90 year old man (and two pastors) arrested for feeding the homeless

And you know what? I agree with what they did for these poor people. Their were given a chance by the community helping them through efforts of a fundraising.

Now the homeless on the streets that Abbott feeds, are they given this path? Or are they simply given money so that they can go happy back to the streets? See the difference. Help must come with a path to salvation.

What Abott is doing is like giving food to the local family in Harrisburg that you mentioned and not giving them what they really need...which is a way to get back into work/housing/transportation.

Abott isn't giving money though... he's giving them food. You can live without money... it's kind of hard to live without food...
 
You mean like putting them in a prison..?

Yes, curbing their freedoms so that they are removed from your sight is a great solution.

What is wrong with some of you people?

No , like putting them in a HOSPITAL which I did mention.

They could leave anytime they want as long as they aren't trying to harm themselves or others. Once they leave they can't return if they are drunk/drugged or injured.

Nothing is "wrong" with me whenever I state an opinion for I'm given rights to do so just as you are. Just because we don't see eye to eye on something doesn't mean there anything wrong with either of us.
 
Agreed, back in the day, I worked as an EMT in a major metropolitan area. I spent many hours on the street. I saw a good number of homeless folks in my decade working the streets as an EMT. Most of the homeless were victims of mental illness, they were addicted to drugs and alcohol. I would include a number of those with criminal convictions in that group as well. But just because these people face difficult problems, it doesn't follow that we should walk away from them. They need assistance and we should give meaningful assistance that will help them cope and manage their illnesses...not just throw a few bucks their way on occasion. I view this as a healthcare problem more than a homeless problem. Homelessness is more a symptom of deeper problems. We treat a host of diseases, but some reason we stigmatize the mentally ill and that excuses our neglect.
I can't agree with you more. And I failed to mention county ERs as another place the poor also congregate, as you well know. I think youreyes is illustrating the attitude that obstructs the goals your logic leads to.

Nothing is more outrageous than blaming the victim, or to assume that someone deserves poverty and despair.

Then we have those who choose to be homeless. It is a life style. I wouldn't call these people lazy. As you note, their lifestyle requires a lot of work on their part. But these people for whatever reason have chosen to opt out.
In fact recently I was speaking with a homeless guy who seems to have gone from the Bohemian lifestyle to a menial federal job. For some reason he decided to go back to Plan A. I suspect he may be a light occasional drug user, so maybe he wanted to get away from drug tests. But he is educated and well read, and can expound on this topic better than me. Sure, he's in the minority, but with a wave of aging Baby Boomers we may see some increase in this class of homeless people. After all, one reason people become unemployable is that age discrimination is alive and kicking.
I would include the deceivers and manipulators in this group. I'll never forget a guy named Manuel Hernandez, he was a master at this lifestyle. He had the system down. I'll never forget Manuel. He was a master at his craft.
Funny, isn't it, that the Manuels of the homeless world could probably make a killing in sales or some corporate executive position. If they could just function a little better and get their foot in the door.

And then there are those who have just fallen on hard times, and need a little help getting their lives back together.
I turned to public assistance just as I was nearing my BS degree, when an administrative error interrupted my loans and grants. I was surprised how much the caseworker worked to increase my benefits. I said "I thought your job was to trim costs". And I'll never forget, she said "I am. When you get your degree and enter the workforce your taxes will pay this back many times over." And of course she was right.

If you believe that government should be used to facilitate opportunity for everyone and are better for it as a society as I believe, then we have an obligation to help these folks out. Yeah it will be expensive but as Tiassa notes, we can afford it and we will all be rewarded with a more efficient, effective, healthy and stronger society. To our so called "conservative" friends I would note our current system of handling the homeless is inefficient and expensive. Writing off human potential is extraordinarily expensive.
You would think common sense would be enough to figure that out. I have detested Conservative ideals all my life even though I run my own affairs conservatively. The adage that comes to mind as far as the cost of action vs inaction is Franklin's "penny-wise vs. pound foolish". Ironically this is one of the heavily applied ideals of fiscal conservatives in regard to business decisions.
 
you know what, all these homeless got sobbing stories of how they got abused by their fathers, or someone in their family died, or their house burned out. Well it's all excuses.
Drug or alcohol addiction stemming from childhood sex abuse is not an excuse. It's a serious mental health issue. Many victims also commit suicide.

