Let's hope November 2014 is not a victory for the GOP in any way.

people like me should help by stocking food banks to over flowing, pick a family and help with the cost of utilities, do what ever you can to help folks look for work. Do job searches for them if they don't have the time, help with resume writing.
There is enough money to help many people if we formed safety nets as local community groups. Do what ever you can for another person to lift their spirits.

Stock, volunteer, connect, connect donors at three food banks now. Note - in our current community -we are in the 6th wealthiest county in America . . .


Yet around me - people are not food secure.

And sickening? The food bank is literally in the same parking lot as WalMart.

And disgusting? The Wal-Mart employees who utilize the food bank.


There is something really fucked up in America.

growing resentment of people in need.
I constantly have this fight about people who ask for money on the street.
They wouldn't be there if there was a better way to support themselves. I have people telling me that I need to be sure they spend the money the way I would intend them to. I don't give a hoot what they do with it. There is good karma created for me and for them.
Our indifference is terrible.

I read about it and hear about it daily.

As if being poor is so easy. I just don't get the hatred. I wasn't raised in a manner which would allow me to look at the poor with resentment, thank God, so I honestly cannot wrap my head around it.

"Once I freely give my money to someone, it's no longer mine to worry about. It's theirs to do with as they will".

And, usually he only had a few dollars cash but would freely give half.

He was in management (lower level). The poverty among his co-workers - for a mid to upper class area - was disgusting. There's a lot of food insecurity here.

And you know what sucks? Our food pantry is on a main Road. There is typically a line outside before the pantry opens. Everyone is on display for the rest of the community to see - hello, we're you neighborhood poor folks and we look just like you! The pantry is trying to get a new location and it has been fought (not successfully) by the neighborhood because they don't want "those people" there.

a list of people on relief.

... WE (who want to help families in need) could go to a place to get the name of families in our neighborhood who need help. Almost every week, there is an ad in the paper of families in need, like to pay a bill. There's usually about three listed. By the time I call, they have been taken care of. That's how fast the public response is to the ad. But I know that there are far more than a few families in need.

They keep your social security number on file and limit you to one pick up every 3 months unless you are sponsored by one of the food bank churches. The food usually has about 2 pounds, total, of meat/chicken/game, a few cans of vegetables, and LOT of beans and bread.

But according to our state social services, although we're way under their designated "poverty line", we don't qualify for assistance.

You are limited to 2 food pick ups per month. The soup kitchen is unlimited. They also have a bread rack and you can get 2 bread items everyday.

We have depended on charity from local programs, friends, and DU for the past few months and would not have survived without it. I really like your idea of doing job searches for people. This is what I do for my husband. He's almost always working with the three jobs, so I spend a lot of time job searching for both of us. Many people are like us - they work non-stop to get a piss poor check and don't have the time or resources (such as a computer, etc) in order to properly job search.

even to "Dems" like the ones in DC. we can only do so much as individuals. Government has to act at some point.

You bring the reality home. I hope you will post this at other places beyond DU. I know it won't help with your situation, but it will do a lot of good to get it out there where people can see it.

I am hoping to write about this elsewhere. On one of my other posts, a DUer suggested writing this to a local paper. I admit being shy to do so because I know the public commentary will not be kind. But, I need to be vocal. A friend of mine runs a popular blog that advocates for the poor and I have been wanting to write for her.

The language may need to be cleaned up for the local paper but this is too well-written not to be shared. My husband and I ran a homeless shelter for 3 years--stories like this still haunt me. I plan to print this out and read it to staff tomorrow. Very important for people to know, especially the fauxnews people I share space with! What a talent you have. Please explore the options you mentioned

Once I get something published. And I will shamelessly ask for DU back up if comments get ugly.

Thank you for the encouragement! !

You're a good writer and you should be confident in that. When I began getting letters printed in local papers I was always a bit down about people who would call me an idiot in the comments. Now I wear it as a badge of honor. As my hubby says, "you're known by the enemies you make." And nothing feels as good as thoroughly pissing off some right wing idiot enough that he wants to fume about it in the comments section.

I wouldn't mind making some heads explode.

Who knows, maybe it'll morph into a paid gig--you most certainly have something to say.

