The Best FB Status I have seen in a long time...

[LaydeeBug]

Someone posted a great FB status (and I used it) so I thought I'd share this one I saw:


Let's get this straight: I don't particularly care why they need help, if they're drug addled, if they're lazy and sick, crippled, any of it. My interest in feeding the hungry and clothing the shirtless does not exist because I think THEY'RE particularly good people. It exists because I know I am. ~Pop Pop =)

[meegbear]

1. Oh SNAP!

[Poll_Blind]

2. Word!

PB

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. Woot!

:applause:

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. I like it!

So much, actually, I'm stealing it!

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. cool

[proud patriot]

7. I like it too

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. If it ended with "I want to be one" instead of "I know I am" it would be perfect.

As it is... sounds self-aggrandizing. Though I agree with the general sentiment.

[Mojambo]

9. Agreed. Here's how I rewrote it for my status.

A sentiment to consider as we stand on the cusp of a new era of austerity and dramatic cuts on social spending

We shouldn't particularly care why they need help, whether they're drug addled, lazy, and lost, or sick and crippled. Our interest in feeding the hungry and clothing the shirtless should not exist because we think THEY are particularly good people. It should exist because WE want to be.

[LaydeeBug]

11. I LOVE IT!

But I would leave out the first paragraph altogether. :)

[dog_lovin_dem]

28. I used your version

with a couple of changes. I replaced dramatic with possible, and lost with unlucky. Had a "like" immediately!

[LaydeeBug]

10. very cool. Thanks!

[roguevalley]

12. I know I am a good person. I wasn't aware that it makes me a bad

person to be self aware. Apparently the self esteem movement is still in flower where everyone has to be the same height.

[LaydeeBug]

58. That's okay. To each his own. After I talked to Pop Pop (and we all went for crabs last night)

and his opinion is that you should make feel small, because what they're doing is SMALL. He talked about "chicken dogs". He said the way you get a dog to stop killing chickens on a farm is to tie the last chicken the dog killed around the dog's neck and LET IT ROT THERE. For DAYS, For WEEKS. And he assures you that the dog will NEVER kill a chicken again.

We need to tie the carcass around the GOP's Neck. Because, FUCK THEM.

Really.

[pleah]

13. K&R :)

[GliderGuider]

14. What a wonderful inspiration! Here is my take on it:

I simply don't care why they need help - whether they're addicted, lazy, sick or just unlucky - it really doesn't matter. I do not feed the hungry or clothe the ragged because it's good for them, or even because it's good for me. I do it because they are me, and because I am them.

[StatGirl]

39. I like this phrasing, but . . .

"I do it because they are me, and because I am them" may be interepreted by right-wing Christians as a little too "out there" theologically. But they should respond to "There but for the grace of God go I."

[Lorien]

15. Love that! nt

[RainDog]

16. k&r

[napoleon_in_rags]

17. BAM!

I love it. Remember before modern times, before science, all the stories of the saints and their charitable works going back thousands of years. That connection between their enlightenment and good works was so important: The individual being perfected was always the saint, the lepers or whatever only played a supporting role.

[unblock]

18. nice. the right-wing always wants to dwell on how rotten the one they're punishing is

same reason they their preferred frame for the death penalty is that the bad guy deserves to be killed. it's not about the bad guy. it's about the state. the state should be better than to kill it subjects, to kill someone who, at that point, is defenseless.

[SemperEadem]

19. it's perfect just as it's worded.

I wouldn't change a thing.

[Turbineguy]

20. The Gift

lies in the giving.

[Maru Kitteh]

21. LOVE it! Puts the haters in their place just perfectly....

K & R

[mikeytherat]

22. I also like how Stephen Colbert put it:

"If this is gonna be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition! And then admit, that we just don't wanna do it."

mikey_the_rat

[HillWilliam]

23. Snagged, posted, and

I added a reference for my fundie acquaintances. I hope it goes totally viral.

[midnight]

24. K&R

[patrice]

25. i.e. Doing it BECAUSE it's right/a-true-thing and for NO other reason.

