When I was a child, I often wondered why we were so poor. I asked my mother if God loves us, and she said yes. Confused, I asked, if he loves us, why are we so poor. I received an answer that after the passing of fifty-five plus years, I am still even more confused. I was told it was a blessing to be poor. I thought she was joking, so I started laughing. I saw that serious look on my mother’s face and knew instantly I had crossed a line. I received one across the lip for mocking God. My mother told me (paraphrase), a camel could easier go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. I told her I was not talking about camels and nee… Before I could finish my comment, another one across the lip.

From time to time, I think about those words and how they relate to history and the present. I do recall reading or hearing of the wealthy always trying to oppress the poor. I guess they are fearful that someone will take all of their wealth and they would be no different from the poor. If that happened, they would have no one to boss around and do their dirty work.

I recall hearing about a wealthy king who wanted to destroy a baby who mother’s name was Mary. That old king was so rich, he owned everything in sight and more. Strange thing about him, even with all his wealth, he was unable to get a good night’s sleep due to his fixation. That must have been terrible, to have all that money and command so many people, and still unable to find peace of mind.

Then either someone else was telling me, or I may have read someplace that a wealthy king was holding many people as slaves and would not let them go. If I recall correctly, I believe a man who answered to the name of Moses, was called upon to negotiate a release for the slaves. I think in that case, the old wealthy king and Moses failed to reach an agreement. Therefore, Moses and the slaves fled in the middle of the night. When the king got wind of what had transpired, he gathered his army and pursued with the intent to destroy them. From what I was told, the old king ran into some water problems, and that negated his plans.

Fast forward, we have many wealthy kings among us today. They are no different from the kings of yester year, they want to keep all the money and make slaves out of the rest of us. If you think this is a joke, ask yourself this. Why do the wealthy want to cut the programs for the poor and give themselves hefty tax cuts? Just like in the earlier days, the income gap between the wealthy and the poor continues to widen, while the intellectual challenged among us continue to cheer them on. If you say something to them like, think for yourself, they will pick up the talking points of the wealthy and call you lazy.

The wealthy have learned to call the poor lazy; therefore, it would be fitting to call them greedy and selfish.