Food Lines

[undergroundpanther]

My new roommate,she is going through some tough times.She was homeless and told no one. A week or so ago she fessed up.She's staying here for two weeks until her boyfriend(he has a place to stay but she cannot stay there with him) and her have an apartment lined up together.She has been exhausted. And just tonight she said she finally felt warm.She has pressure bruises on her hips and arms from sleeping on sidewalk.She has Crohn’s disease.

Well she told me a scary thing today.

She and a few other people went to a food giveaway today ,and she came back with nothing. I asked her why.. She said..

The lines of people to get food snaked out of the building through the parking lot,out into the street.She waited for hours in the cold rain in the line . They closed up,out of food,and tons of people were turned away.

This happened in a town, a "nice" suburban town,one that some in the city think is "upscale".
Out here the income inequality is STARK.If you bother to LOOK.
The Homeless and poor here are scuttled AWAY from the nice homes and town areas of manicured flowerbeds and clean sidewalks of,Aberdeen.
In Aberdeen There is a big tent city..There is a smaller tent city in Bel Air.All the help these folks can get from our greedy ass oblivious idiots in power here is a big fat nothing. It's like the state and county WANT all these people to DIE off!
In Harford County there is one place hands out pop up tents,another hands out blankets one for each person..That is IT. Republican policies to the poor are in action here. It is sickening the way things are here.

The housing previously that existed for the poor are gone now.The state piggies cut the social safety net to please the rich and corporate assholes. The homeless will DIE before any 'precious' fucking millionaire pays ANY fucking taxes,to keep someone else alive.


These resentful wannabe millionaires the middle class bigots out here writing hateful tripe in the local papers(the republican tainted paper actually thinks this shit is FIT to print!!)

The local bigots do not stop and THINK before they shoot off their bigoted mouths in public. ALWAYS I hear the assumption,the resentment,the pretense that a poor person MUST be dreadfully irresponsible,a pervert,malingerer or thief. Always these "letters" boil down to how morally inferior poor people or homeless people are compared to the self righteous ,comfortable,resentful middle class bigots.

It's fucking nauseating all the poor bashing here.It's really vile how bigots get their poverty bashing crap printed in the local papers.

The bigots line the street to protest a homeless shelter NIMBY rears it's festering rotting empty head and it's black heart bleats of the MONEY,"property values" and the"children"!!

Poor people suffer and the smug don't care and they fancy themselves so fucking wonderful.They say shit like poor people are all hoodlums and perverts they claim shit like that ..Over and over and I do not hear many voices COUNTERING the bigots..This town is infested with that republican toxic "I got mine so fuck everyone else" mentality.

I wish these assholes would THINK before they wrote,maybe they'd consider maybe that scary homeless family living in that SUV ,got the SUV when the parents HAD jobs.

Maybe that homeless bum wearing some "designer"clothes,had them given to them or maybe the clothes were hand-me-downs from more well off family members?

No, the bigots they'd rather scapegoat,just go on assuming and scapegoat the poor for existing.Fuck the busybody poor bashing bigots, fuck them ALL.

And I am sick of their shit..I am sick of hearing the HATE directed at the poor and homeless.

I DO blame the well off people for their own narcissistic,ass-holiness and stunning ignorance,their INHUMANITY, and their failure to step out of their closed little 'privileged' world to offer compassion,and * gasp* pay some MONEY to help the suffering.The suffering here is carefully hidden from the places the well off go, between the back lots,in the library and the laundry mat on bitter cold nights,and managed by cops that make sure no one exhausted clutters the empty sidewalks at 4 am in Aberdeen. The cops are there to keep the homeless out of sight,of the well off not to help them.Always in this town property and profits are put over people.

I hope the well off will lose a job,become homeless, maybe because of a medical debt or a foreclosure.They need to taste the bitter rejection ,resentment and hate they dumped upon others.

Suburban inhumanity,indifference and callous cruelty,thy name is NIMBY, Contempt, More likely, hate.
The Anger I feel about all this shit,makes me want to go to Annapolis into the state house and scream at these oblivious pampered ass politicians. I want to DARE them to live in the tent city for a month.Dare them to TRY it,see if they can hack it,call them COWARDS and losers if they do not take up the challenge.

