Hey, Pal! YOU Are MY Brother's Keeper!

     "I am my brother's keeper!" Mr. Obama intoned in Denver when he accepted the Democratic nomination for president.  "I am my sister's keeper!"  Bravo.  Then be your brother's keeper.  Mr. Obama's brother, it is known, lives in a hut somewhere in Kenya.  Or be your aunt's keeper.  One of Mr. Obama's aunts, one upon whom he has lavished praise in his self-launching book, has lived in tenement in Boston the last five years.  A little less praise and a little more cash might have done better.  He doesn't want me to be my brother's keeper.  He wants me to be his brother's keeper.

     But what does that mean, to be a keeper?  When Cain shot back at the Lord God that first teenage question, "Am I my brother's keeper?", he had of course just murdered Abel.  He desired the alienation that his question implies.  In his snideness Cain reduces the relationship of brother to brother to that of brother to keeper.  Sheep are kept; children are minded; men are not.  That at least seems to be Cain's unspoken assumption.  Now the Lord does not reply that Cain is his brother's "keeper."  He ignores the reply entirely.  He tells Cain that his brother's blood cries out to him from the ground.  He never wanted Cain to be his brother's keeper.  He wanted him to be his brother's brother.

     A brother is a great deal more than a keeper -- and also a much different thing, too.  The keeper and the kept have, in that one regard, no mutual relationship.  Indeed, the keeper can only keep by reducing the kept to a ward (which means, literally, someone who is kept care of, guarded), or to a sheep.  If I am to be my brother's brother, I mind what may harm him, yet I also expect from him the acts of a brother: I am my brother's brother.  If I give my brother -- not my client, my ward, my case number 11543, my sheep -- some money wherewithal to secure a loan on a house, I will expect my brother -- not my client, my ward, my case number 11543, my sheep -- to give me a kind of brotherly retribution.  I'm not thinking of money here, not at all.  I'm thinking of the added responsibility he must assume, because it is his brother's money he has taken; the added diligence he will apply to his work, lest my loan prove to have been in vain; the gratitude he should feel and show; and the lesson he will learn, should some other brother of ours need a hand in times of trouble.

     And it is just because I want to be my brother's brother -- and a distant brother to people in need whom I did not grow up with -- that I am suspicious of the massive government takeover of what should have been charity.  Then, you do not have brothers giving to brothers, but person A ordering person B to cough up money to A's brother C, after filtering it through A's political allies D and E.  I do not want Mr. Obama to be my brother's keeper, or to be anybody's keeper at all, unless we are talking about the mentally retarded and the insane.  I want him to be his brother's brother; let him start there.  Then he can be his aunt's nephew.  Meanwhile, he can leave me the wherewithal to give to my brothers.  I do this in several ways.  At the end of the month, when I'm writing out the bills, I go over all appeals to my charity, and choose the ones I think will use the money best.  But I also spread some wealth in my neighbor's way by hiring him to do work that does not absolutely need to be done, but that I would like done, which I cannot do myself.  That is a community service that no one will recognize; just as children pushed through leftist community service programs get credit for showing up, grudgingly and with their pants sagging, at the soup kitchen, but none whatsoever if they fetch the groceries for the old lady next door, or help to coach the Little League team, or mow the lawn for their own family.  But then it is no surprise that people who would nationalize business have no use for private charity, either.

     Mr. Obama, I do not want to keep anyone, or to be kept by anyone.  I am a man, not a sheep.  I do not desire low taxes so that I can avoid my responsibility to keep my brother.  I want the lower taxes precisely so that I can best fulfill my desire to be a brother.  And by the way, don't you think you could buy your aunt something better to walk with than a metal stick?

Comments

[Matt Beatty]

Well done, Tony. Nice work.

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

Tony: "If I am to be my brother's brother, I mind what may harm him, yet I also expect from him the acts of a brother: I am my brother's brother."

Q: Tony (and for all other Touchstone commenters), do you consider Senator Barack Obama your brother in Christ?

