Why does it seem, that the poor are invisible?Have most of us been conditioned to ignore they exist?

[louslobbs]

Maybe it's just because we're so busy fending for ourselves, we forget about those who have far less than we do, some have little to nothing, and struggle day to day, just to survive, just to find the next meal or a place to sleep. They have no health care, so most are in bad health, no medications, so most suffer in pain with no pain management available to them, cancer because no treatment is available, asthma, high blood pressure, mental illness, lack of shelter and inadequate food availability. Add to all of this, the fact that most are isolated, have no voice, and feel as though they are invisible. They are losing hope, and feel that not only the government has betrayed them, but the rest of us have forgotten their plight and in fact, their mere existence.

Since there seems to finally be an awakening of sorts in this nation, due to an out of touch and overreaching Republican party trying to destroy unions, my question is , when if ever, will we awake to the fact that the poor in this country are suffering more than anyone? Not that anyone Else's struggles, and real or perceived suffering is any less valid or important, at least we have a voice, at least we're not invisible.

The poor seem to suffer on a daily basis due to their lack of health care, proper diets finances, access to education and most importantly, their invisibility. The poor in this country are treated as if they do not exist, as if they are not there.

Why is this the case? Why do we ignore what we clearly know and see before our own eyes? Isn’t the time now, to wake up to the plight of the poor and the homeless among us? If not now, then when? How many more of the poor will have to suffer and die if and when the budget cuts that are being discussed are finally passed?

Fellow Americans, our brothers and sisters will die because they are poor and those in positions of power and what is left of our "fair and balanced" media will sadly have those deaths on their hands. Those in power, because they choose the rich over the poor, and those in the media because they choose to ignore a life or death issue, to report on something more important like (who will be appearing on Dancing With The Stars) or some other insignificant story about (Charlie Sheen) just for ratings, and ratings translate to money.

Being poor isn’t a choice, but choosing to cut funding from the little that exists to help the poor, is. This “safety net”, is usually one of the first things considered to be cut by those in power, because they take advantage of the lack of voice the poor in this country have to speak up on their own behalf.

So, I will try.

Why is it ok to force through $800 billion dollars in tax cut bonuses for millionaires and billionaires who do not need it and attach that to the deficit, but it is not ok to add funding to the programs that feed the hungry?

Why is it ok to cut health care funding for the poor, but give, basically free health care to people in the Congress and Senate, many who are millionaires themselves?

Why can subsidies for heating be slashed for the poor, many who will freeze to death because of this, but the richest of corporations pay little or not taxes?

How about Oil Subsidies for the Billionaire oil companies, how come they’re always voted through, but subsidies for the poor and suffering are not? Poor people had nothing to do with the economic collapse, that was caused by rich people who bought our government and then pressured them for deregulation so that they could do underhanded things that should have been regulated like (derivatives trading) that made them all a fortune, but nearly destroyed the global economy when the housing market crashed. Why do the suffering poor have to pay for this crime?

Why are the poor always on the loosing end budget considerations, and the rich always on the winning end of government budget cutting policy? Because the poor have no voice and no money and the rich have all the money and power to bribe those in power to do their bidding, even if it kills helpless, hopeless, homeless and voiceless poor people in this country. Where is their humanity, and for those with substantial wealth who claim to be Christian, where are your acts of kindness toward the poor? Where is your voice or the voice of your congregations speaking out in the media on behalf of and in support of the poor and needy? Mr. Obama, where is your voice about the plight of the poor and suffering? Specifically, related to the proposed budget cuts you don’t seem to be fighting?

Any free media, not owned by the corporations, doesn’t really exist anymore, so to get media attention for something as important as a part of our citizenry, the poor, who are suffering and dying due to budget cuts, seems to warrant little to no attention. I can’t think of anything more important than people dying, but then again, if it won’t make them any money, and it doesn't support the Republicon/Koch/corporate agenda, most media today only push and promote, that which will increase their audience and make them richer even as the poor suffer and continue to die needlessly.

