The rich get richer and the soup lines get longer
The line of hungry people outside Sisters of The Roads stretched about a block Tuesday afternoon. I didn't recognize many of the faces. Talking with people I heard stories of police beating up homeless in Seattle, San Francisco harassing people on the street and then offering them bus tickets out of town and homeless people being killed in Los Angeles.
I spent three years living on the streets of Portland, standing in lines at the missions, waiting at night for the emergency shelter to open and waiting to get a shower in the morning. I came to recognize the faces, knew the stories, and even remembered a few names. Though the game remains the same the faces have changed.
Portland has housed 600 chronically homeless in the last two years. You might think that would make a difference but what I see are longer lines and more competition for cheap housing, jobs, shelter space and longer meals lines.
Portland cannot end homelessness by itself. Laws, prejudice, and violence against homeless people are sending them shuffling around the country hoping for a start somewhere else. Not all the new homeless in Portland are from out of town. Most are locals who can no longer make ends meet. It looks like the start of another depression.
The flip side of this is the stock market is rising and the wealthy are getting a larger and larger share of the pie. The top 1% of received 57.7% of total income after taxes in 2005. The disparity in wages between employees and CEO's was 30-1 in 1970 today the disparity is 300-1.
Then you have out of state national groups coming into our state financing initiatives like T.A.B.O.R.. They are trying to cut taxes for the wealthy even more. The cuts come in needed services. They sell there ideas in sound bites to people too busy to find out the truth. In a democracy the media has a responcibility to educate the public. Instead they are bought and paid for by corporate interests.
This irritates me to the point of writing these columns, doing volunteer work and talking to people who grate on my last nerve because they are so programmed into beleiving the propoganda perpetuated by main stream media.
I spent three years living on the streets of Portland, standing in lines at the missions, waiting at night for the emergency shelter to open and waiting to get a shower in the morning. I came to recognize the faces, knew the stories, and even remembered a few names. Though the game remains the same the faces have changed.
Portland has housed 600 chronically homeless in the last two years. You might think that would make a difference but what I see are longer lines and more competition for cheap housing, jobs, shelter space and longer meals lines.
Portland cannot end homelessness by itself. Laws, prejudice, and violence against homeless people are sending them shuffling around the country hoping for a start somewhere else. Not all the new homeless in Portland are from out of town. Most are locals who can no longer make ends meet. It looks like the start of another depression.
The flip side of this is the stock market is rising and the wealthy are getting a larger and larger share of the pie. The top 1% of received 57.7% of total income after taxes in 2005. The disparity in wages between employees and CEO's was 30-1 in 1970 today the disparity is 300-1.
Then you have out of state national groups coming into our state financing initiatives like T.A.B.O.R.. They are trying to cut taxes for the wealthy even more. The cuts come in needed services. They sell there ideas in sound bites to people too busy to find out the truth. In a democracy the media has a responcibility to educate the public. Instead they are bought and paid for by corporate interests.
This irritates me to the point of writing these columns, doing volunteer work and talking to people who grate on my last nerve because they are so programmed into beleiving the propoganda perpetuated by main stream media.
posted by Dan @ 6:41 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
The homeless and poor of Redding and Shasta County are facing a terrible crisis, with the problem growing to epidemic proportions. Seems as though the Good News Rescue Mission, the largest supplier of charitably prepared meals and lodging in Redding, with over a million dollar operating budget, is facing a lawsuit from local home owners in the area, accusing them of drawing the down and out to a neighborhood that prefers to think of itself as up and coming. The mission's administrative answer is to increase its restrictions on who may or may not be served meals and service, with a dramatic increase of the poor and destitute being restricted and "banned" from the most basic necessities of life, ( food, shelter, showers, etc...) Furthermore, the desire of the administration of the rescue mission is to circulate this "banned" list to other charitable Christian organizations who provide similar services, fully expecting them to also deny services to those who need it most...Hoping they simply leave..........
What has already been the result of this measure ? Redding Loaves and Fishes is seeing and hearing the stories of this unfortunate decision, with testimonials of those being banned, and the reasons why, approaching ludicrous. Redding Loaves and Fishes is already being over burdened with an increase of people in economic crisis. This new influx of the unwanted of the unwanted, threatens to destroy Redding Loaves and Fishes ministry......
No where did Jesus or His disciples , when distributing the miracle of the mulitplying loaves and fishes ,stop and say to any of them, "I cant feed you, your a sinner". When we turn those away, who need Jesus's love the most, we deny the Holy Spirit a chance to work through us, to give what is needed most, Faith, Hope, and Love...
Jesus compels us to immitate Him, and when Jesus says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you", we at Redding Loaves and Fishes, by the Grace of God, desire to do the same. We will not partake of, nor inforce this "banned " list. Why ? Jesus says, "When you do this to these the least of the breathern, you do it to Me." We will take and serve those "unwanted of the unwanted", in Jesus name.
http://www.reddingloavesandfishes.com/
10:11 PM
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