Sadly I know the only way a rich pig out here is EVER going to have a farts chance in a whirlwind to develop any empathy for anyone outside their own richie rich clique is to be FORCED by circumstances or an angry mob to move to the goddamn tent city and fucking LUMP IT with everyone else.

I wish there was a way to FORCE political and business assholes who think nothing of slashing social services and such,to make more profits to be homeless. I wish there was a way to force them to have to sleep in a fucking tent with a blanket in the middle of February.

I hate fucking rich people who sit there in Annapolis in the luxury afforded the privileged who do not think of the poor at all as they draft grandiose plans of yet more Mini-malls,Mc Mansions and monuments.

They do not bother themselves with doing anything USEFUL like improving public transport,or even putting sidewalks down so people without cars can walk somewhere without risking life and limb.

The pieces of shit in Harford County government and Annapolis are such stupid ,petty, oblivious,greedy,decadent,narcissistic, criminal,corporate ass kisser parasites. They all make me sick.

Why do I hate the rich? I hate the rich because, the rich hated the poor first.The rich hate the poor because poverty is the result of the rich people's unending immoral greed.Poor people remind the rich of the consequences of their own unbridled greed,the fruits the rich so enjoy taking more of than everyone else.

So the rich hated the poor first.For if they really didn't hate the poor first,the priorities would be drastically different than they are. Who would be condemned to sleeping in a tent in this town freezing to death if the rich actually cared about others less fortunate? No one.

Despite my anger..
I fear for all those people I saw out there when I helped my new roomie get her shit together,when winter hits. A pop up tent and blanket will not do much when the bitter cold of Maryland winters.


I am so goddamn infuriated at the obvious class war going on right here it makes me seethe. I am tired of the poor having no voice politically.It's always middle class this or that.I hate being INVISIBLE!!!If you are not well off the class war issue is obvious, but if you are comfortable in this fucking town,it's easy to slip into denial,and pretend that there is a social safety net for everyone in Harford County.Because the homeless are hidden.


From what I seen There is NOTHING here as in services or help for people in need here.And it is tragic how fast the numbers of homeless have shot up in this area,and everyday there are more and more foreclosure signs.Jobs are scarce out here.

The Brac seems to not affect the lives of the people that find themselves living in tents yet.The homeless they get up at 4 am to go to a place that hires them day by day for laborers. If you get there too late there might not be any work and you'll be SOL..
Also with all the fear and bullshit pandered around concerning illegal immigrants how long will places that hire on a day to day basis for laborers exist?

It's insulting to see the fucked up priorities politicians have in this town..

I wonder how long until the food riots start?
When will it be a crime to not have a home,a fucking car or money?
How long until the asshole politicians feel uneasy in their chairs enough to cough up the funds for the social safety net?
When will the well off be FORCED to PAY their fair share in taxes so that services to help people might be able to actually HELP them?

What will it take to make the comfortable UNCOMFORTABLE enough to change their selfish priorities?

When is enough enough?

What will it take to get the biggest pigs and their sociopath hog jowls and the smarmy developer parasites out of the state and county funds trough?

Will it take alot of pissed off hurting people with nothing to lose getting together and finally taking these parasites down to Earth, humiliating the living shit out of them,and maybe making them feel the soul grinding experience of being poor for once?

When the next food giveaway happens I am going to go there ,not for food (unless I really need it) .I am going to take pictures of this mess ,and the tent city and do a video an eloquent yet scathing indictment of Harford county's ass backward policies the comfortable ones in this fucked up town NEEDS to SEE..

[juno jones]

1. K&R! n/t

[Joe the Liberal]

2. Yes it truly is sickening and depressing.

If you do make that video post it here.

[undergroundpanther]

8. I am gonna have to get my paws

on a video camera first.Maybe my sisters hubby will let me borrow it?
I'll call him in a few days'cause I gotta arrange transport,that will be difficult.