The Poor are not invisible, they’re really there, they’re suffering and they need help, not budget cuts that put them further at risk for suffering and death. I’m begging the media and any of our public officials to please speak out for those without a voice, please don’t forget our fellow brothers and sisters who need help desperately just to survive another day. Why should any American suffer simply because of their economic status? And why should someone, who happened to win the birth lottery, have the power to buy our government to do their bidding, that makes them richer and pushes others not like them, the poor, further into poverty?

All of us should want to make sure that those less fortunate are comforted in knowing, that we care and want to help, rather than cutting budgets that eventually, cause great suffering and in the worst case, create policy and cut budgets that adversely affects those who didn't win the birth lottery, and are made to suffer one of the greatest stigmas and indignities in America, being poor and invisible.
Lou

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

[OneGrassRoot]

2. Huge K&R n/t

[RKP5637]

3. Number of Americans in Poverty Highest in 51 Years

Per Census Bureau ...

" ... the number of people in poverty in 2009 is the largest number in the 51 years for which poverty estimates are available. There were 43.6 million people in poverty in 2009, up from 39.8 million in 2008 — the third consecutive annual increase. The nation's official poverty rate in 2009 was 14.3 percent, up from 13.2 percent in 2008. The data also show that nearly 21% percent of children, or roughly 15.5 million, were in poverty in 2009 versus 19% in 2008, or approximately 14.1 million in 2008."

http://www.theshriverbrief.org/2010/09/articles/economic-justice/number-of-americans-in-poverty-highest-in-51-years/

[louslobbs]

6. Thank you for the stats

I probably should have posted the link, but you kindly did it for me.
Lou

[OneGrassRoot]

10. Thank you for this link. :) n/t

[riderinthestorm]

4. I believe too many have been "taught" not to see.

I volunteer at both the local rape crisis/battered women's shelter, and the local food pantry but both are connected to the community's resource center for the poor. When you become involved in work like this you can't help seeing the many people who need help of course, but then you leave and you finally SEE them out and about in the community. Once you see, you can't help seeing it always I believe.

Which tells me that the vast majority of Americans simply haven't been exposed to that kind of "seeing". My mother for example, believes she is a Grade A, first class Christian. She has never "seen" a poor person in her town - which is right next door to my town! Children need to be taught a different way of seeing and thinking and understanding about the most disadvantaged people in their very own communities because otherwise it's all about the poor starving African - in other words, not in their backyard! There is an enormous self-centeredness in the American soul that hasn't been challenged to change in order to perceive of ourselves as all connected, all "in it together". Even American Christians haven't internalized Jesus' message very well - "that what you do to the least of us, you do for me". Or Jesus' parables about the injured man on the side of the road helped by a stranger, or taking in a ragged stranger who needed shelter.

Those people who want to do these draconian cuts have never seen poverty in real life imho. And even if they have, clearly they don't care. Until we change our culture of selfishness in the US (and yes, that even includes things like universal health care, SS, disability payments etc.) then nobody will ever 'see" the poor, let alone care about them.

[louslobbs]

7. Sadly,

I have to agree with you. I am greatful for your insight. Thank you.
Lou

[CrispyQ]

28. How do we accomplish this?

Those people who want to do these draconian cuts have never seen poverty in real life imho. And even if they have, clearly they don't care. Until we change our culture of selfishness in the US (and yes, that even includes things like universal health care, SS, disability payments etc.) then nobody will ever 'see" the poor, let alone care about them.

Because I agree completely with what you said. There is an appalling lack of empathy in this country. We are a nation that idolizes the individual & has no regard for the general community. And the digital age has made it worse. We can now be completely engaged in our exclusively chosen virtual communities, while ignoring the here-&-now community that surrounds us as we go about our daily lives. How convenient! Now I don't even have to pretend that I don't see that needy person. I can be such a self-absorbed ass that I don't see anyone. Take one 20 minute excursion out into the real world & you will see this type of behavior multiple times.

How do we change an entire culture? Yes, we start with ourselves, but how do we get it to grow? I'm at a loss & people are dying.

[japple]

5. People don't want to know about those less fortunate.

It makes them uncomfortable to know that they might wind up in a similar situation if they lose their job or home.

