I'm willing to entertain any ideas for social programs, but to me, they have to have these kind of guidelines. They've got to be, how shall I say it? First of all, they have to be affordable, they have to be sustainable, and they have to be effective. But how many times does the government get involved with stuff and it's just a money pit? There's no evaluation for effectiveness.
That all gets kind of lost along the way. It's like, no, that's supposed to be a package deal. If you're going to be responsible with taxpayer money, you have to do it that way.
But then I think of the Eastlake community outside of Atlanta there, where the community and corporations came together to put together a plan that basically transformed that area. And then that was copied in some other cities across the country, but not enough to me. Now, why wasn't it? It's probably because politicians are territorial.
They want to come up with their ideas, but they can't do it. So why reinvent the wheel when Eastlake has been pretty successful with what they did? I don't know why that isn't a model for a lot of the other urban cities across the country. On the one hand, you may feel like you're a youthful idiot, but I don't know you should punish yourself that way.
It's not one extreme or the other, because those of us who are Christians, we're Christians who just happen to be community activists or involved with our community. We don't lose our identity as Christians. And that's what helps, I think, keeps us kind of more focused and not get crazy with our ideas where it becomes like a money hole and it's not effective and stuff like that.
With God on our side, we should be able to come up with programs and different, to me, it's ministry to help the people who are in need. Amen. Go ahead, Doctor.
I have arrived to this conclusion that we take Jesus to the people who are in need and they can help themselves. Amen. I love it.