Anyway I was thinking of doing a few interviews,showing all the tent cities,the food lines/giveaway lines,get up to go the day labor places and interview some folks there too.One night sorta perch out of view and wait until a cop shoos an exhausted homeless person and video the hassling,than after wards record how tired and frustrated the person was..Interveiw the owner of the 24 hour Laundromat who lets homeless people in to warm up..Juxtaposing the poverty alongside the well off and the attitudes .Show the comfortable houses and cars,have them start the republican poor bashing,and than show foreclosure signs and boarded up shops.Than ask the viewers the how long until the riots start?

Show pictures of the Bastille and an aristocrat getting his head chopped,than go back to the bill of rights,make this issue of human rights go full circle and stop cold at the greedy feet of the rich,and remind people it is the greedy who create the needy.So people cannot help but conclude the ideology of 'conservatives' and excessive greed for wealth at the expense of the many even in a small town is flawed and in fact it is evil.

[illuminaughty]

3. You are more than right

They are waiting for these people to die. I too am sick of hearing the latest phrase "distribution of wealth" criticized as if they were dirty words. I keep thinking of the French revolution and "let them eat cake" philosophy. "Personal responsibility" another vile statement.

That fuckin' Elizabeth Hasselbeck actually said today "corporations don't pay taxes" blah, blah blah
and she was serious. She meant that they shouldn't have to pay them. Then talks about small businesses that will be hurting with Obama's plan.
It's so sickening. And so many people fall for this shit. They blame the poor. They blame the victim. A couple of years ago a person was killed (ran over by a car) because they had been sleeping on the ground waiting in line for a temp job in the morning. And this is America?

Our food banks in K.C. had to come on TV and basically beg because they were empty and the demand was quadruple what it normally is. I do believe there will be food riots at some point.

What also pisses me off is all the empty buildings around town. Thousands of them that have been empty for years that rich bastards use as a tax right off so they just count it as a loss and keep it empty. And yet we are going to see tent cities spring up across our country.

Please video the situation. This country needs to wake up to its third world status.

[Raksha]

35. The goddamn wealth has ALREADY been redistributed!!!

It's been redistributed from the poor and middle class to the rich for 30 fucking YEARS, if not longer than that, in a steady, relentless stream. What we want to do is re-redistribute it, if we can ever get our hands on any of it again, back to where it came from in the first place.

They are waiting for these people to die. I too am sick of hearing the latest phrase "distribution of wealth" criticized as if they were dirty words. I keep thinking of the French revolution and "let them eat cake" philosophy. "Personal responsibility" another vile statement.

I just finished reading John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man yesterday. Great book, but it didn't actually tell me anything I didn't know already. It just confirmed what I already knew, and provided a lot of gruesome detail. It appears that the techniques of induced debt slavery the Masters of the Universe perfected in third world countries are now being introduced for domestic consumption--have been for a while, actually.

[illuminaughty]

44. Confessions of an Economic Hitman is a great book

I read it just after the 2004 election and I find it pathetic that the citizens in this country are so blind to the changes occurring here in their own country before their eyes.

[KillCapitalism]

4. It will change here in the near future.

Have you heard about all the job losses in the news?

When we reach the point where we have over 50% unemployment in this country and more than half the country is in poverty, attitudes will change and people will find out that economic Darwinism is a bullshit ideology.

[undergroundpanther]

10. Yeah

BTW I like your name..KILL Capitalism. I'll go further,we need to kill the concept of PROFIT(profit is after all is,getting something for nothing.).And we gotta do away with the MONEY system.
We have to re-learn to rely on each other and share with each other instead of corporate systems.We have to learn to recognize toxic personalities and sick ideologies and make sure the toxic people remain away from power and unable to abuse or manipulate people.
We will all have to make due with less, but that means all can have SOME.For everyone to have some, no one can be permitted to hoard most of it to themselves.
This is what every rich selfish corporate pig fears the most,sharing.
Not just himself sharing with others ,but also OTHER PEOPLE sharing with each other.

[melody]

5. That's absolutely unacceptable in the America I grew up with

Think of the elderly and the children who went hungry. It makes me want to cry, I swear to god.

[143tbone]

6. Do you think showing your video to local churches would help?

To get them to organize food drives? I know that's just a temporary fix.
Do you have everything you need to get the video made?
Are you a good videographer? Interviewer?

