In a letter recently published in the Santa Maria Times, a writer claimed, “one of the unsaid platforms of the Democratic Party is to avoid responsibility at all costs,” and to tax hardworking people “to pay for many who don’t want to work all that hard ...” I hear this a lot from people who are lucky enough to have been born healthy, smart, and well-connected but who are scornful of the not-so-lucky.

It’s an old plaint of the selfish and hard-hearted though many of them claim to believe in the Judeo-Christian ethic, indeed claim to be good Christians. How ironic: Isn’t this the religion founded on the teaching of Jesus, who praised the charitable; who asked his followers to care for the poor, the sick, the unfortunate; who said, “It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven”? The Democratic Party platform the writer attacked appears to put more stock in those teachings than those publicly invoking His name while promoting their own material interests and treating the wretched poor with contempt. Remember that hypocrisy in November.

-- Istar Holliday - Arroyo Grande

-- Istar Holliday - Arroyo Grande