I don't make excuses, I work on getting out of whatever ***t I get into, without any government or old 90 year old men's help.
Your confidence in your self-sufficiency will wax and wane with your physical and mental health, age, number of dependents and external pressures which will vary over time. Nothing lasts forever, other than human misery and deliberate indifference to it.
There are many ways to salvation without begging for food scrams. Sure I could have done the same thing this woman did, told about my lifes miseries and stood looooooong hours in soup line and suffered and suffered and suffered and bragged about it to everyone who listened, and did absolutely nothing to improve my life.
Yet you are bragging that you are self sufficient. By contrast she brags about nothing, nor does she complain. I extracted her life story by interviewing her. She was not trying to advertise anything. The only pride I noted in her is that she refuses to sink to the last resort of many women in her situation, namely, prostitution.
And guess what addiction, is their fault.
You don't know that. Once a person's self esteem has been irreparably damaged they can no longer be measured by your ideals of guilt and innocence.
They decided to ride the high life, well take the responsibility for that. Pay the price.
Escape from intractible pain is not "the high life". Often it's an alternative to suicide. "The high life" pertains to, say, coke and alcohol users living in resorts. We are talking here about people who are dirt poor.

You know what I just came to this town in California and I love it, but recently some idiot teenager killed his girlfriend while driving drunk on a motorcycle. Now her mini cross is standing next to the road spot where she died. Well the small population of the town starting talking telling each other how unfortunate this young man is that he is now in a coma and will face many years in prison. WELL guess what, he DESERVES it. Take the responsibility for your actions man, you drank that bottle, you took that girl, that girl is dead, so now stay in jail.
And that attitude would disqualify you as a juror.

I don't know him, nor am I a party to the facts, so I am not in a position to judge him. But I have worked with people who woke up in jail out of a chemical stupor to discover they had done something heinous while they were not competent to be responsible for their actions. Some went on to serve life in prison, for a brief lapse in judgment.

Unfortunately sensational cases like the death of a young woman are often tried in the press. Now make the victim a middle aged Pakistani man and no one cares.
I had not applied for any shelter and have not applied for any food stamps, I am better than that,
So you think poverty is a flaw. That too is counterproductive to the ends of this thread.

and I have proved myself.
Your feelings of self worth are ephemeral. You will not be the same person forever, and if you live to a ripe old age, or suffer an injury illness it disability then at some point your feelings of invulnerability will change. Most likely you will have to stoop to the indignity of depending on help from family, friends or medical providers.

You seem to be expressing loner syndrome which is a precursor to the same criminal flaws you are complaining about. Of course about half of all inmates are not loners and stay emotionally connected to loved ones while incarcerated. Thus, when you start raining brimstone and fire on the folks you want to lock up, you punish their children, their mothers, and everyone else who cares about them.

But I guess you're OK with that as long as it makes you feel good. After all, this is all about you and your feelings.

Meanwhile she is still addicted and is a vampire of society feeding off emotions and tears and etc.
The woman I discussed is living by salvaging discarded goods. She doesn't fit your characterization at all other than the fact that she is a drug addict.
Yes I know it is hard to get off drug addiction,
That's why it's called recovery.

but the path is still there, is her choice to suffer or live a beautiful rich life.
No, addiction is not a choice, not once the first bad choice was made. Besides, many addictions begin with a doctor's prescription.

And no, she will not live by your idealized model, nor will she live much longer. If her illness doesn't kill her quickly she will probably kill herself.
 
No, addiction is not a choice, not once the first bad choice was made. Besides, many addictions begin with a doctor's prescription.

And no, she will not live by your idealized model, nor will she live much longer. If her illness doesn't kill her quickly she will probably kill herself.

Oh really addiction is not a choice? Than how did it all start for her?

And saying she will probably kill herself, is like expecting her to commit suicide and doing nothing about it...

Why are you acting like a marshmallow? people have strength and power of will and the ability to overcome any problems they face.

