A Plea for the Poor

        The first people to roam this Earth, this beautiful place we call home, were the first to have possession of not only the land itself but also has the rights to our fruits. Forever it has just been passed down and down to generation after generation. All credit does, indeed, go to the Big Man upstairs though. Just as he brought it into this world, he still owns it. Keep in mind He created it out of nothing.

        Even though, God, himself has given the rights for anyone to claim it, inequality is taking place amongst our human kind. Every man should be claimers of the soil and fruits that come from the magical entity we call soil. Being the very first person to witness or stumble upon the soil does not certainly own thy soil, but thou is apart of it. Nobody owns it, like our Creator does (page 20, paragraph 2.)

        “…yet that the poorest people who are honest, so long as they remain inhabitants of the earth, are entitled to a certain portion of these profits…” (page 20, paragraph 1.) This is related to that above because on the previous page John talks about how “perfect brotherhood” gets out of order. This is his argument that the rich, indeed, can learn to be good and do what is right. The way to do this is to make sure that the poorest people have their fair share of profits.

        Some people own larger portions of these so called profits, yet it is the rich who own more than the poor. The rich have more of the rights due to the fact that they are, indeed, rich. The poor people have no say in what they get. They take everything with a grain of salt and eventually will settle with what they get. Let us not forget that the “poor” are entitled to what is rightfully theirs, though. God, himself, left them with these portions and John Woolman makes that clear in this passage. Only the people who have big hearts and who are not only concerned about themselves but also for others who are less fortunate, will believe this.

        Many times does John Woolman talk about how we should all care about everyone, especially the poor and how we should care about other children just as much as our own. The connection I am making for this passage is that we need to share our parts or portions of the land. Not only one person or persons own it, but we all, as a universe, as a community, own it.

        I agree in the aspect that our Crucifier will always own the earth and soil and land. With that being said, I also agree with John Woolman when he said we all need to share it though. The poor, as sad as it is, does get ripped off by a lot of people. We see “poor” people and we immediately get these stereotypes in our heads. “They are dirty,” “We are so much better than them,” “We should be getting way more money than them,” these are just examples of stereotypes that are typical in people today.