[louslobbs]

11. I believe there is a lot of truth in what you have said,

but acknowledging they exist and helping to prevent it today, could make us feel better about it happening to us because if we are all a voice for those less fortunate now, then we are also a voice for ourselves and our futures. I think it would lessen the fear, because if you help those with the least among us now, you also help yourself to feel more secure should your own life move toward a more difficult economic position that you couldn't have foreseen, knowing that, if it really got bad, you would still have a voice. Maybe that's just wishful thinking, but ignoring the plight of the poor, hasn't seemed to be working all that well. I know one thing, thanks to bobbolink, I will never be apathetic about this issue for the rest of my life, and I will speak loudly and forcefully for those who have no voice, because, there but for the grace of a loving, caring and powerful universe full of fairness, equality and possibility, go I
Lou

[OneGrassRoot]

23. Fear fuels the ignorance and selfishness, imho.

I agree with you, japple. Too many people are afraid to think such things could happen to them, so they turn away. In fear.

I think there's a lot of self-loathing out there, too, disguised as hatred and anger.

How to break through that...I just don't know.

All the facts and figures in the world won't make many people pay attention, especially in this day and age when we're bombarded by information (albeit most is MISinformation).

:cry:

[undeterred]

8. Because people are taught to believe stupid things.

I've posted this story before on DU, but I'll post it again.

More than 10 yrs ago I was an office manager downtown Chicago. Sometimes I had to order fancy box lunches for meetings in our office and I always made sure there were too many rather than too few. One day there were 6 left over. They were nice sandwiches- roast beef, with a salad cup on the side and some chips and dessert, and they cost about $15 each. I knew they would still be good tomorrow, and I also knew that the men in my office wouldn't eat day old meals. So I asked my boss if I could give them away and he said of course. My boss was a good man.

The other men in the office were young Northwestern MBAs. They overheard this conversation and asked who I was going to give the meals to. I said homeless people. And they asked me where I was going to find homeless people. To which I replied "I'll just walk around the block once", which I meant literally. I was near LaSalle and Madison downtown Chicago.

One of them objected to my giving food to people who didn't work for a living and told me it was wrong for me to give away food that the company paid for. He said I should throw it in the garbage. I put the 6 box lunches in 2 shopping bags and found 4 people who I offered the box lunches to- I gave two of them to 2 people... I guess I don't know if they were homeless, but anyone shivering next to a building and begging met my standard. And my reward was feeling their gratitude. And I did get the sense that they knew that not everyone could see them.

I went back upstairs and nobody said anything more about it. To me it just seemed wrong to throw away good food. You can't give away food that isn't packaged the right way to a shelter. But when something is nicely packaged as a meal and its still fresh and nobody is going to eat it, and you can find someone who really needs a meal, I think its worth a walk around the block.

But that's just my interpretation of the gospel, and others may hear it differently.

[louslobbs]

12. It's a worthy, teachable story about someone who cares and

does not sit in judgment of those who happen to be poor (that would be you), and the others, self aggrandized, judgmental, low life idiots who think they are better than those because they are the entitled elite, and others, not like them, are unworthy of even a meal. I'm sure that they are the type, that would simply exclaim, "if they do not like their lives, then let them die and clear the surplus population".

I believe that covers your opening title, "people are taught to believe stupid things", but might we agree then, if they believe stupid things, that they are nothing more than, how shall I put this? STUPID?
Lou

[undeterred]

13. And some of these men were from wealthy families

and never actually supported themselves until after they graduated from business school. So they didn't even have the experience of being a poor college or graduate student. Mommy and Daddy took care of everything and even gave them a car and a credit card to pay for their dates. The first time they were self supporting they were making 75K a year at 25 years old. But somehow they considered themselves self-made men and couldn't imagine how anyone could end up sleeping outside and begging next to a downtown building.

Well I didn't need to know how any of these people got there, but I can imagine a thousand different ways, and I can imagine "that could be me". And I hope if I am ever in that situation, that someone is kind to me.

