Ummm….. it’s a BIG deal. Impressive.

One minor interesting historical note: I saw just a few minutes of the documentary on Prohibition last night, and heard FDR promising to “balance the Federal budget” if elected. Whether he actually meant it, or just said it to win votes, I suspect that nobody–not Hoover, not FDR, not Santa Claus himself–had any idea how to fix the mess that the U.S. was sliding into.

But FDR was jaunty, and upbeat, and maybe that helped people feel more hopeful.

One last comment, regardless of the debate about the Hoover presidency, one cannot argue that his humanitarian work was outstanding and praisworthy.

I’m thinking there’s still a lot of this going on, for example the annual ‘weeding’ of the beans and the spring and fall maintainance of irrigation pipes (if you ate pinto or lima beans from the Bishop’s Storehouse, the stakes in Northern Colorado probably helped produce those)… and the constant turns at humanitarian canning down at the Aurora Cannery (it was Peaches two weeks ago and Pears just yesterday). The members are still actively involved in getting food out to those in need.

One of the eye opening things for this new RS president is participating in the distribution of goods to folks in need… every other Friday morning it’s almost like a grocery store is set up for two hours in our stake center gym. We work together to unload tons of food from the truck, lay out the items, distribute the orders, and clean up. Poof! Now you see it, now you don’t. And so many people are helped, members and non members both.

It is a good thing.

I really enjoyed watching the show in-between conference sessions about the church welfare system. I knew that the program was huge but seeing some of the production facilities and the produce gathered (come on, that pile of potatoes was almost awe-inspiringly HUGE) really touched me. I have always loved serving in the local Bishop’s Storehouse.

I hear from many people who are in an absolute panic about the economy today who are not members of our church, and I am comforted by the programs we have in place to help others (members and non-members alike).

I am constantly amazed at the good people can do when we get our acts together without fighting about something and do it!

I remember reading Elder Pace’s book which included the story of his investigating how to have the church contribute to Ethiopian relief in the 1980s and determining that Catholic Charities was the right conduit, and how he worried about whether his proposal would be accepted by the brethren. I was glad they were!

My excellent high school history courses gave me a nuanced, appreciative view of Hoover, but I’ll refrain from comparing him to anyone in our current political life.

So, on to humanitarian efforts. The local (ward and branch) efforts are amazing and of great benefit to so many people. My husband is currently serving as ward financial clerk, so I get to see just a bit of what goes on in the ward, and it is truly inspiring.

Someone was complaining recently on one of the blogs about the church welfare system as being greatly inferior to the United Order (or something to that effect), but I am firmly of the opinion that it was established by revelation every bit as much as the systems attempted during the times of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.