[undergroundpanther]

9. Umm..

I am a good interviewer I can get people to loosen up easily..No I don't have anything to get the video made,in my possession.I will try get my brother in law to loan me his video camera.And since I have no car,transportation would be hard to arrange. Transport is the main problem.I would have to ask my friends for help with rides.I wish there was somewhere I could go that I don't need a car to get to to get help with this idea.

I am really hostile and wary of "rice christians".I don't want the churches exploiting this video as a way to get donations just to force hungry and desperate people to sit through sermons and pray with them or pressure to convert in exchange for for food or help.That shit just disgusts me it turns giving into another damn "economic exchange". I want to avoid making help mixed with sermons or lectures to the poor.I think they hear enough bullshit and preaching..

UU church,I'm ok with them using it,atheists,and pagans the non preachy types who can just help out and shut up about their jesus..That is what I'd prefer. I want it to be about helping,not religion.If a group wants to help great but do not expect any sorts of returns on the part of the poor for the investment/giving.
Do ya get what I mean here?

[yellowdogintexas]

12. my church will NOT repeat NOT make you sit through anything to receive services

from our mission.

large United Methodist Church in Texas.

you ask, you receive, no questions asked.

[Two Americas]

22. nor mine

But panther has a point. The conditions and strings attached to "help" can be disgusting, and merely another facet of a system that creates poverty, that must create poverty to continue. First and foremost, the person who has fallen onto hard times must take all blame for their situation onto themselves as a condition for "help" and that applies whether it is a church or whether it is Republicans or Democrats. One must wear the badge of shame, one must admit the error of their ways. And what is the crime for which we are all punished one way or another? For "making the wrong choices?" No. For being "lazy" or "mentally unstable?" No. Those are symptoms, not causes. The crime is daring to question or resist, by thought word or deed, the immoral framework of selfishness and greed and bullying. The crime is living, being a human being, responding to a vicious and destructive and deadly system with compassion and trying to resist it with one's life - by living.

When you slip, or much more often when you are shoved, you become poor. When you are poor everything is harder, you become exhausted, confused, and in general less able to fend for yourself. You slip farther, and are shoved again and again, and a cycle starts. Yet those around you insist that you take on the additional burden of shame, guilt and blame, that you see yourself and submit to being seen as sub-human. They have more, therefore they count for more. They have "more to lose" so their well being, their happiness, their feelings and thoughts are more important. You do not count, may as well not exist. You are presumed to be lazy, irresponsible, mentally defective, stupid. The ones shoving you are not to be questioned, only those who are being shoved are to be questioned, and not only questioned but undermined, opposed, dismissed, and abused.

That is the problem, not which party is in office, not what we do in the way of charitable work. No one of us exists outside of this system of intentional harm being done to people. No one. It is pervasive, it has corrupted everything, it has seeped into every aspect of our lives. Be a bully, submit to bullies, or perish.

[Raksha]

47. You sound as though you've been there, Two Americas.

Re When you slip, or much more often when you are shoved, you become poor. When you are poor everything is harder, you become exhausted, confused, and in general less able to fend for yourself. You slip farther, and are shoved again and again, and a cycle starts. Yet those around you insist that you take on the additional burden of shame, guilt and blame, that you see yourself and submit to being seen as sub-human. They have more, therefore they count for more. They have "more to lose" so their well being, their happiness, their feelings and thoughts are more important. You do not count, may as well not exist. You are presumed to be lazy, irresponsible, mentally defective, stupid. The ones shoving you are not to be questioned, only those who are being shoved are to be questioned, and not only questioned but undermined, opposed, dismissed, and abused.

I've been there too, and in many ways I'm still there. I've often wanted to write about it, and yet something blocks me...I don't know if it's the shame, the anger or a combination of things. It's hard even to post on a thread like this, beyond superficial and inadequate expressions of empathy and solidarity. Yet I could (and should) say so much more.

I guess even saying that much means I'm getting a little closer to actually doing it.

[shireen]

48. :...beyond superficial and inadequate expressions of empathy and solidarity"

please don't assume the posts are superficial. Many of us do care. Deeply. We quietly do what we can. But the problem is, it's never enough. The scale of the problem is so huge it requires government intervention. The movement that will create government intervention must be demanded from our elected officials. Those demands can only be made by an educated electorate.

