Glide Church on the edge of the Tenderloin section of San Francisco serves approximately 500 poor people breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. The food’s good. The service’s efficient, and the enterprise is, it seems, non-proselytizing and non-judgmental. The clientèle is predominantly male and black, from young to old. Other agencies in SF do the same thing every day, and their efforts are replicated across the country. What does all this mean? Is this the so-called permanent underclass of America?

We are mentally and emotionally overwhelmed by the problem. Where have we gone wrong? The poor you will always have with you, someone we know once said. But in these numbers, and growing?

While the Glide Church also offers a raft of other social services, the sense is that this is a permanent,long term, chronic condition. The Haves and the Have-Nots. It’s all very depressing…..

Submitted with a note of sadness

CN

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