|
I'm a liberal. I believe in charity, helping others, bettering the community and everything that goes along with that.
I'm a liberal. I also believe that government has a big role to play in our lives, particularly with regard to regulations and helping others, and insuring that minimum standards are met for the conditions of our living, our safety, and our health.
In line with the first point, I work as a volunteer at a soup kitchen. It's incredibly rewarding, and it's an honor for me to be able to work with everyone there, and to see that the people in our community who might be going through a rough patch have some support, a good meal, some companionship even for just an hour, and all the other outreach (a nurse, mental health, job searching) that this facility offers. This place has been doing good for 25 years and I'm proud to be a part of it.
But recently, either through regulations that were passed recently or just recently started getting enforced (I'm not clear which), the whole place has to change how they do their work. On a simple level it's no more home prepared food. Only donated pre-made and packaged food, or cooked in the facilities kitchen by trained people. On a more expansive level it's requiring new equipment, requiring more equipment, and in the end will increase our operating budget by about $250,000 a year.
So.....yeah. Talk about liberal value dillema. $250K is a big hit to have to make up with donations especially in this economic (not to mention political) climate. But by the same respect I can't just dismiss the essence of what the point of the regulations is, which is to insure food safety and good health, even for those who are getting the meals and food and help at no cost. There's no reason just because someone might me more in need of or (for lack of a better word) desparate for a meal that we shouldn't do everything to insure that what they get is healthy and safe.
No point to this, just ranting and typing. I've had personal liberal value conflicts in terms of things testing what I believe in. But rarely have I encountered 2 of my own beliefs bumping up against each other in an adverserial way.
|