The most important thing, that's still lacking in our society, is awareness. Undergroundpanther's idea of video documentation is excellent.

[Critters2]

38. I don't know of any church that makes you do anything to receive help.

Not even the fundies.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. Some of the Skid Row gospel missions will

But even the Salvation Army program for homeless youth that I volunteered for in Portland did not require any religious participation to get a meal and a chance to stay inside during bad weather. They held a Sunday morning service called Street Church, but no one was required to attend.

By the way, THIS Salvation Army program (in Portland) did NOT discriminate against GLBT youth. About a third of the kids who came to the program to eat, shower, and study for their GEDs had been thrown out of their homes when they came out to the parents. The Salvation Army staff spent a lot of time trying to convince rejecting parents that their child's sexual orientation was not a matter of choice and that throwing a kid out onto the streets was potentially a death sentence. They would complain about the thick-headedness of some parents, such as the parents who said that they would take their gay son back if he joined the football team or the ones who asked the Salvation Army people if there wasn't some nice boy they knew who could "distract" their lesbian daughter from her girlfriend.

[jwirr]

31. The first step you need to take with this video is to ask one of those

churches or groups for funding to make this video - rent the camera. I would approach a church that is KNOWN for its work in your area. Ask around - the poor can tell you which churches are helpful.

[143tbone]

7. delete

double post

[1776Forever]

11. The tent city started in Florida 2 years ago and has grown much larger now.

Some in pretty affluent areas. Lots of people sleeping in their cars too. This is even going to get bigger.

If you know anyone who is a veteran here is an article for them to hopefully get some help from the VA (says the money was distributed all over the US but this is from the Orlando, FL paper)I know it isn't enough but maybe it might help a few people out:

September 23, 2008
VA helps homeless vets in Central Florida
Orlando Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2008/09/22/daily17.html

The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs is providing funds to the Center for Drug Free Living, Transition House in Osceola County and Volunteers of America of Florida in Brevard County to assist homeless veterans.

The agency is providing $36.7 million to community groups in 35 states — including Florida — to create 1,526 beds for homeless veterans this year.

The money was distributed to nonprofit groups for housing and support services to homeless veterans, including 49 grants for vans that will transport homeless veterans to health care and training programs.

...............

Also "Barack Obama Obama introduced a bill in April 2007 to provide housing for low-income veterans (Homes for Heroes Act). Again, McCain didn't show up for the vote. This version of the Homes for Heroes Act died, though a similar follow-up bill fortunately awaits a new vote in the Senate."

This excerpt is from this link that gives you the whole scoop on McCain's votes against the Veterans not FOR them!

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/ss/columns/99572.php

[phantom power]

26. Bush-Villes.

[progressoid]

13. "We need MORE poor people"

I heard that from a Repuke a couple months ago. :grr:

[Waiting For Everyman]

14. The wealthy got that way by TAKING from the poor.

They do it in artificially low wages, and absurd fees. That's how the rich got richer and the poor gradually got poorer until they were homeless. It's our POLICIES that create this situation. It's the policies that shifted money FROM these poor people TO the well-off.

That's the truth that needs to be told. That's also why a level playing field MUST be enforced BY LAW - because these greed-freaks have no sense of right and wrong. As we see their role models doing (the banking elites), they will take greed to the point of ruining even THEMSELVES. They have no "push the chair back from the banquet table" reflex whatsoever.

Justice demands that this be fixed, after 30 years of ruining people. It didn't used to be this way. I'm 58, and prior to Reagan there were no noticeable numbers of homeless people. "Homeless" was not a word that was used, because it didn't become a problem until then. My point is, it doesn't have to be this way, and it didn't used to be this way. And it wasn't because anybody was GIVEN anything. It's because the law protected people from predators endlessly gouging them, and people were left with enough of what they earned, to be more able to take care of themselves.

That level playing field in financial issues, and protection of the weakest among us MUST be restored. We're supposed to be all about giving people a chance to make it, but we don't anymore. We simply don't. We make it impossible to survive without "advantages" which we have made impossible for the weakest to acquire. And ANYONE can fall back down the ladder, by one major disaster occuring in their lives! This can happen to ANYONE! Our quality of life has been sold to fatten gluttons. And as you say, they have the nerve to praise themselves for creating this kind of misery for so many. They're all liars and thieves who don't have enough conscience to even admit the facts of it. Morally bankrupt. That's worse than financially bankrupt, any day.