Not reward of any kind
Not for payment
Not to avoid punishment
Not to win them over to your point of view
Not to "Save" them or yourself
Not to please or impress others
Not out of fear
Not out of what we call "love"
Not for appearances
Not for a church
Not out of vengeance against others
Not out of guilt
Not to get "them" out of your way
Not out of pity . . .

IOW, living a living truth for its own sake and NONE other.

[LaydeeBug]

37. yup yup. nt

[Arkansas Granny]

43. +1

[handmade34]

26. Very nice! I like it a lot.

(I was having personal struggles in HS (so very long ago) and my history teacher gave me "The Prophet". I will never forget him (Barry Nobles/Michigan) or how he changed my life by giving me this book.

Giving..."Speak to us of Giving."
And he answered:

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

...These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and their coffer is never empty.
There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.

...You often say, "I would give, but only to the deserving."
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you.
And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream...

For in truth it is life that gives unto life - while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.
And you receivers - and you are all receivers - assume no weight of gratitude, lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity who has the free-hearted earth for mother, and God for father.
The Prophet... Kalil Gibran

[Maru Kitteh]

27. My version: I do not especially care why they need help - whether they are disabled or sick

~ I do not especially care why they need help - whether they are disabled or sick by no fault of their own, or struggling in the throes of addiction. Our interest in caring for the ill, feeding the hungry and clothing the ragged should not exist because we think THEY are particularly good people. It should exist because WE want to be. ~

[avaistheone1]

29. i like your version better

K&R

[LaydeeBug]

34. I LOVE IT!!!! And I talked to my elementary school friend's Pop Pop

He was a SCREAM! I am paraphrasing, because this guy was a hoot! Cussing and cussing and cussing...LOL, here is the cleaned up gist:

He said his grandson got it all little bit wrong...when he was a little boy, my chum would get into a lot of fights at the playground. His Pop Pop would say to him "Now buddy, I don't want you to get into a fight today, not because they aren't good (they would make fun of his glasses), but because you are." Which is a bit different, but then Pop Pop went further and said that he didn't CARE if it sounded self important. When you salivate at the prospect of cutting America's social security network, and someone implies that they are better than you, it is "because the God Damned shoe fits and their mothers didn't raise them right" "At some point in time, that these fuckers are rotten little fuckers isn't my problem because I called them a rotten little fucker, it's a problem because they AFRE rotten little fuckers" And then he told me to tell my democrats to "keep their eye on the ball" He didn't fight in WWII for this. He said Obama was a disappointment because he never once said, 'Vote for me! I'm pragmatic!' He said, 'Vote for me! I will CHANGE things.' and instead, he's given us the same old politics as usual. He needs to god damned stop playing golf with those traitors too.'

LOL! Pop Pop for President!! I said that to him and he said, "Oh, Jesus NOOOOO! They wouldn't let me cuss enough"

[Maru Kitteh]

45. Thanks avaistheone1 :-) and to you Ladeebug: Pop Pop sounds freakin' awesome!

Pop Pop would make a great Prez! Straighten those congressional weenies right out!

[socialshockwave]

30. I agree with that statement.

But - how can we make it so that most people feel that way? I mean, we in North America do things for ourselves. We're a selfish people - helping random people seems wrong and "naive" according to the right-wing.

How do we de-program hundreds of years of selfish thought - the Scandinavian countries have done that well...but how do we?

[NJCher]

32. the best thing we can do

Is be examples.


Cher

[socialshockwave]

33. Then that's what I'm going to do.

I don't care if people disagree with me. /shrug

[NOLALady]

47. I guess each of us can practice compassion.

And teach our children well.

Each one teach one. Each one reach one.

[LaydeeBug]

57. You can't *make* anyone FEEL anything. What you can do is point out hypocrisy and STAND YOUR GROUND

These people have been claiming the moral high ground while they're standing on a heap of bullshit for far too long.

[SnowCritter]

31. It's nice to see that

I'm not the only one who's going to "borrow" it.

[LaydeeBug]

35. You KNOW it's bad when I keep looking for the "like" button LOL nt

[The Straight Story]

36. I stole it :)

Thanks!

