"There Must Be No Handouts"

So many of the GOP candidates echo the refrain: "There must be no handouts!" As if those crossing our borders are looking for a handout. Heck no, they're looking for work, for a future, for hope, for safety - they're looking for an honest job to feed their families.

Ride an LA bus for awhile ... handouts? Are you kidding? ... they toil morning, noon and night, washing our dishes, cooking our food, mowing our laws, hauling our trash, emptying our bed pans, fluffing our pillows. Yeah, right - all looking for a handout.

Frankly, the GOP reminds me of some doddering old man who believes his neighbors are ripping him off, stealing his apples, letting their dogs crap on his marvelous lawn, borrowing things and not returning them - obsessing about this into the late hours of the night and peering all day long from behind a pulled-back curtain.

Deep and dysfunctional paranoia.

Sadly, certain crowds in America lap it up like kittens on a bowl of cream. Screaming their approval: "Yeah, no one's gonna take advantage of us. No way. Deport 'em all. Build those walls. To hell with them; they're no good anyway!"

Meanwhile, the real rip off is going on 24/7 in corporate America and Wall Street, to the tune of billions, and now trillions, and to cover their larceny, point to the poor and scream loudly: "You're not gonna get a handout from us!" And scream it again and again and again, until everyone is numb, too numb to see the crime being committed by the powerful against our nation.

All of this would be bad enough, all by itself, but when silver-tonged preachers, well-greased with cash, mouth these alarmist remarks against the immigrant, the poor, and their children, the crime is magnified infinitely, flying in the face of the very Jesus they purport to worship.

But, then, let's not forget, Jesus was betrayed with a kiss and crucified with a lot of religious folks standing around nodding their heads in agreement as the Roman Soldiers drove home the nails.