I Can Still Hear Him

Many people in our Society live on the fringes, far from the mainstream. They are locked up in prisons and mental institutions. They are confined in nursing homes and hospitals. They are trapped in ghettos where crime and poverty abound. They are physically or mentally handicapped, or in some way “different” from other people. Often, we feel so helpless in the face of these massive social problems that we simply look the other way. We play possum, like the father whose youngsters had been trying, unsuccessfully, to rouse him from a Sunday afternoon nap. After several efforts, the five-year-old daughter opened one of his eyelids, peered in carefully, then reported, “He’s still in there.” When it comes to the social problems of our time that is the image many of us project. We’re still in there, but our eyes are closed. We are still in there, in our comfortable homes with our families, and they are still out at the fringes.

At a reunion…