Thursday, May 1, 2014

The war on the poor... Again


Sometimes it is really hard to get on here, stand on my soap box, and talk.  I think what I say has merit, some others of like mind feel that what I say has merit, but really with Facebook wanting money to promote pages and posts, and having limited access to other forms of social media, it makes it hard.  But here I am, ever a bull, always with my head down, pushing forward.  If I retreat I will age prematurely, if I stop altogether I will surely die a thousand deaths, and be remembered for none of them.

 As I sit here today, faced with another bleak day before me, I must say, it is pleasant outside my meager abode.  I filled out job applications once again, many to companies I have already applied to, some new ones I found.  A few local companies, but many in other areas, I stopped to check my email, and notice that #PaulRyan has another hearing about the War on Poverty, in which experts are coming to testify.  These experts though are merely learned people, they learned about poverty in a book.  I am an expert on poverty in the real world.  People like +Larry Dillon+Witchy Ways, and so many others I know today.  If he wanted real experts on the matter he would have the likes of us step before congress.  I would gladly go again, even if the likes of #Ted Kennedy are gone.  Funny story, Teddy boy there grabbed my mothers arse before a hearing, and she nearly beat the crap out of him in the hallway.  An inside joke you see, he knew her as a child.

But this indicates a larger problem in the halls of our congress.  Many do not identify with the poor, they do not know what it is to be poor, many were sheltered from it as children, others have forgotten their roots.  I will say that if they want the truth of poverty in the US, do not go to the guys who study it, come down to our level, get people on the front lines of the war.  The people who get help from the system, those who fall through the gaping holes in the net.  We can give you all you want and then some. 

#BishopShirleyHolloway, founder of the #HouseofHelpCityofHope is quoted as saying that "people on food stamps do not dream."  No, we dream in our fitful slumber, we dream of what it would be like to eat on more than a few hundred dollars a month, we dream of days gone by.  Some even dream of a better future, where they are not on food stamps.  Its torture to depend on food banks for a meal, just because your food stamps otherwise do not support anything more than a handful of meals a week.  But that is one of Ryan's experts.  All this is, a dog and pony show down in Mexico, to show the evils of welfare and the war on poverty.  That by offering a hand out/up people become complacent with their lot (which is part of their message), and they need to be gone, so people can starve in the streets, like that never really happens in the real world of America.  But it does happen, even when people are getting that hand out, and its not always because they are lazy alcoholics or drug users #Mr.BenStein.  Sometimes no matter how much you save, no matter how frugal you are, you simply do not have enough.  But you do not understand, most of the people who feel that way have enough to support themselves and thousands of others many times over.  I would say that the segment I just reference hasn't stepped foot inside a grocery store in years, they do not see sizes getting smaller, while the price increases.

But it goes further than their war on anti-poverty programs, it goes further than their desire to never see the minimum wage increase again.  These people think we are animals.  And I must give fair warning, we will become what we are made to be.  I once wrote a paper in a Criminal Justice class about shoplifting.  What drives people to do it?  Well you have some people who do it for kicks, sometimes it is a simple mistake (you throw something small in a cart, and then grab larger items, and when you unload your cart at the car...), but you have many others who do it to survive.  They steal food for themselves and their kids. 

Who said that you ask?  #Dr.AnnetteBosworth implied that.  On her campaign page, which is oddly promoted better than most honest bloggers I know ( See +Jerry Walker), was posted the meme you see as the picture of this post.  So far that sucker has been shared 59,000+ times, which means it has reached several thousand more.  As for likes, it has shy of 10,000, and several comments.  I could go on and on about the meme itself, my view of it.  But lets just let everyone take it in, make their own call on it.  In the meantime I will point out some things to her.  Good to know this woman, this conservative, this .... seems to think that the poor are wild animals.  One commenter sagely noted that people on welfare programs are dependent on them, but these are also the same people who ask if you want to supersize your fries, mop the floors, stock your local Wal-Mart, and a host of other jobs.  If I would have had children, I would have been on food stamps, and while I worked I would have been responsible for millions of dollars worth of equipment, and coal used to fire power plants (well, that is if it wasn't sent overseas.)

To Mr. Ryan, Dr. Bosworth, the libertarians, and the rest of the conservatives, we are animals, animals you created with the policies you created and you support.  Our instincts come from trying to survive in a very cold and cruel world.  You made us, and you can unmake us.  But this brings us a much larger question.  If the poor are animals as you profess, what does that make the master who refuses to care for the animals it has under its protection?  Sure you look human on the outside, but what are you under that mask?  Keep going with the rhetoric, keep going.  We outnumber you all, even if you gathered up every libertarian and conservative, rich, middle class, or poor, we will always outnumber you.

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