I'm really sad right now. I hate seeing homeless people. i mean I really do. I feel so sad for them that they have no place to live. And here I am in my warm little room. And it really sucks during the winter thinking of all the people out there that have no place to go. Why does there have to be homeless people? It's really not fair that some have more than others. I mean I get that some people have alot because they worked for it. But if you have an overabundance of wealth you should atleast try to put alittle back into the world. I mean come on do you really need 2.5 million sitting on the bank. what are you going to do with it when you die? Have it buried with you? It makes me sad to think that America's are really that greedy. I would want someone to help me if I was down on my luck..wouldn't you? I really feel like crying over this..and this isn't the first time this semester I've felt like this. and i try to help...but im only one person..
I know how you feel.. I feel bad for people who have less than me or worse luck... things happen for some reasons though. Sometimes people are homeless because the brought it on themselves, sometimes not.. Which is even worse is poor families. And yeah the fact that so many people are greedy with food and money is awful. I try to give what I can but its not like I have very much money.. People are greedy and selfish and that just sucks.
It's sad that you youngsters will never know the world I grew up in. In the sixties and the seventies there were no homeless. There were county hospitals that provided free health care, and homing. But here in California Reagan turned those people and the mental hospital patients that had been subsidized by the state out on the streets to balance his budget and create tax cuts for the wealthy. Now we have the great privatized care system that was sold to us, and the weak and the poor have to fend for themselves.
Our current world condition forces us to be like that in-order to survive. Altruism and sharing aren't profitable. Sharing is losing and our current world condition is all about gaining and haording.
Why is it that profit and productivity are the key words of this century. Why can't peace and humanity be seen as just as important.
Is that the type of world you want to raise your kids in, one that values the dollar more than the person?
If you allow that to become the wisdom of the world, that's the world you are wishing on your children.
That world is our current world. In some places without the dollar you will not even exist as a person. Today, every little thing involves the dollar. People wake up to make a dollar in-order to live the next day. Everything is to be bought and sold.
Not everything is for sale. My soul and my ethics are not for sale. And when I hear young people selling out their futures for current security it makes me sad. But it's your choice. There are posers and players using your fears to make you feel that way. They manipulate your fears for their profit. They are laughing in backrooms all over the place, like Enron laughed about the crisis in California. There are more important things going on in the world and life than money. If you choose to sell those very things that make you an individual, you are no longer truly alive or a real person.
Even ethics and souls are for sale not yours but others. Pay a poor scientist the right amount of dollars and he will produce any results you like or pay a congressperson the right amount of dollars and you make them do anything. Back to the thread, most people are too busy with their own lives and insecurities to worry and care about social ills like homelessness, poverty, war, and injustices. And the system make sures people are like that, so they do not act or rebel.
Iam giving away most of my possesions to the poor .Iam gonna keep one pair of pants 1 shirt and a pair of sandals maybe a book or ttwo (i love boooks) I have so much useless jewelery like fossil watches and gold chains and braclets.Maybe if a homeless person gets a pair of my clothes or a watch it might make his or her life just a little better.I cant stand being so spolied anymore when i go in the streets and see homeless begging for change.I already gave all my coats to them .You should see the expressions on these peoples faces just one coat can bring happiness to them.
I try to help as much as I can but it's kinda hard when you're 13, no way to get a job, and broke yourself. I give when the Salvation Army's out and I try not to throw anything away. It does suck because sometimes you just wish that you could blink and it'd be all good again. But I'll never wish to be like the ones that don't see. That's a fate worse than death, to my eyes anyway.