[Tony Esolen]

TUAD,

I don't know. This has nothing to do with his politics. I know a lot of people I'd consider brethren in Christ, who are nevertheless deeply confused (maybe culpably confused) about a lot of things, like killing the least of these little ones. Mr. Obama does not talk about Christ except when turning him into a shill for practical political purposes. That bothers me. I believe I may be in the presence of somebody for whom everything is instrumental toward bringing about some liberationist utopia. It is a kind of blasphemy that otherwise very noble people can fall prey to. See Father Straik in That Hideous Strength. I don't know, that's all. I'd give you the same response if you asked me about Hillary Clinton. I don't know. Al Gore? From some of the things he's said, I doubt it. Bill Clinton? Actually, I think so. I think he is a Christian -- a very bad one, no doubt. Nancy Pelosi? Yes, I think so; stupid, unfaithful, confused, presumptuous, and disobedient, but yes, I think she believes that Jesus is her savior. I do know that an avowed atheist could never be elected president, and that means, if you have presidential ambitions, you have to get yourself a church. It is possible that we have had a genuine atheist for president (Jefferson was not one, I'm persuaded), but we won't know, since it would have been political suicide to reveal it. I do believe, from what I know about it, which is not a whole lot, that liberationist theology is at least quasi-atheist, with its materialist assumptions and its turning the liberation of man into the real Christ who is to come.

[Francesca]

We really don't know what, if anything, Barack Obama does for his brother in Kenya. I do know, from people who work with African charities, that it's very difficult to send money to Kenya. Many people don't have bank accounts, so you have to contact them to collect the money in cash at a post office, and it's hard to contact them because many don't have phones and mail is unreliable. It's also clear that the knives are coming out more viciously for Barack as he leads in the polls with election day approaching:-(

However, here's a story in which Obama clear was "his sister's keeper."

In 1988, newly-wed Mary Andersen was at the Miami airport checking in for a long flight to Norway to be with her husband. The airline representative then informed her that she wouldn’t be able to check her luggage without paying a $103 surcharge. She had no money, her husband had traveled on ahead of her to Norway, and, with tears streaming down her cheeks, she tried to decide what she could jettison. Then she heard a “gentle and friendly voice” behind her saying, “That’s okay, I’ll pay for her.” Behind her was a man she'd never seen before. She thanked him repeatedly, they waved goodbye, and she paid him back when she got to Norway. Almost 20 years later, she read about the same man in the newspapers and wrote to him. He replied on senatorial writing paper.

That man was Barack Obama. At that time he had just finished his job as a poorly paid community worker in Chicago, and had started his law studies at prestigious Harvard university. $103 was probably quite a lot of money to him back then.

Anyone here really want to cast the first stone about this man's lack of Christian charity?

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>That man was Barack Obama. At that time he had just finished his job as a poorly paid community worker in Chicago<<<

Drinking your own bathwater, again? Obama, the "poorly paid community organizer", was pulling down close to $40 K a year when he left his poorly paying job in 1988. Using the official deflator, that amounts to $62,500 in 2008 dollars. By way of comparison, I, a highly paid defense analyst, made $40,000 a year in 1988. Barack and I were either both doing pretty well, or were both equally impoverished. Take your choice.

[Stuart Koehl]

Anyone else notice that these Obama stories have a lot of similarities to the most lugubrious (and improbable) hagiographies?

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Anyone here really want to cast the first stone about this man's lack of Christian charity?<<<

THWACK!!! Where can I get a bigger rock?

[Janet]

What difference does it make in our vote if Obama is or is not a Christian? His views on life, family, etc. are not. He proudly promises to do things that will greatly expand the culture of death in our country.

I don't place any stock in the past personal stories for good or ill that come out about him. You never know through what distortions or filters they have come.

I just know that if he is elected, more babies will die.

[Rob G]

How did I know, after reading only 2 or 3 sentences of her post, that the author of it was Francesca before I even scrolled down to see?

Thanks for the financials, Stuart. In 1988 I was newly married, and teaching in a small Christian school, making about $18,000.00. My then-wife worked in the billing department of a local hospital and made about the same. We were by no means "poor," but we did have to watch what we spent, pinch pennies, etc. Back in those days, if I'd have been making $40K, I'd have thought I was rich!