[ejbr]

38. k & r n/t

[Rozlee]

40. Once, when we were driving to take some food for elderly people at the SAMM shelter

Our driver saw a man leaving the intersection of the highway with his sign asking for money. OK, so the SAMM shelter evangelizes and I'm a non-believer, but they actually practice a great deal of what they preach and do a great deal to help the homeless. So, don't ask me what this asshole was doing as a volunteer. As we did a turnaround to go gas up, we saw the man at a different gas station across the street gassing up as well. "Ah, ha!" our driver said. "I knew it! They're all deadbeats. He's got a better vehicle than I do!" Outraged, he turned did another turn around and drove up to the man, getting ready to give him a piece of his mind. After a few minutes, he came back looking disgusted and shaking his head. "Idiot says he lost his home and lives out of that SUV. Sure, he does." The rest of us noticed that the SUV was crammed to the gills with what appeared to be belongings. The driver was muttering that the slacker was just looking to take advantage of stupid rubes and that he probably lived in a McMansion and collected food stamps. I thought of the 100+ degree weather out there and of how any person would be grateful to have any job for minimum wage in air conditioned indoors. The rest of us agreed later that we might be stupid rubes, but that we were going to keep giving our money to food-stamp collecting deadbeats that lived in McMansions and loved standing for hours in 100+ degree heat.

[Maru Kitteh]

51. I wish someone would have spoken up to the offender. They thrive on our silence.

I posted this on my Facebook today because I'm so sick of the hateful berating of the poor I see every day.

~ I do not especially care why they need help - whether they are disabled or sick by no fault of their own, or struggling in the throes of addiction. Our interest in caring for the ill, feeding the hungry and clothing the ragged should not exist because we think THEY are particularly good people. It should exist because WE want to be. ~

[Rozlee]

54. I wish we had too. A coolish silence on our part went way over his head.

I have to admit, on my part, I'm tapped out arguing with teabaggers and the fanatical mind-set of so many religious conservatives. You talk yourself blue in the face and they remain immovable. I can't change the hearts and minds of even a couple of my closest family members who think women should be allowed to die rather than abort if they have ectopic pregnancies. It's dispiriting. Especially working for an organization that caters to the homeless and disadvantaged. Of course, a portion of it also evangelizes. I've known very few of them there, however, that had an attitude like him.

[Fire Walk With Me]

41. Yep!

:thumbsup:

[Snotcicles]

42. Stole it. nt

[Turn CO Blue]

44. Here's my re-wording posted to my status:

Let's get this straight: I don't particularly care why they need help, if they're drug addled, if they're lazy, depressed, shell-shocked, uneducated, cancer-ridden or mentally ill -- any of it. MY interest in feeding the hungry and clothing the shirtless does not exist because I think any of THEM might be a particularly "good person". It exists because I know I am.

[Maru Kitteh]

50. sweet - I like yours also. nt

[SemperEadem]

55. my rewording of it in order to flay my fundamental-case brother

Let's get this straight: I don't particularly care why they need help, if they're drug addled, if they're lazy, depressed, shell-shocked, uneducated, cancer-ridden or mentally ill -- any of it. MY interest in feeding the hungry and clothing the shirtless does not exist because I think any of THEM might be a particularly "good person". It exists because I know I am and because I can then stand before Jesus and say "yes, Lord, I will". And sit back and watch his head explode for using "Jesus" in a sentence and not being saved.

[Turn CO Blue]

56. I put "whatsoever ye do for the least of these"

type wording in the comments on my status - FOR THE SAME REASON - to blow the minds of some right-winger fundie family members that will freak for my using Jesus's name! GMTA and all that!

[Jankyn]

46. Awesome. And stealing. N/T

[Tuesday Afternoon]

48. yep. trying my damndest. K&R

[Deep13]

49. Exactly right.

Pop, pop? Thanks, Magnitude.

[patrice]

52. Boomers ought to recognize this concept; it's the way SOME of us were brought up. nt

[patrice]

53. Certainly the Great Generation KNOWS what this means! nt