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And by the grace of God go I? My life has nothing to do with Gods grace. God has let me make my own way in life and the life I've chosen didn't leave me homeless. Buy the way, when my youngest son and my youngest brother were living in their cars, it was of their own making. Thankfully my son has changed his ways, but my brother died an alcoholic after a too short and wasted life. He had family and friends that tried to help him, but if you don't try to help yourself your life is your own CHOICE. |
care for the sick and poor
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Matthew 25:40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' |
We have different perpectives!
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I'm happy your son has found his way and I'm sorry for your brother. Please believe that. I have a cousin much like your brother, so I know, no matter how much someone tries, sometimes, it's just not enough. Again, that is why I, personally, count my blessings. Many turns in the road are quick and unexpected. Some cannot handle them, and some have no one on this planet that cares enough to help them. I would never presume to lump all homeless people into a group of alcoholics and drug addicts. It's just not true. Many are war veterans that deserved better. My own Godfather is still dealing with the aftermath of his injuries in Vietnam. He is not homeless, but there were times in his youth that he was a hair away. Many have lost their jobs and can't find one, losing their homes and being dumped like trash on the street. I don't mean to rant, but ever since I was a little girl, since I first realized that some people had nowhere to call home, this has been a cause of mine. It breaks my heart. And I can't believe, that in this country, we still have even one homeless person. :ohdear: |
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I am with gnu on this one. Chelsea, that is the whole point of the story, IMHO. Let’s say that you and I agree that we are blessed and feel the need to help out those less fortunate. What we disagree on is how to do it. You want to forcibly appropriate money from the citizenry through taxation and redistribute it to the needy. I have a very real problem with that. I want to voluntarily give money to agencies that would help the poor. This does not even consider the efficacy of the cost of the redistribution vs. the cost of private philanthropy. When the government gets involved, it gets real expensive.
I respect and understand your position, I just cannot share it. |
I'll chime in with my personal experiences in the Boston area from the 1980s when "compassion fatigue" started to set in.
I lived (as I still do) in New Hampshire and commuted (as I no longer do) to Boston for work. I saw (and dodged) the homeless every day. The majority of them, but by no means all, fell into the following categories. - Drunks - Drug addicts - Mentally imparied Let me talk about the last item there for a bit. The mentally impaired. These are the people I saw barely existing on the street. Defecating in the subway - on the stairs at Kenmore station to be precise. Trying to smoke on a subway train. Screaming at demons only they could see. This was a big issue amongst homeless advocated in the Boston area. They kept screaming about how the cuts from the Reagan administration had put these people out on the street. Except that they were lying. The state hospitals were closed by governor Michael Dukakis years before Reagan was elected President. But it was so convenient to blame Reagan (instead of the guy who was still in office who'd closed the hospitals in the first place) that they just kept singing that song. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they were misinformed. There really weren't all that many (as a percentage of the whole) homeless who were "down on their luck. I grant you, those are the ones I want to help out. Those are the ones that I've brought food to in the past. They started a program in Boston where you could buy these orange coupons which could be redeemed for meals at dozens of places around the city. they thought it was a great way for people to give handouts and know that their money was going for something good, as opposed to booze and cigarettes. It was loudly played up in the local news - great fanfare when it started. But the program didn't last. I forget how long it last but it didn't even make it a couple of years. The street people didn't want the coupons. They, by and large, wanted cash. Personally I think that the people who were truly in a bad situation out of their control were too ashamed to take that kind of help. We'd see ads on TV about a mother and two kids living in a station wagon - but it turned out there just weren't that many of them in Boston. The real tragedy, as I saw it, were the homeless vets. at the time, it was inconceivable to me that there could be such a thing. after all, the service trained you, gave you a trade (or so the ads said) and you had skill along with lifelong benefits. That's when the stories of returning vets with mental problems crept out. It's sinful that we put these people in that position - who signed up to possibly give their life for their country - and this is what they got... Again, the questions have far more complex answers than we would like.... |
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