The Enemy Within Is Not Terroism

Commenting on Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill yesterday Senator Slotkin from Michigan said: “Terrorism is not the biggest threat to the USA. It is the huge gap between the rich and the poor. The Middle Class has shrunk!” I have been writing this thought in my blogs many times. The problem is that there is a blind spot in Congress and in many other politicians in our nation. They don’t see it because far too many of them have not been in the have nots world. You must have direct experience with the world of the have nots to understand.

The Inquirer had a story about this issue on June 27, 2025. In essence the article indicated that “the 1% increased by 33.9 trillion since 2025 according to Oxfam. This is more than enough to solve poverty 22 times over.” It is also an issue in the world as we witness the protests of Bezos’ and Sachez’s wedding in Venice. The haves don’t see this because as I wrote once in a quote from Coach Wilkinson that “many captains of industry were born on third base and think that they have hit a triple.”

The last person who could be sensitive to the issue of classism is Trump. The book, Caste, by Isabel Wilkinson gives a clear picture of the issue.

Some personal observations are indicated here. I recently wrote about Conshohocken where I grew up.  It went from a town surviving to one now thriving. Not many people know some of the stories I will share with you although many know my story because I was a Chaplain of a wonderful school. I was standing on the deck of our home on the Chesapeake during a gathering of Vicki’s friends who were involved in cancer  clinical trials. One of her friends looked out on the Chesapeake Bay from my deck at a view that would take your breath away. She looked at me straight in the eye, and asked, “How did you go from there, as she knew Conshohocken when it was a place to survive, to here?” I couldn’t answer her question which inspired my writing of my memoir to make sense of it all.

When I first applied to go into the process to become ordained, the Bishop of the Diocese then in a short meeting said, “No! You don’t have enough real world experience.” My cousin, an Episcopal priest, who was a mentor lost it. Because it was obvious that the Bishop had not read my file, my cousin said strongly, “You have had too much real-world experience.” He called the bishop a limousine liberal, and he didn’t change his mind. The next bishop became one of my closest friends and arranged for us to buy the land on which we would build a home on the Chesapeake Bay.  He taught all my family members how to sail. After the rejection to enter the ordination process, I went to grad school at night and taught in the Philadelphia School System as a sub. When I returned to the bishop a year later, he reluctantly accepted me saying, “You will just be back if I don’t let you into the process. I told him that I would.” I didn’t feel welcomed by that exchange.

Next stop was Berkeley at Yale. I was fine academically, but I was a fish out of water in a new culture. While those classmates who were affluent protested many injustices I was in the library. But during vacation, they returned to their mansions. I had no place to go but to the library. When parish assignments were scheduled to expose us to cultures unlike where we grew up, my classmates were thrilled to go to churches in impoverished areas. My best friend at Yale grew up in Harlem. We were sent to Darien, Connecticut. He was a gifted academician. When we were invited to lunches there, we were asked where we prepped as both of us had great language skills. I told people I had gone to the Alan Wood (a steel mill) School. They hadn’t heard of it but thought it must be a great place.

After Duke I was called to be an assistant in a parish in Swarthmore just opposite the college.  Obviously, our congregation contained its representation from the college. It was seven years of swinging through an intellectual jungle gym. Education can also be its own form of elitism. Every sermon was critiqued. I was thrilled to be there. I loved every minute of the challenging place and while there I worked to start a counseling center in Chester for those who otherwise couldn’t get that support, the have nots.

After Swarthmore I arrived what felt like home at EA. That may surprise you.  Think education! How lucky was I. I knew first-hand how the haves and have nots have the same soul. I have great friends in both worlds.

Two anecdotes will focus on the bridge that enabled me to reach out to many more in both worlds. One of the wealthiest men on the Mainline came to me for counseling. His problem was that he couldn’t go on vacations, and he was family centered. He grew up in a more challenging situation than me, but he heard about my story from his wife who I knew. He felt that most people would laugh at him for this limitation, but he knew that I wouldn’t. We worked together and he became increasingly able to go away and not feel insecure about the company that he founded while he was away.

Second, one of my friends, Rich Merriman, is the founder of the Pennsylvania Trust, now with Fidelity International. He is empathetic, generous, and lives his Christian values. He is a role model for me. After I retired, he introduced me to Dr. John Crosby, former Superintendent of the Radnor School District. John’s wisdom and courage made Radnor High School one of the best schools in the nation. Our individual stories connected in an uncanny way. We went from surviving to thriving in the same way. He wrote the forward to my third book; This Too Will Pass. After a recent post on quality and quantity of life, he wrote back the following to me: “You grew up with coal in Conshohocken. I grew up with dust in West Texas. Education saved us.”

The enemy within is classism!