Hello! Here are the topics for today’s common-sense commentary:

• No Response
• Providing Charity
• Stamp Out Hunger 2025
• One More Thing

NO RESPONSE:

On April 7, 2025, I noticed that Montana’s new U.S. Senator, Tim Sheehy, missed a vote on the nomination for Elbridge Colby to be Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. 

So I contacted the Senator via his official U.S. Senate website and politely and professionally asked why he missed Senate vote #192.

It has been a month, and I have not received a response. I hope his constituent services improve. Montanans deserve to know why their elected official missed a vote. 

Altogether, Sheehy has missed three votes so far in his first term. (Source)

PROVIDING CHARITY:

Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon posted his thoughts on charity and the government the other day. It was interesting. Read it HERE.    

Here is part of his message:

Jesus taught that the distribution system for aid to the poor and hungry consists of the intentional, voluntary acts of individual believers and private communities of faith (churches, synagogues etc.) giving of their time and resources. 

He did not teach that government bureaucracies or political entities are God’s conduit for providing charity.

Jesus taught that YOU are to give YOUR money and time to the less fortunate, it is YOUR personal responsibility to do so.

God does not intend for the government, or politicians, using tax revenue to be a proxy or substitute for Christian giving.

His comments got me thinking about when a church in Great Falls tried to help the homeless, but the city did not like it because the homeless could be seen, and they were offending people. 

I think the Commissioner missed the part in the Preamble and Constitution about “general welfare.”

In the Preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Also in Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States…

One definition of “general welfare” is:

General welfare refers to the well-being and prosperity of society as a whole. This includes things like public health, safety, morals, and peace. It also refers to a system of social insurance that provides assistance to those who are financially in need, such as food stamps and family allowances. Corporate welfare is a type of financial assistance given by the government to large companies in the form of subsidies. (Source)

Churches should help people, but there’s an established role for the governments at all levels to assist with the general welfare of its people. 

STAMP OUT HUNGER 2025:

The 2025 Stamp Out Hunger food drive is this Saturday (May 10). 

According to the USPS:

Every second Saturday in May, letter carriers in more than 10,000 cities and towns across America collect the goodness and compassion of their postal customers, who participate in the NALC Stamp Out Hunger National Food Drive — the largest one-day food drive in the nation.

Carriers collect non-perishable food donations left by mailboxes and in post offices and deliver them to local community food banks, pantries and shelters. 

To donate, just place a box or can of non-perishable food next to your mailbox before your letter carrier delivers mail on the second Saturday in May. The carrier will do the rest. The food is sorted, and delivered to an area food bank or pantry, where it is available for needy families. One in ten Americans face hunger every day in America. This drive is one way you can help those in your own city or town who need help. (Source)

ONE MORE THING:

It’s time to stop expecting critical thinking skills from people who aren’t smart enough to realize that “I love the poorly educated” was not a compliment. (Pinterest)

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