The need in Butler County is substantial. So is the spirit of giving.

Scan the daily bulletin board in the Butler Eagle’s Focus section, and you’ll see a different church organization sponsoring a free meal every night of the week, Monday through Saturday. There’s a free lunch every weekday, too, thanks to the Salvation Army, a social dynamo that counts itself first and foremost a church.

This is not an accidental arrangement: Our churches work together to feed hundreds of the less fortunate among us on a consistent basis.

In their collective generosity to the poor, Butler’s churches resemble the godly woman in chapter 31 of the Book of Proverbs: “She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy.”

It is not easy to sustain such a generous feeding program, and no doubt the participating congregations and their supporters — both contributors and volunteers — feel the strain from time to time. A simple “thank-you” would lighten their load, but the truth is, people who really need that free meal usually forget to say thanks. Trapped in the bigger picture of their circumstance, they tend not to see the hand of kindness right in front of them.

Well, the rest of us should see that hand of kindness and acknowledge it. Let us be the first in line to praise our generous churches, as the Proverbs 31 husband praises his virtuous wife: “Many have done well, but you excel them all.”

Jeer The quagmire of dysfunction got a little deeper last week in Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is attempting tax reform.“America’s tax code is broken,” committee Chairman Max Baucus and Senior GOP member Orrin Hatch wrote to fellow senators, reminding them the last major tax reform was in 1986, and there have been more than 15,000 revisions since then. “The result is a tax base riddled with exclusions, deductions and credits. In addition, each year, it costs individuals and businesses more than $160 billion to comply with the tax code. The complexity, inefficiency and unfairness of the tax code are acting as a brake on our economy.”Baucus, D-Mont., and Hatch, of Utah, proposed a “blank slate” process — toss the existing act and start from scratch. They invited senators to offer specific suggestions for the new act.That was the last week of June. When their July 26 deadline for submissions approached and few Senators had yet to offer ideas, they pledged confidentiality — for 50 years.“Sens. Baucus and Hatch are going out of their way to assure their colleagues they will keep the submissions in confidence,” a finance committee aide explained. That’s probably because the blank-slate process puts the onus on Senators to argue which credits and deductions should be put back on that blank slate.Senators also are under enormous pressure from lobbyists who are working overtime to protect clients and their special tax provisions. It would not be beneath a K Street lobbyist to leak a Senator’s secret proposal if that served the interests of a client — a blackmail-like scenario.The end result is a reform with potential to cut federal spending by $1 trillion a year, held hostage by a governing process that promotes gridlock, intrigue and back room deals.

Cheer Many thanks to local historian Bill May and Butler City Council for inaugurating an annual awards program to recognize historical restorations.City Council presented Butler’s first Preservation Awards July 25, recognizing Joe Gray’s work restoring the old Farmers National Bank building on Main Street and Brian and Toni Fell for restoring their home at 220 E. Pearl St.May came to city council with the idea of the two awards, which are to be given annually for commercial and residential buildings that promote the preservation of historic property.“Welcome to Historic Downtown Butler,” says the sign at the city gates. May reminds us it takes upkeep to maintain the claim on that sign.An attractive city boosts everyone’s morale; it also boosts the economy and enhances the real estate values. As May said during the awards presentation, “We promote historic preservation not for the feeling of nostalgia. We promote historic preservation because it leads to economic development.”But restoration and preservation signal something else about a community. It’s an expression of roots; a way of saying it’s worthwhile living here. Beautification becomes its own incentive and sets its own standard above and beyond the bare-bones minimum of code enforcement.The awards are a drop of honey in a vinegar world. No, the city can’t abandon the vinegar-threat of penalties for code violations, but the Preservation Awards provide that drop of honey known as positive reinforcement.