I teach Faith Formation to 19 awesome eighth-graders who are members of The Lord’s Vineyard Family of Parishes. In honor of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, I wore my Cat in the Hat tie to Sunday school on March 1. Seuss’ birthday is March 2. I polled the class. Every student knew of at least a couple of Dr. Seuss books. We talked about kids’ favorite Seuss tales and the lessons behind them. None of my Sunday school students had ever heard of or read Seuss’ “The Sneeches.”

We watched a video of “The Sneeches.” I would think that everyone reading this column would know the story of “The Sneeches.” If you’ve never read the book, you should visit your local library or find it on Amazon or You Tube. It’s a great tale of how a community pays an expensive price but learns to overcome their prejudice.

Long story short, to refresh old memories. The Star Bellied Sneeches were the best Sneeches on the beaches. They looked down on and discriminated against the Sneeches who didn’t have stars on thars. One day shyster Sylvester McMonkey McBean shows up with a machine that adds and removes stars from Sneeches. Chaos ensues as the Sneeches pay McBean to add and remove stars from their bellies so that the Sneeches can gain or maintain their star bellied superiority. The Sneeches end up broke but they learn that their prejudice was wrong and that their class distinctions were meaningless. McBean drives away with all their money.

My very bright eighth-graders recognized the message in the story. I made the Catholic Sunday school connection by reminding them that God would love all Sneeches regardless of their star status. Jesus would welcome, teach and love all Sneeches with or without stars on thars.

“The Sneeches” was written by Seuss in 1961 — two years before I was born. I see a message in the story that should resonate with adults in today’s divisive political culture. There is a billionaire class that looks to divide the rest of us with rather meaningless distinctions. They spend more money than they will ever pay in taxes, lobbying and buying politicians. Bought and paid for elected officials take away benefits and services from the poor, the working poor and the middle class so their wealthy donors can make another billion, buy another vacation home, or buy another luxury yacht.

Today’s Sneeches are so distracted by their feelings of superiority and their prejudice of those not like them that they can’t see that they are being hosed. It has been reported that in 2025, the top 1% of households in America held almost 31% of the net wealth in this country while the 99% of American households shared the remaining 69% of our country’s net wealth. This disparity is astounding. Which group is getting the tax breaks? The Sneeches or the McBeans? How has trickle down economics been working for the Sneeches? It seems to be working quite well for the McBeans.

It is my hope that the Sneeches of the United States of America realize that they have so much more in common with each other than with rich oligarchs. The same oligarchs are buying the Sneeches’ politicians from both political parties in order to pick the Sneeches’ pockets.

It is my prayer that today’s American Sneeches start standing up for each other and take back our country before the McBeans drive off with the rest of our money. One final thought. There are no Sneeches in the Epstein files. Dr. Seuss isn’t in there either.