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Guests today are actor Steve Gelder and correspondent Rev. Jeffrey Brunk.
Let Them Eat… Nothing
An Orlando ordinance restricts food donors to feeding groups of 25 or more two times per year in public spaces. A federal court ruled the ordinance unconstitutional in 2008, deciding that Food Not Bomb's activities are a protected form of free speech. But in April, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the earlier ruling. Consequently, members of the activist group who are trying to bring awareness of the plight of the growing number of homeless have been repeatedly arrested for putting their money where hungry mouths are.
This isn’t a problem of those “shiftless vagrants” who are too lazy to get a job and expect the hard-working American public to carry them. My people -you need to grasp this – THAT America, where the middle class were busy pursuing the lovely grail of the American Dream is gone. The people who are homeless – they could easily be your family, your friends, your loved ones… it could just as easily be you. They are not there because they have nothing to offer society. The growing number of homeless are hungry and without homes because our society has collapsed. There aren’t enough jobs. Their homes have been repossessed due to a corrupt system. Some are the handicapped that are now out on the streets, unable to care for themselves because budget cuts have closed the programs we tried to put in place to help them. The consequences of a collapsed economy with not enough jobs have families living in cars, squatting in abandoned homes, sleeping in cardboard boxes, shanty communities, and going hungry while they try to hang on. It’s a vicious catch-22 nightmare that is nearly impossible to climb out of and which our leadership – which we elected - has all but ignored – as if the homeless will vanish if you don’t have to look at them. Now, when we need to REALLY be making aid a priority because the number of homeless is growing like crazy, we are instead allowing laws to be passed that punish anyone trying to help.
This problem will get worse. It will become one of our biggest nightmares. Think back to the great depression when the cries of misery in this country rang so loud that we remember it still, generations later. The recession will force around 2 million people into homelessness over the next year. A recent report cites “major increases in the number of homeless in 19 out of the 25 states.” That doesn’t even take into account the huge numbers of “new adults” that have to sleep on friends’ sofas or stay with parents because they can’t find a job; can’t start their own lives. You know that American Dream of their OWN home, where they can start their OWN family? These young adults are unable to contribute to society due to no fault of their own. They live in limbo. From 2008 to 2009, the number of unemployed in America increased by 60 percent from 8.9 to 14.3 million impacting heavily on the existing homeless situation. Just imagine what that number will be next year and the year after.
Don’t let them snatch food from the mouths of the hungry. Don’t. The scary truth is, unless you are one of the wealthy few, the person that might not be fed tomorrow might be you.
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Contributed by Jeffrey Brunk:
"Welcome to America. You Want Combo?"
Welcome to America. A smorgasbord of opportunity awaits those who relocate to our fine, fat country. America is, after all, the land of the free and home of the Whopper. The numbers are out, rounded-off, so to speak, and the numbers are getting larger. One out of three Americans is obese. Not pudgy or ‘soft’ but obese. To try and put this in context, ponder this a moment: According to the CDC, in 2009 there were 33 states that were greater than or equal to 25% of the population classified as being obese and 9 of those 33 were equal to or greater than 30% of the population classified as being obese.
Talk about a growing population. Now it seems that immigrants to the land of milk and honey are swelling at the same rate as America’s home-grown populace. Apparently, being an American requires one to eat like an American which, in turn, causes one to eventually look like an American … fat and saggy.
America is now one of the world’s most overweight countries. This past week, I was at Disney World and marveled at the irony of the size of the people entering and exiting the ‘It’s a Small World’ attraction. I figure that it only a matter of time until the ‘Small World’ attraction features twirling, dancing and singing robotic obese children. There are those who go as far as to claim that parents of obese children are guilty of child abuse.
Our nation’s thundering herd is being blamed on everything from genetics to media to the workplace and technology. Technology? What does a serving of Google and a side of iPad taste like, anyway?
Truth be known, I suppose blame can be assigned to nearly anything when it comes to the blubbering-up of America, much like almost everything causes cancer. But when it comes down to the meat of the matter, the only cause of America’s population enlargement is a working jawbone. Each of us has one and most of us know how to use it. It’s just that many have no idea how to let the jaws rest.
Yes, welcome to America, brethren from afar. In order better serve you and enhance your experience, please pull around to the window and have your money ready. That’s how we roll in the U. S. of A.
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Letter Sent today by Breaking Taboo Guest Steve Gelder:
2 comments:
economics - the allocation of a scarce resource.
i suspect your country would fail economics 101. we might get a c or maybe a c+ if the grader was in a good mood.
Thanks for your article, really useful information.
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