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conulySo here's this article on how a new law requires the USDA, when supplying food pantries, to send some food that is halal and kosher, provided it doesn't cost more than the same food that is NOT halal and kosher.
Seems reasonable to me. It's pretty awful when disaster strikes and you can't find any food you can eat.
Of course, some people take the innocent-sounding phrase "beggars can't be choosers" and turn it into some sort of dictate: how awful can we make it for beggars to rub in the fact that they don't get to choose?
"If you're not hungry enough to eat regular food, I guess you're not in such bad shape."
This isn't about the choice between an apple and some potato chips, dude! Yes, both Jews and Muslims are supposed to go with the otherwise-forbidden food if it's a matter of life and death, but if it costs the same, why should they have to?
You see the same sort of comments when people talk about preferences at soup kitchens. If cabbage soup costs the same as potato soup, but everybody loves one and hates the other, what sort of crappy charity is running the place that you sniff at them and insist on serving the one they all hate anyway?
"Beggars can't be choosers" isn't a phrase that allows you to justify treating fellow humans in a crappy way just because they aren't in a position to refuse.
Seems reasonable to me. It's pretty awful when disaster strikes and you can't find any food you can eat.
Of course, some people take the innocent-sounding phrase "beggars can't be choosers" and turn it into some sort of dictate: how awful can we make it for beggars to rub in the fact that they don't get to choose?
"If you're not hungry enough to eat regular food, I guess you're not in such bad shape."
This isn't about the choice between an apple and some potato chips, dude! Yes, both Jews and Muslims are supposed to go with the otherwise-forbidden food if it's a matter of life and death, but if it costs the same, why should they have to?
You see the same sort of comments when people talk about preferences at soup kitchens. If cabbage soup costs the same as potato soup, but everybody loves one and hates the other, what sort of crappy charity is running the place that you sniff at them and insist on serving the one they all hate anyway?
"Beggars can't be choosers" isn't a phrase that allows you to justify treating fellow humans in a crappy way just because they aren't in a position to refuse.