If you're completely up against it, if there is a Vincent de Paul in your area, they're pretty good about helping out and they don't ask if you're "qualified" (in terms of religious affiliation).

There's a lot of tea in this area, so I imagine local comments will be unkind.

We have received assistance from St.Vincent de Paul. They are a wonderful organization. I'm Catholic so I am familiar, but I recommend them to anyone because they don't make you pray, attend Mass, or accept Bibles to get assistance. The one in our area is stretched very thin, which is telling - many are struggling.

commonality with the Teabag brigade (do we not all have eyes and bleed, to mangle the Bard?) in your piece it will shut them up. Throw in a heaping helping of religion (you weren't out at the bars on Friday night, you were in the pew on Sunday morning, that kind of thing)--that makes it hard for them to come at you full-bore. Make them fear that it IT COULD BE THEM NEXT. They only respond to self-interest, I have come to realize. If it couldn't happen to them (or so they believe), they just do not care.

I find myself wishing that every damn politician in the country would read this.

But they have good jobs and make good money off the vilifying of the poor..
Just look at all the political action groups out there making tons of money off of hating Obama..

Those stupid hating racists out there who send their $20 checks to these groups don’t realize that they're making these scum bags rich!! Never ends, does it?

people down, and weighted down with burdens of every type, i.e. financial, medical, food insecurity, inability to provide for loved ones, etc.. drains their will to push back against low wages, political corruption, shrinking voting rights, and unfair workplace practices which benefit the 1% greatly.

I think it is deliberate and calculated. I don't believe they give a damn about the financial burden of paying for programs like food stamps, social security, and other safety nets. I think their actual motive is that they just don't want the less fortunate to be given a helping hand. Because when there are large numbers of desperate people who have no other options, they are expendable and easily replaced, and they will DO AS THEY ARE TOLD.

I think this extends even to the plight of returning vets. Republicans like to wrap themselves in the flag and scorn anyone who disrespects active duty personnel. But when they come home injured physically or emotionally they treat them like shit.

Almost everything policy stand they take is a thinly veiled plan to burden average people with so many grave worries that they will have no choice other than to beg for gruel from the 1%.

Excellent post. You hit the nail on the head.

if you'll have enough to eat from day to day, not knowing if you'll be able to keep utilities turned on, having to make sure to save enough to ride the bus to go get whatever help you can from churches, the food stamp office, etc... It doesn't let up. And stress has serious consequences on health.

I see threads talking about how its more expensive to be poor, and I see the surprise expressed by those apparently just finding this out, and I just shake my head.

We need so much more empathy in this country. Reagan and the IGMFU mentality that he ushered in have to go.

She really believes in the "I shouldn't have to pay for your lazy ass" and, "everyone's trying to rip me off" crowd.

It's classic scapegoatism. Fux Spews and all the media sleazes are carrying the message that the .001% pays them to spew. And like a virus, the disinformation spreads and twists mass consciousness.

Anyway...........Yecchh...I'm not gonna start going on about her. ..... it's not worth it.... and too strange. She's nice, she has a strong work ethic and she's smart.....but the lies about why people are ending up unable to support themselves- ---the victim blaming myths.....yes there are people playing the system but there's not as many of them as the feudal lords tell us there are.



Ugh....

and everyone else's, save those at the top.

And "a lie travels around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes."

On the surface she is very sweet. She's a devout Catholic, which I find hilarious. I know Catholicism isn't popular around here, but the schools I went to were very heavy on pushing social justice. To think like Rand would be considered sinful. I noticed this friend of mine doesn't post much about her new Pope and his poverty message...She's a Libertarian. She's smart and sweet, but very unforgiving towards those in my situation. Because everyone should work for themselves and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. To help others is a sign of weakness, unless it's to help yourself get ahead....

The one I know is a loud n proud atheist. But she hangs with the fundy conservative group. Most of whom are also nice and all that----but have that same libertarian economic belief. They work their asses off and everyone else is scamming.....

Or something..... I don't know.....

They truly believe that.

And amongst the Fundies.....it's because poor people either didn't win the correct predestination or don't love God enough or some shit like that.

or, at least, when you believe that has happened, there is really no place to go but all in.

