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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"I don't think poor people should take from the govt" I busted out crying, "How can you SAY that?"
Every day we get to the gym at 4:45AM and wait for the doors to open..usual group...I stay far away from the Rs....I write letters since 2009 for DEMS and those Rs are not fans !! So we are standing outside the gym and this lady in her 70s ..comes with her huz.....she always wants to chat....this AM I outright asked her if she was an R...."yes, but we don't discuss politics..." You know who says that...Rs..DEMS are eager and proud to discuss politics, in my humble opinion....
Anyway since she is a big Catholic and came to Dad's funeral( he was Catholic priest and died a year ago).....I ask..."because of abortion?" No...then I asked if her parents were Rs...as sometimes in this tiny town you kind of inherit political stripes...No..
HERE IT COMES....
She says " I don't think poor people should take from the govt...get these free things for not working"..now I had a bad weekend...sinusitis/sore throat and broken car...on its last legs and when it goes so does my transportation....
I busted out crying and said "How can you SAY that? In WI single poors/elderly/disabled get pennies a day in FS...then went on to tell her that some folks who live in my HUD bldg make as little as $4grand year..I said "How can you SAY that?" again and I walked away crying..she called after me, but did not approach....when the doors opened I noticed she was whispering to her huz....
It hurts to be poor and it hurts even more when these Rs berate us out of ignorance....they could not survive 1 day in our lives..thank you for listening... I had to tell somebody..
LisaM
(27,758 posts)A main tenet of the church is helping the poor.
olegramps
(8,200 posts)Priests in local churches ran seminars on unionism along with basic literacy classes to help people pass the test for citizenship. Because of their activism them became a target for rightwing and clan criticism.
To this day Catholic Charities is one of the largest, if not the largest, NGO in the world.
realmirage
(2,117 posts)for jesus tenets. They have no clue. They just call themselves Christians cause they think itll get them into heaven and make them look good in their hypocritical community.
cpamomfromtexas
(1,243 posts)efhmc
(14,709 posts)nt
better
(884 posts)So her issue is with tax dollars going to the poor, right?
Leviticus 23:22
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.
What programs like food stamps really represent is the government (the people, collectively) setting aside the gleanings of our harvest (our tax dollars) for the poor among us, exactly as her Lord commanded.
how this basic teaching is ignored by so many of the pompous pious. Thanks for posting.
better
(884 posts)Alas, belonging to the church does not necessarily equal practicing the faith.
onit2day
(1,201 posts)druidity33
(6,435 posts)fuck Leviticus.
klook
(12,134 posts)whod fallen on hard times was paying for his groceries with food stamps. An asshole right-winger behind him in line was muttering all this stuff about the god-damned gummint.
My friend turned to him and said, I AM the government!
He said the guy looked like hed had cold water hurled at his face. That shut him up but quick.
WE are the government. Never forget that.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,353 posts)jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)If you are interested this is my Nov letter...I am rich in many things, just not MONEY...my talent is writing and I work hard for my DEMS...
I write a DEM letter each month for my local paper since 2009. Here is my celebration of our DEM wins!!!
64 MILLION DROPS, A BLUE WAVE
Who's looking all sexy and swingy in that new blue outfit? America, that's who. Apparently the leprosy caravan committed massive voter fraud in return for Oprah cars. Notice the wall to wall caravan coverage abruptly stopped November 7th? Democrats' extraordinary nationwide grassroots resistance overcame a Republican seawall of suppression, purges, and gerrymandering. Slogging through all the horrors of the last two years, we routed the Rube Army.
A beautiful blue wave was unleashed from sea to shining sea. A day after the Inauguration four million of us marched. In place. This month we marched to the polls. This is historic, brothers and sisters. We had the largest Democrat House pickup since Watergate, and they're still counting Senate races. Tidbit : Hundreds of thousands of ballots from Democratic Districts were locked in the PO closed by the Trump bomber and destroyed. They didn't receive them by deadline.
Pundits be damned, we're not a divided country. Democrats carried the popular vote by over seven million and have won six of the last seven Presidential Elections.
Thanks to the fear-mongering fascist there were actual murders and attempted assassinations during this campaign. In America. The demagogue complained a hate crime caused him to have a bad hair day. We repudiated this vile man. Clear eyes and full hearts won.
Kidnapping babies, forcing toddlers to stand trial LOST. Sister Simone and Nuns on the Bus WON. Bubba shooting machine guns to celebrate Fathers Day LOST. The Parkland Kids WON. Mandated work for poors who receive pennies a day in FoodStamps LOST. When we start eating the rich, the first BBQ will be in Puerto Rico WON. Americans drooling over themselves at hate rallies LOST. Women, college kids, LGBT, Muslims and compassion WON. Kneecapping Mueller LOST. Dem House investigations WON.
"There are good people on both sides" LOST. "How hard can it be? Saying Nazis are bad ?" WON. Brett Kavanaugh: "I liked beer. I still like beer" LOST. Oliver Wendell Holmes: "One's mind stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions" WON. Crappy white guy terrorism LOST. Elected women bringing light, strength and intellectual maturity to DC WON. Me the President LOST. We the People WON.