A sense of community I think is key. Get involved and don't let businesses do things like Target did last year by banning Salvation Army bell ringers in front of their stores. Because it put off customers. There was a time when the US looked after those less prosperous, but all of a sudden it's about image and marketing. My parents and grandparents I think were responsible in their time for seeing to it that everyone was taken care of. They had experienced the depression and World War II, and they understood what deprivation was. They reached out and shared what they had so that the lot of lesser individuals were made better. They voted for safety nets and protections, because they and their families had experienced rock bottom. They didn't mind paying into Social Security even if both of my parents never received full benefits. They fell in that period of years where they weren't given full credit for their contributions. But to them it was something to be proud of because it secured a basic lifestyle for the elderly and the infirmed. It seems nowadays we only look at what can make ourselves successful, and we don't consider any of the others. We buy into promises that if the wealthy are given tax breaks they will pass their good fortune on. I haven't seen that work during my lifetime.
if anyone really wanted to change things they would go out there and vote!!! the government should be used to help the people and the only way for that to happen is for the people to help themselves. The only way, it seems, that we can help ourselves at this point is to take back our country fromthis tyranical rule! I agree that we need to focus more on the "have nots" I am always thankful for what i have, because so many people do not have things they need. But in the same respect, i work for what i have. And someone can always pull themselves up. And i think more than simple charity, we need to teach people to be able to provide for themselves. This again goes back to the whole government thing. We need to educate people, and this is the biggest problem in america today. The government is trying to keep people down, and we have fight that! I love my country, but i hate what its become. Reagan ruined a beautiful thing and it is so sad! I feel sad too... i dont think everyone should put so much emphatsis on money, sure, its nice to have, but mostly its nice to share. i wish to have more money so that i can make a difference and maybe just buy a house for myself. But i dont need money for money's sake... i just want to be happy. peace, love, and christmas merriment.
Both it's the individual's responsibility to see the need and act on it. It's the Government's role to legislate and protect the rights and well being of it's citizens. Not every person can pull themselves up. A sixty five year old widow in bad health has few resources of her own, a single parent working two jobs sometimes needs assistance with childcare in order to continue to provide. I am tired of constantly being told it's up to the individual, at the same time we are told that businesses should not be held accountable for also providing for their workforce. That's bullshit and their capital gains and estates should be prepared to contribute to the overall wellfare of the nation that they are constantly wanting to protect them legally and fiducially. When they start in again about doing away with what the republicans' like to call a "death tax"...think again, it's an estate tax. Wealthy suckers are inheriting millions and crying about paying taxes on their windfalls. Yet Joe Blow is supposed to work for minimum wage at two jobs, pay his own health insurance, exhoribitant utility and fuel bills and try to send his kids to college, as the fees for college increase every year.
im constantly surounded by homeless people, I founded highwaychild, which is a nomadic tribe we travell around and try to create community, getting people most of the homless working together tosurvive better.... but heres what I have found, not once in the last year, did I meet one homeless guy who didnt do it as a lifestyle. they live on their own terms, flying a sign , that means when you see people holding a sign at a rampor at the end of a parking lot, is increadibly lucerative, think about the light that you are at and watch how many give that dude a dollar, then the next, then the next, that guys ranging from smaller cities and outskirts of towns, about 100 dollars an hour, you fly a sign for a while, not long enough to burn it out, then spend your money on what you want...... im just saying this so you wont feel "too bad " for them. I am sure some dont want to live that way anymore, havnt met one yet, though Im sure theyll tell you that when your giving them money, I still give cash to anyone I see flying, ive flown before its good karma, I od think there should be less places feeding people, too many kids out there live "free" so do I, I just dont live off of the system, we live off our own works as much as possible I dont think you should put a roof over people so they can spend what money they do have on drugs.,....it doenst help them, it helps them continue their lifestyle. if you wanna live out of the system, then believe in that and dont take from the system, a lot of kids out there liove away from babylon, most of them or a lot of them have "kitchen" buses they take from the systems food banks, and do urban feedings, rainbow kitchens and so forth........ thats my rant
i saw the tyra show the other day and they did a segment on homelessness. some citys will arrest you for feeding them or giving them money. also, some stores and resturaunts wont even let them in. it is so sad...