[Clifford Simon]

Since Francesca's here, does she (or anyone) know whether Mr. Obama has fulfilled his promise - which I saw him make on TV on the day of his clinching the party nomination - to pay off Mrs. Clinton's campaign debt for her? He certainly has the means to do so now.

If he has kept the promise, that would garner him some praise from me, regardless that I oppose him on other significant grounds.

[DGP]

>>I do know, from people who work with African charities, that it's very difficult to send money to Kenya.

I'm off topic, but it's very easy to send money. Try Western Union. Most folks in Kenya know about it, and even with the high international fees it's much safer and cheaper than banks or the PO.

Now back on topic: For the reasons Prof. Esolen so eloquently recounts, every man ought to be his brother's brother. I want POTUS to be his brother's *protector.* Let him keep the peace and defend the country. That is his first job, and likely the only one he'll manage with any degree of justice. Other goods he pursues he'll likely bungle as much as anyone else attempting them.

[holmegm]

You know, I never really noticed that before, but Cain is paralleling the serpent here, exaggerating God's demands.

Cain's crime is certainly not "failing to be his brother's keeper", any more than Adam's crime is eating "any" fruit in the Garden. Good call, Mr. Esolen!

[Judy K. Warner]

>>I do know, from people who work with African charities, that it's very difficult to send money to Kenya. <<

But Obama has gone to Kenya. He interfered in their elections not too long ago. He could have set up an account for his brother when he was there. Or he could give money to his Auntie, who is reported to go back and forth to Kenya frequently, to give to his brother. She's part of the illegal-American community for Obama, by the way.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>I'm off topic, but it's very easy to send money. Try Western Union. Most folks in Kenya know about it, and even with the high international fees it's much safer and cheaper than banks or the PO.<<<

There are many Kenyans in the Washington area. They seem to have no problem sending remittances home.

[Phil]

Excellent essay Dr. Esolen. Reminds me of The Forgotten Man by W.G. Sumner. It also reminds me of John 10:13..."The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." That seems to me to fit your definition of a keeper. Do not expect from Obama what he cannot give.

[Francesca]

>>I'm off topic, but it's very easy to send money. Try Western Union. <<

To repeat myself: "Many people don't have bank accounts, so you have to contact them to collect the money in cash at a post office, and it's hard to contact them because many don't have phones and mail is unreliable."

I have some experience in this area. It's often difficult to contact the would-be recipient. Further, the social problems in Kenya are absolutely overwhelming. In transferring money, one sometimes has to be sure to bypass the family member who is alcoholic or drug-addicted, which is often a complicated process.

George Obama says he is angered by the media reports, that he's happy in Kenya, and that he is rooting for his half-brother. He adds, "I was brought up well. I live well even now. The magazines, they have exaggerated everything ... There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you [the reporter] come from, there are the same challenges."

I note that nobody here has acknowledged Obama's obvious warm-heartedness and generosity in loaning money to a complete stranger, yet several here seem very comfortable passing judgment on the souls of both him and others, even when they don't know the facts about George Obama.

I would think "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" applies to would-be "gods" who willingly subvert facts to ideology and liberally anoint themselves with "godly" powers of insight and judgment. Sadly, religiosity seems so often to degenerate to that sort of self-identification with God, in apparent violation of the First Commandment, rather than with mere follower.

[DGP]

>>I have some experience in this area.

I have more than a little, myself.

>>It's often difficult to contact the would-be recipient.

Nowadays, they have pretty good cell phone service there. It can't be too hard, if you're willing to spring for a phone.

>>Further, the social problems in Kenya are absolutely overwhelming.

They are less whelming than almost anywhere else outside of the western world.

>>In transferring money, one sometimes has to be sure to bypass the family member who is alcoholic or drug-addicted, which is often a complicated process.

But of course, one has that problem sending money anywhere, or even keeping it at home.

I have no beef with how Sen. Obama cares for his family members. I do not ask him to send a monthly check. I only note that if he believes in sending monthly checks, he ought not be excused by the alleged difficulty of getting money to Kenya. If he can't handle such a simple task, one shudders to think how he'll manage the SSA.