Head to the Sanity Cellar Dorothy, the President had a white hot breakdown on TV eight hours after the results. Trump and Fox panicked and pretended they won. I don't watch Fox News for the same reason I don't eat from my toilet. Their levels of ignorance would shame medieval fanatics.
Trump wants to have his cake and will eat it, hoard it, freeze-dry it, and carry the frosting in his pocket for later. Nixon was impeached for lying to the American people. Trump is on his 9,000th! After two years of playing defense, we get to go on offense. Democrats took control of the Peoples House and in two years we're coming for the other one.
Published Portage Co Gazette Nov 16 Jody Hurrish
erronis
(14,941 posts)I suspect a lot of RW types pay a bit more attention to these opinions than they'll admit to their fury friends.
dchill
(38,315 posts)hostalover
(447 posts)onit2day
(1,201 posts)Hulk
(6,699 posts)Wealth seems to corrupt most right to the rotten core. I'm not poor, but I'm sure not wealthy by any stretch. I can no longer afford a small house to rent, so I'm living where I can afford...in central Mexico.
My kids will inherit nothing when I leave. My SS, half teacher's pension and my VA disability will "poof" when I take my last breath. I count my blessings and recognize I have it good...damned good compared to many.
I feel for the struggling and the poor. I resent the rich, not because I envy their wealth, but because I deplore their turned backs to their brothers and sisters who need a helping hand that they can afford.
I seriously believe we need to return to the days of 90% tax brackets...a stiff inheritance tax, and many other forms of taxation and relief to balance out American's plight. Those that share their wealth are few and far between, and I believe what most share is disgraceful in nearly every instances.
You have a wonderful gift that money can't buy. Keep up the good fight. You are right about it all.
ZZenith
(4,109 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)It was a volunteer job which I did so they could go out and do the cultured things they loved.
Once they all complained quite bitterly that they could no longer wear their fur coates because of the disgusting fanatics who throw paint on them. It was a real pity party.
They live and commiserate with each other in their own world. And in their ignorance they are blind to the people who volunteer their time to take them places. Evidently we are invisible like all the rest of the help.
Dont let people like that make you cry. They are so not worth a single tear. And youre right that they would never survive being poor.
mgardener
(1,799 posts)How much does Trump take from the government?
I dont think we will ever know....
Between the not paying taxes, the 4 bankruptcies, the perks he got for his Washington DC hotel....
And Mar a Largo plus his golf courses. He will receive more from the tax payers then anyone of us would receive in a lifetime.
Locrian
(4,522 posts)They equate the rich with "good" people and the poor with "bad" people.
Everything else they see as "just rewards".
It's a very stupid way to view the world - and leads to blind spots that the "bad" allow the rich people to use their power to loot the country with their power advantage multiplying the damage.
Alwaysna
(574 posts)To investigate, prosecute and hopefully imprison Trump and company? I don't know but using government money for that-priceless!
ismnotwasm
(41,916 posts)And believes obligated to give to the needy, to embrace the stranger. That love is love
She wouldnt personally have an abortion but she doesnt believe it should be illegal.
I am so sorry, that this woman thinks that way is disgusting and not Catholic in any way I was ever taught. Im not religious now, but wow that is wrong on a deeply human level, Not just a religious one
hostalover
(447 posts)PatSeg
(46,773 posts)what it is like to be poor and as with many experiences, trying to put it into words is really difficult. You have to live it day in and day out for a long time to understand the pain and fear the poor go through. It is like a terminal disease that takes away your last shred of hope and dignity.
CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)The only good welfare to them is corporate welfare. All their other beliefs come from Ayn Rand, a Russian adulteress who wrote total crap. These trolls never heard of Dickens. The damn fools also think there are no whites on welfare, even though a majority of them are on it.
When they cut social spending at every turn, they think they're starving a bunch of non-whites. This goes with slashing healthcare and lack of spending on "those" schools. They use their institutional racism to please their corporate overlords and the 1% mutha-----s that take up too much of our oxygen. The whole lot of them can rot in hell.
hostalover
(447 posts)system up close and personal. They see the food stamps, the homeless with their handmade signs, the free lunch kids, the abuse of ER's (my son, an ER nurse goes on and on about this), and so on. They don't see the massive misuse of our tax dollars and they're uninformed and many don't want to be informed. How many times I've said, "Well, I'd rather my tax money goes to somebody on food stamps than to buy a $500 hammer for the military." Fortunately own kids have heard me rant enough times that they get it, even my ER nurse son.
Merlot
(9,696 posts)hostalover
(447 posts)of the patients who show up in his ER are bonafide patients with nowhere else to go. He has no problem with them and usually they do need medical attention, which they get. His frustration comes from the repeat patients (he knows some of them by first name) who come in only wanting drugs, which are prescribed in small doses. Some will use ambulances as a means to get to the hospital and expect rides home. Then there are the frivolous patients (true story, a man came in with splinters in his thumb). I'm sure my son exaggerates some, but he's a good man and a solid Dem--just a tired one sometimes.
PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,746 posts)how vast corporate welfare is.
Lots of companies that make huge profits pay no federal income taxes. THAT'S an outrage.
sandensea
(21,526 posts)They know middle-class voters resent a minority individual (especially a mother w/ children) receiving $160 in food stamps a lot more than they resent some Benedict Arnold corporation, headquartered in the Caymans or Luxembourg, chiseling $2 billion off their taxes, receiving $1 billion in other subsidies, and then laying off 10,000 Americans just for shits and giggles.
Human nature, I suppose - plus a lot of ignorance.
sandensea
(21,526 posts)"I work my tail off, and these brown people live off my hard-earned tax dollars," the message goes.
It's very effective, and allows white middle-class voters to rationalize what would otherwise be very difficult to justify.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)discussion over the years. My Hometown is a carbon copy of yours. And the disgusting thing is,this people are in their 60's and 70's and for the most part,all received the best public Education in the world only to subscribe to a Political Agenda that their Education told them to avoid for the betterment of Society.
marieo1
(1,402 posts)Unfortunately that is exactly how all republicans think.
MiniMe
(21,676 posts)I thought Priests having sex was frowned upon.
And don't Catholic Priests take a vow of poverty?
jodymarie aimee
(3,975 posts)married Mom, 7 kids..in the 70s the young weren't going into vocations, so the bishop opened it up to the layity. Dad went back to theology school and was ordained in his 40s...had 3 churches...they had to move into the priest house, quit his straight job and be on call 24/7....he did take celibacy and poverty...but since he already had Mom, got to keep her...if she died, he could have nobody else then...
he always felt guilty not going in young, I think...in those days one son went into the seminary...he had alot of different jobs and hated them all....in the end he got the job he was good at...
MiniMe
(21,676 posts)Really none of my business. I'm not even Catholic, but I do have family that is. Those were 2 rules I know. LOL. Sounds like your dad found something he enjoyed and was good at.
bitterross
(4,066 posts)The stunning lack of thought and logic with these people never ceases to piss me off.
JohnnyRingo
(18,580 posts)...are only two weeks away from welfare themselves if their source of income ends, and we all know how easily that can happen these days. Even secure pensions go belly up without warning.
Nothing is more humbling than hunger.
Beacool
(30,244 posts)A lot of basically decent people have been brainwashed by years of republican rhetoric. I'm sorry that she upset you so much.
Take care of yourself.
LuckyCharms
(17,286 posts)I feel that their political beliefs are centered on what OTHER PEOPLE are doing. What other people are getting. Why should these people be getting assistance? Why should that woman be able to get an abortion? He doesn't look disabled to me. and on and on.
For some reason, they fail to realize that every single human being is merely seconds away from a personal/financial/health disaster.
They do not recognize that we are all not dealt the same deck of cards. Everyone is not like them. Each of us are shaped by our years of living, and what has happened to us during those years. Some people have had it easy, some people have thrived in spite of impossible circumstances, and some people have succumbed to impossible circumstances. Being poor is not a failure, and in many respects, being poor will strengthen you.
For example...the asylum seekers. I admire these people so much. They have the clothes on their backs, and not much else. They walked/traveled 2,000 miles to escape onerous conditions. These people are tough as nails. These people have true character. I would rather have a person like this in my life than any Republican.
Don't let them get you down. They are brainwashed. They are misguided. They are weak. Many of them are dead stupid. They cannot understand that no matter what they may have in life, we are all going to end up dead someday, and their judgments foisted upon others will be irrelevant.
lovemydogs
(575 posts)Growing up I was aware of and had the belief instilled in me that the poor needed help. People who did not earn enough, single mothers, people who lost their jobs, ect.
LBJ's war on poverty was started during my childhood.
I grew up middle class and while we were not religious my parents had us go to Sunday School, as kids did in those days. We were taught to have compassion for the poor and those facing tough situations.
I was in Jr. High and High School in the 70s when women and minorities were asserting their rights. And helping the poor was even more of an issue.
It was in the 80s as a young adult that it suddenly became something to grouse about. Lazy minorities and women having babies to collect welfare. Eating steaks on food stamps.
During that time I was a divoriced mom going to college with 2 kids. I was on welfare and got food stamps. Believe me, buying steaks was not possible if you wanted food to stretch for a month.
There was not enough to pay for rent and utilities with your monthly check. You looked for apartments with utilities included.
You bought used clothes and shoes.
And the beginning of shaming people for their circumstances began. Very subtle and very slowly.
But, in the last 15 years it has exploded and people now hate the poor.
Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)The teachings of Jesus were all about helping the poor. Seems like Christians have gotten away from that and focus more on weird stuff like the Book of Revelation... morbid end of times shit. They also focus on the parts that support their views on oppressing women and gay people. They seem to have become a group of people united in hated of others.
Zing Zing Zingbah
(6,496 posts)We all are taking something from the government when we send our kids to public schools or use public parks. We collectively pay into the government and take from it. Poor people have the right to do this just like anyone else and they have a much greater need than the rest of us.