As people get old so will I get old, sure. But will my fighting spirit die in me? NO.
 
Oh really addiction is not a choice?

What I said was addiction is not a choice, not once the first bad choice was made. Besides, many addictions begin with a doctor's prescription.

Than how did it all start for her?
I don't know. Most likely she grabbed the first feeling of euphoria made available of her, to kill the pain of being raped by someone she trusted, in the wake of grieving the loss of her mother.

That's why I say you can't assume that poverty and despair is self-inflicted. You have to treat the systemic causes. If you want to separate established and homeless people according to guilt and innocence, then the world would be turned upside down. In this case her abuser would be punished by homelessness and she would be fully healed and living as an established productive person.

And saying she will probably kill herself, is like expecting her to commit suicide and doing nothing about it...
Addicts do irrational things when the pain becomes intolerable. Like getting more drugs. Many resort to burglary after they have nothing left to trade for drugs.

In her case she has attempted suicide in the past, and in all probability she will try it again. As she approaches the expected date of her demise, I think that decision will be mitigated by the hospital tending to her final care. But they will deny her the illegal drugs she needs to stave off the pain of withdrawal. My conclusion then is that rather than face a final term of confinement to bed suffering from withdrawal, I believe she will probably pull off a successful suicide. I say this because she has thought about why her past attempts failed and how to do it differently to assure "success".

There is nothing anyone can do to change her, short of kidnapping her, strapping here to a table against her will, and inserting a feeding tube. That plus something like electroshock therapy, to try to erase her memories.

Why are you acting like a marshmallow?
I have no idea what you mean by that. I expend enormous personal energy helping people like her.

people have strength and power of will and the ability to overcome any problems they face.
If that were remotely true there would be no misery on Earth. Every concentration camp inmate would be hale and hearty and full of cheer and the walls of the gas chambers at Auschwitz would not be abraded by a million human fingernails. All of the wars and atrocities of history would have cowboys riding off into the sunset at the end and we would all have Beaver Cleaver as our next door neighbor. I mean even in Darfur or Somalia or Syria or any other hellhole you name. Of course they would be picture perfect places with nicely manicured lawns and white picket fences. So we would be calling them heaven holes.

As people get old so will I get old, sure. But will my fighting spirit die in me? NO.
Bully for you. Now watch how you hold up to rape, incarceration, genocide, torture, or any of the equivalent misfortunes more likely to be visited upon the people driven into homelessness. Start looking at the real world, which crushes people like bugs when it's "in the national interest" or whatever the excuse is.

Of course: you're special, and the less fortunate homeless are not, right? That's what I meant when I said this is all about you. That's being a marshmallow. Now try making it all about them. That's the part that takes the guts you say you're made of.
 
There are more alcoholic homeless than drug dependant ones because wine is very cheap but some drugs cost quite a bit. I've seen where the homeless shelters will not allow them into their shelter for fear of fights, sleeplessness and general bedlam that they bring with them.
 
means dont calculate the goodness and badness in every action. Be spontantenous.

Spontaneous? Are you kidding me? Everything must be calculated, all the scenarios must be predicted, all the negative aspects must be mitigated.
 
kidding is also spontaneous. the lack of trust is due to fear, accept death, not the physical but personal, as old friend, be free
 
kidding is also spontaneous. the lack of trust is due to fear, accept death, not the physical but personal, as old friend, be free

pretty words with no substance. Fear is there to protect us, it is up to use however to let it control us or have us control it.
 
to protect from, who, a enemy ? what did to him ? the fear is fuel of protection.
control is because of fear.
i am a hypocrite. i write without thinking.
 
in india almost every shrine has free meals on celebrations. the Gurudwaras for the whole year provide free meal to all the people without any bias.
 
in india almost every shrine has free meals on celebrations. the Gurudwaras for the whole year provide free meal to all the people without any bias.

Notice the difference. In India, food is dispersed as part of a deep cultural traditional ceremony that is used to unite the people and to guide them through spiritual world so that they can live happily in the material world.

This is not the case of what this Abbot priest is doing. Food with no substance is a message without meaning.
 
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