[Stuart Koehl]

The trouble, Francesca, with people like you and Barack Obama, is you would rather look good and feel good than be good and do good.

And I note again, the large Kenyan population in the DC Metro area has no problem getting remittances back home. Remittances to Kenya, in fact, dwarf foreign aid payments, as shown in this Kenyan news article:

February 22, 2006 - 10:00,
The East African (Nairobi), Philip Ngunjiri
Remittances Dwarf Aid, Investment in Kenya

http://allafrica.com/stories/200602210786.html

Kenyans in the diaspora are contributing an equivalent of 3.8 per cent of national income through remittances.

In the year 2004, for instance, Kenyans living and working abroad remitted about Ksh35 billion ($464 million), which overshadows the net foreign direct investment (FDI) of Ksh3.6 billion ($50.4 million), which accounted for 0.41 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.

"Migration is an important issue in Kenya, with the country both a significant destination and a source of migrants," said Francis Mwega of the Department of Economics at the University of Nairobi during the launch of the World Bank's 2006 Global Economic Prospects report in Nairobi.

In 2004, said Mr Mwega, net official development aid (ODA) to Kenya was about $200 million, or about 2 per cent of GDP. "Remittances were therefore about nine times the size of net FDI and about twice the size of net ODA."
At its peak in 1990, the country received $1.6 billion in ODA, which was about 20 per cent of GDP.

Remittances may also have adverse macro effects, he added. "These effects may include the possibility of Dutch disease, with the remittances appreciating the real exchange rate and undermining the production of cost-sensitive tradeables such as cash crops and manufactured goods."

This problem may however be minor as remittances are distributed widely among households.

According to the report, inter-national "brain drain" can boost the wealth of migrants as well as the countries they originate from. If remittance policies are improved, migration can be of all-round benefit.

This year's edition, entitled, "The Economic Implications of Remittances and Migration," focused on the flow of international migrant remittances and improving their development impact. It presented available data on migration flows and examined current thinking on issues pertaining to migration and its development impact.

Officially recorded remittances worldwide exceeded $232 billion in 2005. Of this, developing countries received $167 billion, more than twice the level of development aid from all sources. The GEP authors suggest that remittances sent through informal channels could add at least 50 per cent to the official estimate, making remittances the largest source of external capital in many developing countries.

Despite the emphasis on remittances from developed countries, remittances sent from developing countries - the so-called "South-South flows" - represent 30-45 per cent of total remittances.

The report also forecasts that economic growth in developing countries will slow to 5.9 per cent this year, and to 5.7 per cent in 2006, down from 6.8 per cent in 2004.
Developing economies will continue to grow at historically high rates, and more than twice as fast as high-income economies. Economic growth in the latter is also expected to slow from 3.1 per cent growth in 2004 to around 2.5 per cent in 2005 and 2006.

The report presented evidence that an increase in migrants that raises the work force in high-income countries by three per cent by 2025 could increase global real income by 0.6 per cent, or $356 billion. Such an increase in migrant stock would be in line with the migration trend observed during the past three decades.

"The relative gains are much higher for developing-country households than rich-country households, rivalling potential gains from global reform of merchandise trade," the authors concluded.

The report proposes that developing countries seek agreements with countries to which their nationals migrate, to improve the conditions under which they cross borders, seek and maintain employment, and send a part of their earnings home.
Analysis of household surveys indicates that remittances have been associated with significant declines in poverty in several low-income countries, including Uganda (11 per cent), Bangladesh (six per cent) and Ghana (5 per cent). In addition, remittances appear to help households maintain their consumption levels through economic shocks and adversity.

They are also associated with increased household investments in education and health, as well as increased entrepreneurship. These conclusions are borne out by findings of a recent World Bank research study, International Migration, Remittances and the Brain Drain, co-edited by Caglar Ozden and Maurice Schiff.
The report estimated that remittances reduced the number of people living in absolute poverty in Kenya.

Further, migration relieves labour market pressures by reducing unemployment and increasing domestic wages.

"This effect may however be minor in Kenya since only a small share of the labour force (about 15 per cent) is in formal wage employment, with many of them employed in the public sector, the report says.

