Letter: Blessed out of house and home

Blessed out of house and home

My letter about Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers in the church of Wall Street (“Easter economics,” Letters to the Editor, The Aspen Times, April 1) seems to have raised the ire, and the name-calling, of Chad Klinger, referring to me as an eco-utopian Marxist (“Easter heresy,” Letters to the Editor, The Aspen Times, April 2).

I’d like to remind Klinger that the words I’d written — that we can no longer trust in the invisible hand of the market, that unfettered capitalism is a tyranny, an economic system destined to suffocate hope, turning man into a slave — are quotes from the pope! You know, the pope, that no-good commie so-and-so.

The fact that the Walton kids are worth $140 billion while their workers are on food stamps doesn’t seem to bother Chad. Or that the CEO of Starbucks speaks out against a $15 minimum wage while paying himself $9,000 an hour. This kind of income gap is not a problem in the gospels according to Fox, where capitalism can do no wrong. Well, I think Jesus would be pissed off and raising hell if he were around today. But that’s just my opinion.

Klinger wishes to remind the poor that they’re better off than the kings and queens of medieval times. Keep that in mind when you’re struggling to feed your family or facing foreclosure. At least you’ve got a TV and a toilet and you’re free of the black plague. So take heart, you poor bastards, because as Chad interprets it, just by being poor and meek, you’re “already blessed beyond the wildest imaginings of the 1 percent.” Wow. Sean Hannity couldn’t have said it any better.

Steve Saylor

Carbondale