Finances can change, character doesn't.

I too, hope that all those who shove down the weak as you described, lose every last thing they've got. I fervently do.

[lonestarnot]

15. K & R

[dembotoz]

16. thank you for reminding us

there is so much to do
so very much.
least we forget that the electiion is only a begining and not an end.
Good luck with your photos and please be sure to post them here.

[wvbygod]

17. What party is in control in Hartford County? In MD?

Are the repubs running the show?

[Two Americas]

19. the party of greed

They are in control everywhere. Some have Ds after their names, some have Rs.

[Two Americas]

18. recommended - thank you

Thanks, panther for this.

I wonder how many people will read this - skim it actually, no doubt, looking for any excuse to justify dismissing your words. Many have dismissed you, attacked and criticized you, and used that as justification for turning away and ignoring what you have to say.

I was listening to NPR yesterday morning, Dianne Rheems (sp?) and they had a panel on discussing voting issues. The whole thing was one big apology for a massive program to deny voting rights to millions of people, all couched in reasonable sounding rhetoric. Picture ID, show papers, prove who you are, show up at the right polling place (even though they have been moved and people have not been notified, and won't be told that when they show up - fill out a provisional so we can toss it in the dumpster), lose your vote if you have moved, lose your vote for this, lose your vote for that, jump through this hoop and that hoop. This is all predicated on the hidden assumption that "those people" are trying to get away with something or pull a scam by trying to vote, or that voting is some sort of privilege that not just anyone can qualify for.

What about the poor, what about the homeless, what about the elderly? What about the millions of working poor, for whom it is all a hardship? What about the lines? Missing work, spending hours standing in line, having your registration or your vote. And then there is the humiliation that comes from being under suspicion, being challenged, being looked at as though you were a criminal for performing your civic duty and trying to be heard and counted.

Denial of voting rights, and the lame rationalizations and justifications for that - and it is not just Republicans we hear that from - is symptomatic of a generalized all-out war against the poor. I hesitate to say "the poor" as though I were talking about a different species, some group of sub-humans. It is an all-out war against the people - all of us - and all of us are caught between supporting and advancing the system, compromising with it, defending it and apologizing for it, sucking up benefits from it in exchange for selling our soul to the devil, or becoming a victim of it. We are all suffering the same oppression, or at least most of us are. There are a few prospering and who see nothing wrong with the system, but rather think that it is "losers" or "mentally unstable" people who suffer.

Everything is being made as difficult as possible, just as voting is. That is no accident, not merely an unfortunate side effect of "progress" nor is it merely a matter of "the Republicans." It is made harder for most of us, because that is the way that the few can grab more and more and more for themselves.

[humbled_opinion]

20. The Vile hatred of Republicans

I have actually heard Repubs where I work say that if Obama is elected they are going to stop giving charitable donations and are making online mass emailing and blogging about stopping all Charitable contributions... Since in their mind they say we will need no charity because Obama will feed all the poor with the money from the rich.

It is insane and just vile hatred from the Right. Scary indeed.

[Two Americas]

21. a symptom

The rise of the extreme right wing is merely a symptom of a society gone very wrong.

[Raksha]

34. That is just VILE!!!

Re I have actually heard Repubs where I work say that if Obama is elected they are going to stop giving charitable donations and are making online mass emailing and blogging about stopping all Charitable contributions... Since in their mind they say we will need no charity because Obama will feed all the poor with the money from the rich.

You'd think they could at least wait until Obama actually DOES "feed all the poor with the money from the rich" before they started their disgusting mean-spirited e-mail campaigns. I bet most of them call themselves "Christians" too.

A scrap of an old song started running through my head as I finished typing that...

Only a tramp was Lazarus that day,
He who lay down by the rich man's gate,
He begged for some crumbs from the rich man to eat,
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

23. We were all surprised last night at the increase in the number of

young people who showed up at my church's dinner for homeless and working poor youth. There were a lot of new people, asking newbie questions such as "Where is the silverware?" or "Can I take one of these desserts?"