******

I can hardly believe that a man who can walk on water, heal the cripples, make the blind man see, and bring peace to the whole world as a first term Senator, somehow lacks the acumen to send a few bucks to his indigent brother in Africa. The fact remains that in every thing he has ever done, Obama exhibits a degree of selfishness and self-centeredness that beggars description. The man is a megalomaniac, pure and simple, and it is equally amazing that so many people just can't seem to see this.

Perhaps it has something to do with the notion that a man who does not believe in God will believe in anything.

[Francesca]

>>I only note that if he believes in sending monthly checks, he ought not be excused by the alleged difficulty of getting money to Kenya.<<

You don't even know whether or not he sends money to his Kenyan relatives. You don't know whether or not it would be a good idea to send money directly to his half-brother, who may have issues with alcoholism for all we know. It can be very hard to contact people in Kenya. Cell phones get cut off if the bills are not paid. Not everyone has ready access to email. I can speak to personal experience of a situation in which it has been extremely difficult to get money to a particular person, a child needing an operation, without relatives taking bites along the way. The money disappears and donors are told "it wasn't enough." An effort was put together to raise a trust fund to fly the child out of Kenya for the surgery, but her grandmother, who is looking after a hoarde of grandchildren whose parents have been shot, died of AIDS, are lost to alcoholism, etc., doesn't want to let her go. The problems there are outside nomal experience. None of us knows the specifics of the Obama case.

I'm surprised that people can harp on so obsessively about this situation, with absolutely no knowledge of the facts and knowing that the original story is false, but can't bring themselves to comment positively on what Obama did for Mary Andersen. Obviously there is no sincere attempt to be objective here -- only a search for weak excuses to pour out visceral hatred. I don't know why there is such a pressing need to do so. Obama appears to be an unusually empathetic and pro-social person who will help drag this country out of the mire and will improve life for millions. I hope people can put aside their bitterness and at least try to work with him on achieving some targetable goals, such as reducing abortion rates and extending decent health care to all.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>You don't even know whether or not he sends money to his Kenyan relatives<<<

It's pretty much been conceded by the campaign that he doesn't. The fact that his brother lives in a hut on a dollar a day, and has publicly complained that Obama knoweth him not, ought to be enough even for you.

I noticed that you totally ignored what a Kenyan newspaper said about the prevalence of remittances in the Kenyan economy. So I only want to note that what Lawrence Eagleberger said yesterday about Obama seems to apply to many of his acolytes:

"He's a charlatan and a fraud, a liar, totally dishonest and without honor".

I am certainly glad someone said that in a public forum. I guess Larry Eagleberger has reached that enviable point in his career where he has nothing to prove and doesn't give a damn what he says to anybody.

[DGP]

>>None of us knows the specifics of the Obama case.

I never claimed to know. I don't particularly want to know. I called attention only to the absurdity of your defense -- it's hard to get money to Kenya -- offered on behalf of a U.S. senator, one of the most powerful men in the world.

When and if Sen. Obama is POTUS, there will be other excuses, countless excuses, for not doing good. It seems safe to assume we will be treated with similar limp apologies, again and again: "President Obama would have saved the world, if only...."

[Stuart Koehl]

Apparently, Obama is not is auntie's keeper, either. This woman, whom the Big O described in one of his self-laudatory screeds as one of the most influential people in his life, is living in run-down public housing in Boston. Not that this hasn't kept her from contributing a few hundred to her darling nephew's campaign coffers.

Of course, the woman is here illegally, under a deportation order, and is thus, technically, a fugitive from justice, which might just explain why Barry isn't going out of his way for her (though how she managed to stay in the country, and how she qualified for Boston public housing assistance, is an interesting question. Maybe Barry's friend Deval Patrick knows?). Now that the whole thing has gone public, Obama is doing something for his aunt after all--he's having his campaign return the $256 she contributed, since "non-citizens" cannot contribute to U.S. political campaigns. Oh, and he's having his buddies investigate who divulged the location of auntie. As if the location of a wanted fugitive should not be public knowledge.

