The Common Good March-April 2003  Hey You, Listen Up!  by Thomas
Cahill | March-April 2003  A Bible study  Let me tell you about
a society of peace and prosperity that existed long ago. In this
society, many people had much more than they needed. The
construction business was experiencing an unprecedented boom;
elaborate wine cellars and even personal vineyards were in
vogue. All the markets were buzzing; the communications,
entertainment, and travel industries had never enjoyed such
escalating profits.  The men and women of this society—at least
the ones who luxuriated properly—would have been shocked to hear
that there were some in their midst who enjoyed none of these
pleasures, people leading lives of quiet desperation. The people
on the hilltops would have been greatly offended had anyone
dared suggest that the dispossessed were their
responsibility—that, in fact, it was their uncaring wealth that
was responsible for the plight of the invisible poor.  The scene
I have set is not in the Hamptons or Marin