I read with interest a story about a group that is knitting sweaters for penguins in Australia. It seems that when penguins swim through an oil slick the oil causes their feathers to tangle and when that happens their feathers lose their insulating quality and the penguins get cold. This group calls on proficient knitters to knit sweaters for the penguins and even sends downloadable patterns so the knitters can be sure the sweaters are the right size. How sweet.

Every day in every medium to large-sized city in America you can see children with inadequate clothing, and in the winter you can see them without a warm jacket. I have to ask just what has happened to our priorities. I am sorry, but as far as I am concerned until every child has warm, adequate clothing every skein of yarn spent sewing a penguin sweater is a sin. The fact that we find penguins more important – doubtless because they are “cute” and most people wealthy enough to waste money knitting sweaters don’t find urban children “cute” because their skin is the wrong color or they aren’t trendy enough or don’t bathe often enough or God knows what else – is nothing less than sinful. That’s a word that’s fallen out of favor over the past few decades, but it still applies in situations like this, and we need to be honest enough to use it.