[Stuart Koehl]

So why did the Times of London manage to find Obama's aunt, when the New York Times, the LA Times, the Washington Post, and, of course, the Boston Globe could not? Easy--it looked, they didn't:

November 3, 2008
How The Times followed a trail to find Barack Obama’s aunt

Ben Macintyre and James Bone in Boston
The trail that led to “Aunt Zeituni”, the relative of Barack Obama who was traced by The Times last week, started with Mr Obama’s memoir, one of the most widely read political autobiographies of all time.

The Democrat campaign has implied that the story might have come from Republican sources – “the American people are ... pretty suspicious of things that are dumped in the marketplace 72 hours before a campaign,” said Mr Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod yesterday.

In fact, the story came from a book that has been read by millions, including just about everyone connected to the Obama campaign.

Dreams From My Father was first published in 1995, and the story of how Mr Obama returned to Kenya in 1988 to trace his roots has become the cornerstone of his political biography. Yet the US media appears to have overlooked the passage indicating that at least one relative of Mr Obama’s had moved to America and might still be there.

Two thirds of the way through the book Mr Obama’s half-sister talked about Africans who had emigrated to the West and were never heard of again, “like our Uncle Omar, in Boston . . . They’ve been lost, you see”.

A few pages later Mr Obama meets his step-grandmother, Sarah, for the first time in the village of Kogelo. On the walls of her hut are photographs of Omar, “the uncle who had left for America 25 years ago and never came back”. Touchingly, she asks the future presidential candidate if he has any news of Omar, her son and Mr Obama’s half-uncle.

“She asked if I had seen him, and I had to say no,” Mr Obama wrote. “She grunted something in Luo, then started to gather up our cups. ‘She says when you see him, you should tell him she wants nothing from him,’ Auma [Mr Obama’s half-sister] whispered. ‘Only that he should come visit his mother’.”

These brief references appeared to indicate that Omar Obama might have moved to the US in the mid1960s, at about the same time that his half-brother, Barack Hussein Obama Senior, went to Hawaii, where he met Ann Dunham, the mother of Mr Obama.

Those intriguing passages in Mr Obama’s book were first investigated by The Times during a visit to Kenya in September to interview members of the family, including “Granny Sarah”. Inquiries as to the current whereabouts of Omar elicited only vague responses – and even the suggestion, from a full brother of the missing man, that no such person existed.

This triggered a six-week search, one that would lead eventually to Boston and to Aunt Zeituni. Public record searches found traces of O. Onyango Obama, Uncle Omar’s real name, in Boston. A friend and a former landlady said that he now uses the name Obama Onyango.

In the course of searching for Uncle Omar The Times found a Zeituni Onyango, who also played a prominent part in Mr Obama’s book.

In the memoir Auntie Zeituni, Uncle Omar’s sister, explained the family’s complex family tree to the future presidential candidate, introduced him to other relatives and fed him a herbal remedy for an upset stomach.

At that time Auntie Zeituni had been working at Kenya Breweries. Inquiries about her whereabouts also met a blank response from the family, however.

The Times called the Zeituni Onyango in Boston three times. The first time a woman said that she “went to California”. The second time a woman said: “She died last summer.” The third time a woman said in French that she did not know her at that address.

On visiting the housing estate, however, neighbours confirmed that she was indeed the “Auntie Zeituni” in Mr Obama’s book – as she eventually confirmed herself.

Uncle Omar has still not been found.

It was not until Wednesday evening that The Times obtained a formal identification of Ms Onyango by George Hussein, Mr Obama’s half-brother who had known her throughout his childhood.

Whatever the Democrat campaign may imply, there is nothing suspicious about the story or its timing. The only mystery, perhaps, is how so many people read Mr Obama’s book in the US without wondering what might have happened to the mysterious relative, lost in America.

[astatum]

I find it odd that so many people who supposedly care so deeply about the needs of others can spend so much time arguing over superfluous issues such as these. Stop patronizing each other and go out and actually do something to serve others.

[Kamilla]

"go out and actually do something to serve others"

Uhm, we do that as well.

Kamilla

[dissertation write up]

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[write a dissertation]

Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!