A child's perspective on helping homeless
A modern Appalachian folktale tells a story of the right way and the wrong
way to promote social change in America .

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to be when she
grows up. She said she wanted to be president some day. Both of her parents,
liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were president what would be the first thing you would do?"

She replied, "I'd give
food and houses to all the homeless
people."

Her parents beamed. "Wow... what a worthy goal." I told
her, "But you don't have to wait until you're president to do that.
You can come over to my house and rake my leaves, pull weeds, and mow the lawn, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

David Campbell
Knoxville