This 20 something year old colleague , newly-converted by his very sweet but verrrrrrry homeschooled evangelical christian girlfriend, was nearly genuflecting over sean spammity...

He literally (and I don't mean hyperbolically literally) said he had spent time talking to gawwwd. And gawwwwwwwd TOLD him that it would be right to vote for bewsh.

Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Yet, the guy Bush appointed to head his religious outreach spoke out about how Bushco was doing nothing for religious groups. (I heartily approve of separation and state, but I could have done without the Bush hypocrisy about religion.) IIRC, his name is David Kuo. He wrote a book about it. Supposedly, he spoke out because he had an attack of conscience after suffering a brain tumor. (And/or he wanted to write a book. )

I sure remember when he won *cough*stole*cough* it.

The nausea that hit me in the gut like the first rumblings after a nice hot bowlfull of salmonella spiked clamchowder on an empty stomach.

Florida for Bush, or when you got the results of the recount, or when you heard the Supreme Court decision?

Meanwhile, I'm going to print it out your post, tape it to the pantry and fridge and re-read it whenever I am tempted to eat something unhealthy.

I understood the mingling of religion and politics was in my 20s. I saw a documentary called "Jesus Camp," which had a scene where people were praying over a cardboard cutout of Bush. It shook me cold.

Ugh!!!!!

and

Checking out that documentary. It is absolutely terrifying. Jesus Camp. There is a little girl there who is so brainwashed it'll break your heart. And then they pray over cardboard Dubya. Gee, wonder if they pray over a cardboard stand of Obama?

And whistle Dixie while they do it.

I have not read the children's books written by the wives of various Republican politicians, but I would not be surprised if they were propaganda.

There are church youth groups that get indoctrinated. So do many scout troops. About six years ago, I read how church groups were teaching history in public schools in Texas at their (the church group's) own expense. (I had seen enough of James Kennedy's history lesson type sermons on Trinity Broadcasting to imagine what was being said in those history classes.)


I don't know what Democrats never attempted to come up with youth programs or anything comparable to the church networks that have been there for Republicans since at least Roe v. Wade. I don't mean Democratic leaning churches, but some kind of community networks. Those churches can turn out people for boycotts and picketing almost on a dime.

I have friends in those evangelical circles. I hear what comes out of them and how the kids are taught. They keep them in their cloistered Christian schools to prevent them from becoming "worldly." It's a true sin.

Democrats had built their own healthy, community activities, infrastructure that included youths, maybe summer camps, etc.

Surely, I don't know more about Republicans operating in public schools and church youth groups and bible camps than the Democratic Party knows. Yet, they never even tried. Why?

I see so much passion, especially here at DU. It just seems there is a general lack of organization when our side tries to get these community things off the ground. I don't know what it is or why.

It was not Republican lay people, like DU posters, who established connections with the scouts, churches, etc. It was the pros, from Eisenhower and Nixon (maybe earlier) to Reed to that jerk lobbyist whose name is escaping me at the moment who went to jail for bleeding First Nations dry to lobby for casinos for them.

Many Christians have fallen away from the life that Jesus wants us to live. They take a few narrow passages in the Bible and then make up their own beliefs - mostly about hatred and self-centeredness. They have been feed a constant line on how they're the victim and others are the victimizers.

Jesus was known to do radical things: Heal the sick and feed the hungry. He never looked down on the lepers and said, "If you weren't such a taker and got a job, you could pay the physician to get healed, you wretch!" Jesus never said "I've got my bread and fish, don't mooch off me!" Jesus was known to walk amongst the dregs of society and council with prostitutes.

If you say you're a christian and aren't willing to do as Christ did, then you're in for a shock when you meet him face to face and he asks, "Why did you not live as I did?"

I'll be sending prayers your way, and if you're not religious I'll sending good vibes. I hope your situation gets better.

what their Pastor tells them.

They dont really read the babble, they just parrot what their evangelical bible school graduate Pastor, and Youth Group Leader, and Fux Spews tells them to think.

