All of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, should recognize that, at the end of November, 10.7 million people remained unemployed through no fault of their own, due to COVID-19.
While politicians continue to argue how COVID-related relief should be structured, the fact is that the president recently signed legislation that has three immediate features.
First, stimulus payments of $600 per person (including dependents under 18) are going to households earning less than $150,000 for a two-adult household. Second, the new law extends reduced unemployment bonus payments of $300 per week for 10 weeks. Third, it's extending eviction protection for an additional month.
Yet, as is the case with every plan authored by human beings, questions remain.
• Are all who lost their jobs to COVID-19 shutdowns getting these benefits?
The answer is no. The IRS itself says that 9 million eligible recipients never received the first round of $1,200 stimulus payments. These same 9 million are also at risk of missing the second round!
• Has everyone who gets the new stimulus money been financially impacted by COVID-19?
The answer is no. COVID-19 impacts have not been equally felt among Americans. Those who retained their jobs are far less impacted - and some have done well , even as tens of thousands sought food parcels and are terrified of being evicted from their homes or losing them to foreclosure.
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And that leads to a final question: If we're truly “in this together” fighting the COVID-19 war as a united nation, what can ordinary Americans do to respond to this imperfect legislation?
If you are one of those who has lost their jobs, by all means, you should use the funds and eviction protection as you see fit.
But if you're one of the millions who still work or get uninterrupted retirement income, please display American solidarity and consider any of these possible personal responses, or others in a similar vein. (These few ideas are not meant to be exhaustive.)
• Perhaps you've been touched by images of thousands of cars waiting for hours to get food handouts to combat the hunger induced by COVID-related unemployment. If that's your concern, please donate all or part of your stimulus check to a local food pantry.
• If the sight of homeless people sleeping in doorways or living in tents through this winter season is troubling, consider donating all or part of your stimulus check to a local homeless shelter.
• Perhaps you're troubled by the alarming increase in domestic violence that's spiked as COVID-19's secondary effects affected families. If that's your concern, please donate all or part of your stimulus check to a local domestic violence agency.
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Our individual, small contributions will not solve all of our citizenry's woes. Nor will they substitute for the self-protection measures (masking and social distancing) that we need to maintain until enough of us have been vaccinated that COVID dies its own slow death.
But, together, they can make a difference in individual families' lives.
So whether you follow the teaching of Moses, Jesus, Mohammad (PBUH), or the Buddha, or you simply lead an ethical life demands compassionate behavior), please - if your means allow you to do so, allocate all, or a portion, of your forth-coming stimulus check to acts of support for suffering fellow citizens.
Do it for them.
Do it for yourself.
And do it for whatever you find holy.