Sure, it's the first cold week of the year, but I've never seen such a jump in the numbers in one week. We just barely had enough food for everyone, and we actually ran out of the vegetarian entree (the meal was a choice of chicken or veggie chow mein with two vegetables on the side, tossed salad, apple crisp with optional ice cream for dessert, and bread available on the tables.)

I'm also seeing more formerly middle class people at the Sunday night dinners for the general population. When I first volunteered there five years ago, most of the people who came appeared to be long-time street dwellers. In the past year, we've seen an increase in the number of people who are obviously new to poverty. They have middle-class clothes and speech and appear to be embarrassed to find themselves needing free meals. We used to get rid of our leftovers by giving take-out boxes to anyone who wanted them, once all comers had been served. The past few months, we have had so few leftovers that it's not worth distributing them.

So from the point of view of serving free meals, there are definitely more people out there who need them. Not all are homeless. I talked to four young guys at the youth dinner a few weeks ago (they appeared to be 18 or 19). They shared a house, but only one was working full-time. Two had had their hours cut back, and the fourth had lost his job and was still looking.

By the way, due to the increase in the number of young people showing up, we have had to give up our former custom of eating with them, so as to free up places.

[Hardrada]

46. When Minneapolis had a skid row a lot of the poor could get

places in the cold months because of the cheap flophouse rooms. They were a quarter a night fleabags but they kept people inside and not out in the cold. There also were the missions like the old Union Gospel Mission which did require some sermon listening but kept the otherwise homeless inside in the MPLS winters. I have never been a fan of what urban renewal did to cities.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

50. There were a lot fewer homeless in those days, mostly

late-stage alcoholics and other people who had voluntarily or involuntarily dropped out of conventioal society.

You didn't see large numbers of people sleeping in doorways until the Reagan recession, when the combination of double-digit unemployment and the closing of the mental hospitals put a whole new population onto the streets.

[Hardrada]

53. The Depression had homeless riding boxcars. Some got to MPLS

but the basic thing I meant was that people who could at least come up with 25 cents a night would be homeless people now since skid rows have been unfortunately removed.

[femrap]

24. And I bet these rich bigots take

their disgusting asses to church every Sunday...the hypocrisy of this makes me livid. There will be a comeuppance...Karma never fails.

And I do love the bumper sticker: "End World Hunger. Eat the Rich."

[Pooka Fey]

25. I hope DU does the Food Bank drive again for the Holidays.

We should ask Skinner to get another America's Second Harvest donation drive going this December. It's a good organization that I've been supporting for several years now. They now call it Feeding America. www.secondharvest.org

Thanks for the post, Underground Panther.

[Uncle Joe]

27. A large percent of the homeless are veterans, but after they're used up

by what Congressional Medal of Honor winner General Smedley Butler called war; basically a racket by the rich and powerful, they're discarded.

One thing is for sure CNN doesn't give a damn about "the spreading of the wealth", so long as it's headed upward to their clients

Thanks for sharing, undergroundpanther.

[newtothegame]

28. Depressing but important read n/t

[Sabriel]

29. Don't wait for the holidays to donate. Do it now.

I took some stuff in last week, and the shelves were pretty bare. The woman running it said they'll be hurting even more when colder weather hits and the local farmers stop sending over their extra produce.

I hope this is a warm, warm winter. People will once again be forced to choose between heat and food.

[jwirr]

30. One interesting fact that I learned from my parents who were depression

kids was that strangers were often turned away or pressured into leaving. When the hobos, many of which were teenagers who left home because the family could not feed everyone in the house, were plentiful there were signs outside of town telling them they were not welcome and we have all heard about the attacks on hobo camps.

Today if we did not have the food stamp programs and other safety net programs that depression would look like a church picnic. The people standing in food lines today are those who fall between the cracks of these other programs. So many have help leaving the ones just above eligibility levels to stand in the lines.

[rhiannon55]

32. Has she applied for food stamps?

I'm a food stamp caseworker and I have a lot of homeless clients. If she hasn't applied, she should.

[Two Americas]

33. kick

Kick for the night crowd.

Important read.