More than they worship Christ. They memorize a dew handy Bible verses without understanding the words, the context, the history.

to speak God's truth to them. There is even some teaching that, once God calls you into a church, you "grow where you're planted." Meaning in part that that particular church is where God wants you and it is a lifetime commitment, maybe akin to marriage. So, if you decide this pastor is not your cup of tea, too bad. He's the one God wants you to hear.

So, while there is not the express claim of infallibility on the part of one person, as in the Catholic Church, there is a strong implication that God is talking to you out of the mouth of your pastor.

If you are a strong believer, there is almost no way out of that. I know women who became nuns in a cult, even though they longed for husbands and children and normal lives, but could not tear themselves away for decades, despite emotional abuse and sometimes physical abuse.

Even then, it usually took some dramatic event, like being called home in another state to say goodbye to a dying family member. And some never tore themselves away.

why? Because they had made a vow to God that they would be nuns there for life.

Next to that, what's changing political parties?

It is scary how they are so brainwashed. And they go on and on about the sinfulness of the Catholic church and how they view the Pope as infallible and I'm just like, "are you honestly that blind?"

I've listened to people talk about how the words of their minister "troubles the heart and soul," but they listen to them anyway and follow them because, "obviously he's more connected to God and knows better than me. What do I know." Actual words.

Not meaning to one up, but I couldn't resist the phrasing.

"obviously he's more connected to God and knows better than me. What do I know." Actual words.

Love the "spiritual Jenga" explanation. It's the perfect way to describe it.

But I was a fundamentalist Christian until about sophomore year in college. I am pretty sure I gave my freshman biology teacher migraines, LOL.


My spiritual is more of a personal thing now.

The religious right would surely crucify Him.

Thank you for the prayers.

When national media has been bought by malicious powers and the laws have been changed to permit them to infect the populous, it causes this greedy sickness to spread through out our country and the world.

My husband worked nearly non-stop during the holiday months and I was on edge worried about his health because he barely slept. Then the constant stress of wondering how the hell you will survive the next day is insurmountable. It's bad enough to deal with the health issues that come with the poor eating, but stress definitely lends a hand to bad health. I'm consistently exhausted (but...but....I should be so well rested because I don't work <-----hear that all the time), my hair is falling out. I have gastric issues that aren't helped by stress. And I have minor heart issues, but they "flare up" with stress. I am in a constant state of worry. All that cortisol can't be good.

And it IS so expensive. That article about being expensive to be poor had a good example about car repairs. You can't afford needed repairs and you get a ticket. That happened to me. I couldn't afford the needed repairs on my car, it couldn't pass safety inspection, and I ended up with a ticket and with a cop telling me that it could be incentive for me to find money and fix my car. It's insane.

I get so burning mad every time I see the second graphic in that OP

So sadly true.

The fucking right wing morons tell us that GAY MARRIAGE threatens the traditional family. NOTHING threatens families like poverty. Nothing! I wish to god they could all live in your shoes for a week. They wouldn't survive.

How is this not a threat to families? They can't explain that. Poverty works hard at degrading the family. It rips up marriages, hurts families....

A moving violation for defective equipment will not only result in an expensive ticket (usually $100), but insurance surcharges that can stay on your record for years and add up to thousands of $$$.

And obviously, the people with the most defective equipment are the ones who simply can't afford to fix their cars. It's extremely regressive.

I guess I'm lucky that we don't have it show up on insurance.

The shit ain't right, and it is only getting worse.

I wish I had a solution.....

This is so wrong..... and it's why I want to kick repukes off the fucking planet........

And all I can say is we have to stand together....which is also a nauseating platitude.

We DO have to stand together.

And make sure the galaxy we send them to doesn't have any life-forms so they can't hurt any innocents.

With Teabag overlords who will utilize them as servants.

But being humiliated and eventually ostracized by other kids really crushes the spirit.

I wish you well.

He's out of the bubble when it comes to certain things - having gaming systems (everyone has a wii or xbox), going on vacations, visiting attractions - but I don't know if the kids are aware of poverty at this age. They're second grade. I hope not. My son has some mental health issues and a learning disability and he deals with enough shit from that. It's heartbreaking to think he could be made fun of for being poor.

It needs to be read by everyone. Full-stop, period, the end. Everyone in the country.

