"If people don't need each other, they will spend little time together telling stories to each other, and if they don't know one another's stories, how can they know whether or not to trust one another?" -Wendell Berry

"When community is wounded and a culture of individualism takes over, people stop looking out for each other. When this happens, as it has in America, the needs of the poor, the homeless, and the broken go unmet. In the absence of self-sacrificial love for one's neighbor, the government is forced to step in and help. To run these programs, they must tax the people. As it turns out, these government-funded programs are often initiated with good motives but typically produce poor results. Even worse, the person who could be an effective servant and who could be part of the solution for a hurting person is encouraged by these programs to have a mindset that says, 'I pay taxes for the government to take care of this!'--he or she has contracted the disease John Locke calls 'social loafing.' Rigor mortis sets in to our muscles of human justice and kindness; sadly, this kind of sedentary apathy is difficult to reverse in a culture of consumerism." -Randy Frazee