[Canuckistanian]

36. Thanks for this post

The privileged just don't care and don't know about the true circumstances that the poor live in, every day.

As you say, if they were FORCED to live that way for a week, they'd understand the futility, that shame and depression that comes with being poor.

It ain't no "easy lifestyle". It's a hard, grinding existence that eats away at your soul.

NOBODY chooses to live like that.

[Left Brain]

37. "Invisible Nation"

Everyone should see this documentary, it should be mandatory viewing. Better yet, if you have a chance to see Donna Beegle speak, run, don't walk, to her presentation.

We are a disgusting country when it comes to caring about the wellbeing of our own. Just ask the assholes who will take their golden parachute bonuses following this abomination of a bail-out. They could care less about hungry Americans. So long as they can buy Muffy that yacht for Christmas, it's all good. God bless America? Yeah, sure, tell it to the poor.

Undergroundpanther, your words are truth, and yet they don't even begin to scratch the surface. I could write a book about the laws that are written to penalize the poor in this country: You say you need to get to work at your minimum-wage job, and that you can either afford to feed your kids or provide auto insurance? Tough luck, America does not care. It's against the law to drive without auto insurance, and we'll arrest you and give you a criminal record if you're caught driving to work without it.

Disgusting.

Bless you for providing shelter and comfort to a fellow human being.

K&R.

[AnnieBW]

39. I'm down here in PG County

Can I forward this to my local State Senator, Jim Rosapepe? Since Harford County's State Senators can't seem to do anything about this, it might help to contact some Dems in other locations.

I feel for your friend. I really do. I know a few people in Harford County that aren't Republicans or snotty rich people. (They're Redneck Pagans) But yeah, most of them are Yuppie Scum.

[Zhade]

40. So much anger.

And it's so justified.

I'm ashamed to say that I forget about how bad others have it sometimes. Not that I'm wealthy - far from even being well-off - but it could be so much worse.

It can't continue like this. We have to take care of each other, since we're the only ones who can.

[Mojorabbit]

41. Perhaps this site

can help?
http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
I have heard good things about them.

[elshiva]

42. K&R Yes, I live in Harford County, Maryland.

It's run completely by Repukes. I'm voting for the local Dems of course, but they have got a snowball's chance in Hell. I'm sick of it, but this is basically it for us.

My parents work hard and are getting less money. I lost my job because of my ailment. We use two different food banks and food stamps. I am so mad that Harford County is building more shitty McMansions and not enough reasonable, affordable housing for people. We lucked out because we are renting from a friend of my mom's. People should NOT have to depend on such "luck" there should be a safety net. And health care costs are especially brutal.

:hug: :hug:

[nikto]

43. In a weird, twisted way, the rich actually LOVE the poor.

I think the rich love the poor.

They want to see EVERYBODY
become poor(except their top 2% or so).

Why?

Lots of poor means:
lots of cheap labor,
lots of cannon-fodder for War$$$,
and lots of desperate people, who literally
can be bought & owned (by the rich), for any purpose.

Also, I suppose, there's organ-harvesting.


That's all the reasons I can think of,
why the rich love the poor.

But those are strong reasons.

[shireen]

45. i don't understand

how such things are tolerated. i just don't understand how people can be so devoid of empathy and compassion.

The homeless people, and those who need food assistance, deserve a safety net so they have a chance to get back on their feet. It's not about charity or about pity, it's about the very essence of community where people support each other because they care about each others' well-being.

This is tragic beyond words.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

51. Some of the worst anti-poor bigots are not so far from that level themselves

I think that in a twisted way, they believe that if they're mean enough to the poor, it will prevent them from becoming poor themselves. Hence all the talk on the right-wing call-in shows about how the poor should just get a job. If only it were that simply (and there were living-wage jobs for everyone).

[zeemike]

49. I have always said that people are poor because they have

no land.
And in fact that is the definition of homelessness.
And in this system we have today land and homes can be taken away through debt and sold to the highest bidder, which is leading us to a system of feudalism.
I would point out that in biblical times,( the times of the forming of Israel under the ten commandments) Land that was sold was returned to the owners after 50 years so that poverty was confined to one generation. One could sell ones land and piss the money away, but they could not sell their children's inheritance.


Good to read you again Panther.