Helping the homeless stay warm

As I write this early Thanksgiving morning, the temperature in Cape Girardeau is 29 degrees. The United Way has asked the city council to help provide assistance to people needing shelter if the temperature reaches 28 degrees or lower, but four members of the council have said no. They are the majority. They don't want to spend $10,000 of the $3 million the city receives yearly from hosting the casino on people needing shelter if the temperature dips at least four degrees below freezing.

The four gave various reasons. That's not the city's business, or the United Way could come back and ask for even more money in the future, or the money should be spent on infrastructure and public safety and parks instead of on preventing people from freezing. Let the charities and the feds take care of them, one said.

Ten thousand dollars is a third of 1% of $3 million.

Ebenezer Scrooge's response when asked to donate money to people who are needy: "It's not my business."

By the end of the tale, amid painful reckonings with his past, present and future, Scrooge finally understands the personal and societal consequences of it's not my business.

God bless us every one.

SAM BLACKWELL, Cape Girardeau