I was watching CNN  this afternoon and, I kid you not, they did a story with the headline, "Homeless Couple Has Dream Wedding."

Are you kidding me? 

I tried very hard to approach this story with the charitable spirit in which it was intended. But it just struck me as offering a manicure to an amputee. That, for the record, is even more-stupider than lipstick on a pig. 

According to the story, which appears to have originated at Yahoo News, parishioners at Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown all pooled together to make the dream wedding happen. There was the tux and the wedding gown, rings, flowers, a catered dinner, and even a two night honeymoon in a luxury hotel. 

Yes, it's sweet.  It's even generous.  Yes, it acknowledges that all people deserve to be treated in the way that we ourselves wish to be treated. That our shared values transcend race, socioeconomic status and address.

Those shared values, however, also transcend logic.

The wedding industry in the US is a $60 Billion industry. That may not sound like much in the face of epic bank bail outs, but let's put it in a little perspective. As of 2007, the US Government was spending about $4 Billion annually to combat homelessness and its related problems. Hmmmm. That's pretty embarrassing. But wait, there's good news. That money is typically matched by state and local governments, as well as private organizations. So, let's just say that we collectively pitch in about $8 Billion a year on homeless issues. 

Nope, that's still embarrassing. As a country, we value weddings at about $60 Billion and homelessness at about $8 Billion. 

If our government is indeed an accurate reflection of our values, I'm thinking we need to put a whole lot more public money into the wedding industry, which is surely in need of a bail out these days. 

Let's look at a proposed "registry" for the homeless - seeing as toasters and champagne flutes are probably not the best gifts.

Napkin-math has me guessing that there was about $3,000 spent on this particular dream wedding for the homeless couple. That could have been: $800 for a month of rent on a 1 bedroom apartment, bus passes to and from a job training course, gift cards at a grocery store and maybe a pre-paid cell phone they could use for their job search.

Not to mention the fact that our collective focus on things like weddings rather than things like lives is a bit out of whack.  I just think we focus on the external appearances of things too much, and not on the internal realities. 

A young couple - an average one - starting out in life could use the thousands of dollars spent on that wedding as an investment in their future - a house, stocks, education - that would help them a lot more than throwing an expensive party. The money on a ring and dress alone! 

What do we value?

I think it was sweet that people reached out to this homeless couple, but I can't help but hear Marie-Antionette saying "let them eat cake," and feel like we've missed the point entirely.