Where you ever hungry? I wasn't. Never cold or scared.

[Swede]

We have won the only lottery that really matters,havn't we?

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Yes, to all three.

But I grew up really poor.

[candy]

10. Same here----some us of have known poverty! n/t

[HEyHEY]

2. I've been hungry - but not like third world hungry

Just broke university student hungry.

[Swede]

5. Heyhey I wasn't talking KD and ketchup hungry.

I was talking hungry.

[HEyHEY]

12. I know that's why I said not third world hungry

[Straight Shooter]

3. Yes, I have gone hungry. Yes, I've been cold.

And there have been a few times in my life I've been threatened to the point where I was terrified almost out of my wits. I won't go into specifics, because I don't care to relive the experiences.

And life should not be a lottery, anyway. Nothing in the Good Book about blessed be the lucky.

[Skittles]

4. was scared as a child all the time

moved every year, dad hospitalized for over a year following a breakdown, farmed off to relatives, never knew where I would be from one day to the next

[Solly Mack]

7. (((((((((((((((((Skittles))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Cause no child should know how that feels

[Skittles]

9. I guess that's why I am a very giving person, very empathic

I know what it feels like to be alone and scared and wonder is anyone is gonna help

[Swede]

11. Why don't people get it.

I am a child of middle class hard workers. I know what has been given to me. I don't get it when people feel "I got mine".

[Skittles]

16. I'm not sure where a sense of entitlement, greed, selfishness comes from

my guess is has less to do with what things you had growing up with than with some moment in their life when they decided they were number one. I see it among conservatives all the time - they just don't understand - or TRY to understand - anything that does not directly AFFECT *THEM*.

[Swede]

17. You can count people in power on one hand that really care.

Ghandi is the only one right now. Why does REAL power corrupt these well meaning people in the end.

[Skittles]

21. alas, I've often thought that the truly giving, empathic folk

don't have the stomach for cutthroat politics. And the ones who do go into politics with good intentions quickly find out it is a cutthroat world and it changes them. The way it is all set up now - where money basically equals power - is fundamentally wrong.

[yellowdogintexas]

6. All of us, who are able to sit at our computers, drinking our

beverage of choice, listening to music of our choice, or just living in America....


are indeed rich beyond measure compared to at least 60% of the rest of the world.

sad but true.

I try to think of that when I am having anxiety attacks about things that will eventually right themselves anyway.

[Swede]

8. I'm really feeling that today Y.

My overfed overcomfort is really bugging me today.

[fluffernutter]

20. i know what you mean.

it has been getting to me too lately, seeing so much sadness around the world especially recently ...

good post, Swede :hug:

[AlCzervik]

13. yes to the last 2 no to the first

we were what i would call "functioning" poor, there was always food but never any money really after the rent was paid and the food was bought.

[Misunderestimator]

14. Yes, I have been all three... but not for many years.

Yeah... I'm definitely grateful that these basic things are provided now. But I am still scared.

[Droopy]

15. I've been plenty scared before

But I was never really in any danger from anyone or anything other than my own hand. Psychosis will do that to you.

[auntAgonist]

18. I've not always had what I 'wanted'

I have ALWAYS had what I needed.

thanks Mum and Dad.

rip Mum. I love you.

[cleofus1]

19. nothing real bad

been skinny and hungry...cold and sleeping out in the dirt..waking up with dew on my face...walking dark alleys...that sort of shit...I'm OK now...been clean for years...just thank the monkey god i was not born an iraqi...man those people have real problems...

[madison2000]

22. I spent a summer in the third world

as a volunteer missionary in Africa. There was no place to buy food, so you had to hunt it, raise and slaughter it, grow it, or get it from the base every two months. You had to keep the elephants out of your garden and the other animals from eating your chickens.

We weren't starving, but there did come a point when I knew there wasn't enough food for 7 adults and 3 children. Everyone was given the same amount at meals. No dessert, no pop, no choice of foods. I lost about 10 pounds, down to the thinnest I have ever been. I was not starving hungry, but I was hungry.

I kept remembering that back home there was a donut shop on the corner which baked about 20-30 different kinds of donuts (food with little nutritional value) that anyone could afford. Also shag carpeting in my apartment (vs dirt floors) and air conditioning (vs. a bath once a day).
Adjusting to coming home was actually much harder than adjusting to going there.

[amazona]

23. certainly I've been hungry, cold, and scared

Good Lord, I've been a victim of violence, so we won't go there on the scared. But I bet many people, or at least many women, have feared for their very lives.

Cold? I remember being so cold that ice formed in the toilet.

Hungry? There too I could tell some tales.

With computer and internet access as cheap as it is -- and often free in many areas with public libraries -- I find it unwise to assume that everyone we chat with online has led a protected life.