Jason’s Fault

Jason Williams, columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, claims that he is to blame for our egregious local poverty rate, and so are the rest of us. I endeavor to set him straight.

Mr Williams,

If you truly believe that you are “at fault for Cincinnati’s woeful poverty rate” then I hope you will feel free to enjoy your guilt. When you claim that because you have neglected to give enough you are responsible for the poverty rate, you give yourself too much credit. If we were to distribute your entire income among the indigent of all of Greater Cincinnatistan the difference would barely constitute a ripple.

If your larger point is that neither you nor the rest of us have done enough to help, and that by hectoring us you hope for us all to do more, then you should say as much.

To suggest that you or anyone else who hasn’t helped enough is culpable for poverty is ludicrous and insulting. Ethics are not algebraic. Not succoring is NOT the same as injuring. Otherwise, YOU would be responsible for killing my wife (long passed from complications of diabetes) for not providing the kidneys and pancreas that could have saved her sooner. Well… maybe you and she were poor tissue matches, so you’re off the hook for her. You killed some other innocent stranger instead.

See how twisted that is? I hope you continue to enjoy your ridiculous contrived artificial guilt, and if I can do anything to aggravate the condition let me know.
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