I've been there, just recently. A man in his mid-forties, working part-time in a book store for minimum wage and no benefits. Told I had to be "on call" for 30 hours a week when I was only given 10-18 hrs. a week of work. Standing at a counter ringing up right-wing customers, buying the usual right-wing books, who harangued me on their strident political views ("Obama-care" bad!--ditto gun control, gay rights and a minimum-wage hike) while my blistered feet leaked blood through holes in socks and shoes onto the floor. When a hundred-dollar traffic ticket precipitated an epic row with my understandably hyper-stressed, over-worked wife. (Yes, she--luckily--had full-time employment during my sojourn through the Slough of Despond.) What do we not pay this month? Utilities? Rent? Medical bills? What can wait: dental visit to relieve painful, growing tooth cavity? Diabetes medication? New glasses for failing vision?

I did, eventually, find a much better job and full-time employment.

I wish you and your husband the same.

But it shouldn't have to be this way. Our social safety net, average wage and full-time benefits should be much, much higher.

I'm so glad you made it through....
I hope the same for the OP


And I agree...EVERYONE should read this.

And my troubles? As nothing compared to some.

My heart goes out to the poster; I wish we could start a fund to help her. I'd be first in line (or on-line) to contribute.

It's always the working poor who are most generous in giving to others. Ironic, isn't it?

Anyway.....same here...

And my troubles are also nothing compared to others....

But still, you can't compare pains....
As California Peggy recently said on that subject--don't go there. You make yourself feel worse.

That's EXACTLY the site I was trying to think of.

Next Friday I'll be in a position to do something other than talk.

Hang in there! You are not alone.

I hope things continue to look up for you.

We're right there with picking and choosing over bills. And fights. This is bad, bad, bad for our marriage and the kids definitely sense the tension. As for traffic tickets...I'm right there, too. I wrote about getting one for not having proper inspection (couldn't afford the needed repairs) and it sent me into a really bad depressive episode. It wasn't pretty. And those are becoming more common unfortunately.

It should not be this way. There are no morals in allowing this to continue.

Truly; I do. It's what so many don't get: When there's no "give" in your tightly-stretched finances, everything that happens to you is a financial crisis: flat tire. Lost glasses. Paying monthly bills. Putting gas into the car. Tooth-ache. Medical problem. Etc.

And the stinging remarks of co-workers: "Is that masking tape on your jacket?" "Why don't you write some internet porn?" "You won't go to lunch with us but you just bought a paperback; how do you justify that?" "You can't be poor; you're white and have a car."

These are actual quotes; things I've heard from past co-workers at other jobs. I'm sure you have your own list of idiotic remarks people have delivered to your face.

Please know that I am pulling for you. I am hoping for the best; you will be on my mind in these coming weeks.

Again, thank you for posting. It's a tough, brutal and bruising economic reality out there that our D.C.-beltway overlords seem completely disconnected from.

And I even tried, but I suuuuuccckkkkk at that. I have also been told to strip. No one tells my husband to sell his body, but that has been suggested to me on many occasions.

I have been white-knuckle driving through my neighborhood because the potholes are everywhere. Something like tire damage would devastate us. Hell, gas devastates it. My son had a wart on his foot. His doc recommended a medication. Yeah, I nearly cried at CVS when I saw the $12.00 price tag and knew it was too much. My mom ended up buying it. My mom. At 35, I depend on my parents...who don't have money. Grrrr

Our country cannot have another election cycle like 2010.
Make sure everyone here votes and works to get others to vote!

We all need to be reminded of how bad things suck.

I'm almost 62 and I've never seen things this bad.
I've been out of work for more than 5 years, but thank heaven my husband has a job. If, Goddess forbid, he loses it, we'll be living the same story.

I will definitely keep posting here and in other places. And I'm definitely contacting politicians. I won't stop until things get better. Even if they get better for me, I won't stop until everyone else is okay, too.

I hope things stay steady for you and your husband.

Thanks.

Because when I got out of college, with debt (but not nearly the sort of debt college leaves folks with these days), it was the start of the Reagan era and the economy SUCKED. I was on my own with no family to support and I often went hungry for days on end. The national unemployment was something like 16% and the local situation was even worse.

