Pain makes man think, thought makes man wise, wisdom makes life endurable.”  It is in times when we are hurting that man seems to start thinking about others. When we see others in pain we start to think about how we can help ease that pain.

 

I have never been a materially rich woman and am likely never to be one. I’ve worked all my life starting with baby-sitting in my early teens. I worked in college to help pay my expenses and took over the loans as soon as I graduated so my parents could send the younger kids to school. We weren’t a wealthy family but we made ends meet somehow. Where we were wealthy was in knowing we were loved.

 

I have always had a problem when those with the wealth are incapable of seeing the suffering of those without money. I am one of those people who feel that the government’s purpose in existence is too help those in need. I don’t feel it is right that the rich keep getting rich at the expense of the poor.  I get angry when people like my mother, who will be 80 this year, are still working because that is the only way they can afford their medicine. It makes me mad that Eli Lily here in Indiana spends the most money in the state as a lobbyist when there are elderly who can’t afford medicine. Why can’t they take the money spent on  wining and dining politicians and give medicine to the people who can’t afford their high prices? Why are the artificially high gas prices allowed to continue when poor people can’t afford the gas to try and go to work? Why are the first programs cut the spending for the poor? Why are we now a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich?

 

I would love to see a law passed that forces these big corporations to spend as much money on helping the poor as they do in lobbying for legislation to keep their profits high. I want the gas companies to have to fill up the cars for those people who have to work but can’t afford the gas gouging. I want the pharmaceutical companies to have to give away their medicine to the elderly who can’t afford their obscene prices. I think it is only fair. They make their money off of the common man then can help make life better for those who don’t have their huge profits.

 

The picture is called “Singing the Blues.”