Anyone who truly cares about loving one another, and about the community in which they live, should be out there on Mother's Day, rallying for a cause that is based on nothing less that the very images in which we are created. And anyone who truly cares about loving one another, and about the community in which they live, should be filling out their census form, long, short or the American Community Survey, which is the newest version. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a good Republican from Mississippi, and George W. Bush, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, both have come out saying they think the long form of the Census is too intrusive, and that people should answer only the questions they want to answer. That's just the legal aspect. On a deeper level, however, those old images of love and community keep popping up.
Some folks are upset about the questions focusing on plumbing in each person's house.
How dare the census ask such a private question, folks demand to know. It's nobody's business but ours, they cry. Anyone who ever has lived in a rural area, particularly a poor, rural area, knows the need for getting federal funding to help install indoor plumbing in houses. Filling out the census, like participating in the Million Mom March, is an active way for each of us to engage in our community, to show our love for people of all sorts and conditions, to realize that just because we have everything we need doesn't mean we can bail out on others who don't have what they need. We are created in God's image, which God proclaimed very good.