You really write well. I wish folks in congress would have to read what you wrote. Especially THIS: "In what world is it even moral for a man to work three jobs and not be able to support his family."

We have to continue to help each other in our communities as long as repubicans keep blocking anything meant for the poor.

Thank you for posting this, and may things get better for you and your family soon.

I am big on help within the community. It makes a big difference.

Thank you.

upper decks haven't gotten their feet wet yet, but they will, it's just a matter of time. You can't run a country like this, but most politicians don't want to touch the third rail. Many economists know what's going on, they're not stupid, but they are silenced, mostly, by MSM and TPTB. Often, D = R = I when it comes to big bucks money. NO politician wants to disrupt their gravy train.

Right now we're the third class citizens with no chance of hopping on a lifeboat. It's sick.

But this thread hits really close to home. Nothing of value to say except that you are not alone...

I hope the teabaggers and their allies get stomped THIS year. And it won't be a minute too soon.

They need to be gone, gone, and gone. They've destroyed this country and they are happy to play their gilded violins while they watch the rest of us burn.

Last edited Fri Jan 17, 2014, 07:53 PM - Edit history (2)

Remember all that nonsense about "don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good"?

Guess what. You are living the "good". Lovin' it yet? It's gonna get harder...


I do like this line...

"I'm told everyday to just pray, stay graceful, or put positive thoughts out to the Universe and welcome abundance in my life. Fuck that shit. " < Exactly!

That's what you are told to do by people who want to keep you in your place, keep you from getting what they took from you, keep you from taking it back from their Masters. What the Salvation Army used to promise, and what became derided by the Wobblies as "pie in the sky".

If we can ever get smart enough to get together, brave enough to turn our back on people that are hurting us ( especially the ones who say they are on our side) we could wrest our freedom from the bastards that hold it now. Might be, probably would be, a harder life for awhile, but the wealthy would have to go find something else to do, and they might find it so unsafe they have to leave the country. Too bad. But it would get better for us.

I doubt it will happen before we collapse, however, and then it will be much harder, because everyone will be more frightened, being thrust into something they have never prepared for. Unfortunately one of the ways we are inducted into servitude is to teach people - early on - to laugh at each other for our clumsiness in learning, clumsiness that is natural and an inseparable part of learning. And that makes just trying to learn new things harder than it needs to be.

We would be more independent and stronger if we learned how to push one another toward that something better we get when we work for everyone's good.

But this ain't that place.

Good luck...

I'm in the UK so I don't have quite the same anxieties. My healthcare is taken care of (until the bastard scum Tories finish privatizing the NHS), for example. But I'm disabled. I can only walk slowly, with crutches and I suffer from a collection of mental disorders (MDD, GAD, "visions" and voices) that make me completely non-functional for at least part of most days. So I'm on disability. I know the struggle it is to make ends meet, how you never have quite enough. And I know the stigma, how people judge you. We don't use the term "moocher" here, the British term is "benefit scrounger" but it's the same parcel of ignorance and lies and judgement and Victorian notions of the "undeserving poor". I'm suicidal at least part of most days but what keeps me going are my cats (here, there's a charity called the PDSA that provides free vet care to poor people).

Just hold on. Pray if it helps you or not if it doesn't but hold on. That's really all we can do.

I'm sorry to hear you struggle as well.

I haven't missed voting in any local/state/federal election since 1972. It hasn't done a bit of good over the last 15 years. I've volunteered at our shelters (teen and adult), collected food, helped with fund-raisers, but it's all run by churches and they don't much appreciate my lack of belief. My husband has held his job for 13 years; our retirement savings are nonexistent, due to medical expenses and ungodly! rents. This is heavily military area, and base housing is inadequate; the military-subsidized off-base housing allowances have driven most of us working poor to extremely substandard housing. Most of my friends, and remember we're in our 60's, live in "dry" housing - no running water, with outhouses. They don't do so by choice. In-town, on-grid rentals start at around $800 a month for a one-room efficiency, and you're lucky if there are any utilities at all included.

And I get where you're coming from when someone tells you to move somewhere cheaper! (A) WHERE? and (B) HOW????

Perhaps we will survive. Your children alone are worth it!