He said his name was Bill, he said he was from Port Orchard and he said he was hungry.
It was where he was and what he was doing, though, that made me think of something former Vice President Hubert Humphrey said: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”
Bill is one of the needy living in the shadows of life. This photograph strongly suggests, among a number of things, that all our nation’s levels of governance — city, county, state and federal — are failing this test.
Read more of the May 8–14, 2024 issue.