[louslobbs]

31. That doesn't surprise me

that just makes it all the more pathetic.
Lou

[grilled onions]

9. Tent Cities,River Camps,Viaduct People,

The image that the poor simply will go away if they tear down their camps. So they have spent a good amount of time AND money bulldozing their living spaces,kicking them off of heat grates,disabling park benches. They make laws that no one is allowed to bring them a blanket, a cup of coffee. They are always treating these people as NONE people. Homeless bashings are on the increase but few are shocked by them and far too many think little is wrong with getting rid of human vermin--the leeches of society. It's a sad time we live in.

[louslobbs]

16. Unfortunately, your comment is full of ugly truth.

Much of the action against the poor and inaction on their behalf is a big Republicon hate issue. We know Republicons hate almost everyone who is not like them, but nothing brings out their hate more than their stories of contempt for the poor. Sure they hate Brown people, Black people, Muslims, the unemployed, gays, non-christians, Democrats, Unions, the working class, public education, Social Security, Medicare, the EPA, regulations for their rich friends and their corporations, taxes, health care for all, the truth, facts and anyone who doesn't march in lock step with their lifestyle choices and social beliefs. But these pathetic Republicon hypocrites, hate nothing more than, and share as one of their values, an ultimate contempt for, those who happen to be poor. This is the ultimate stain on life to the Republicons and even air is more than they should expect. Yes, they hate the poor and love the rich, but with all of their hate, which I stated above, they hate nothing more than icky poor people. They can't even utter that phrase, "two of my best friends are poor people". Also, I know that I did not include all of the things in this comment, that they hate. Feel free to add the many things I'm sure I missed above, the other things these Republicons hate. Hate, what good Republicon, teabagging, Koch brother, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin Christian doesn't?
Lou

[bobbolink]

29. Hatred of homeless people is a huge issue, and there is so much ordinary poeple

like DUers could be doing to help change this.

It is, like so many other things, a matter of getting organized, arming ourselves with facts, and taking action!

[louslobbs]

30. Absolutely,

and being in action on any issue, is the most important thing. Of course, we are not fact challenged like the Rethugs,liars the lot of them.

[bobbolink]

35. We may have the facts, but we sit around waiting for "Joe" to do it....

Meanwhile, the RW is organized and taking care of business, leaving us in the dust.

[MindPilot]

14. Because, instead, the rich are artificially made highly visible

There is a regular section in my local paper called "Who's Moving". It just a list of which overcompensated white guy is now CEO for that corporation and who took over the "helm" of another company blah, blah, blah. But when Joe Sixpack gets foreclosed on, or Jane Doe gets laid off...well, that just ain't so important now, is it?

[louslobbs]

19. Nope, not in this Republicon/FOX GOP/Koch brother/Limbaugh/Beck

Teabagging, astroturf, bible toting, gun carrying, corporate pig infested America. Just imagine how many cans of raid would be needed to stop the infestation.
Lou

[japple]

20. Not nearly as important as Justin Bieber's hair, or Charlie Sheen's

latest doings, or Lindsey Lohan's alcohol troubles.

[JackDragna]

15. We're an out of sight, out of mind people.

People got sick of Vietnam when the war in all its gory detail was brought to their living rooms. If the nightly news carried images of people sleeping in cardboard boxes, of people making the choice between rent and food, of having to forego care for sick children, then perhaps people would understand. Such images, however, are not a part of our daily slate of information. In many cities, the poor are marginalized to certain sections of town, so the relatively well-off never have to see them.

[eilen]

21. True that.

We have 2 homeless shelters in our city. I met a guy who was kicked out of one of them because he had a dispute with another as he was trying to pray (he is Muslim) and the other guy was giving him a hard time. So he went to the other shelter. The other shelter has no doors on their bathroom stalls, no privacy. I guess they think poor homeless people don't deserve it or that everyone is a suspected drug fiend and they want to prevent drug use... who knows. Anyway, he objected to the guy manning the desk sitting there staring at him. (He added he thought the man was openly gay etc. but I thought that was immaterial as I think bathroom privacy is a dignity issue). Anyway, there he was, no more options and it was 18 degrees out. He went to the ED for chronic pain exacerbation and possible wound infection. He said he was finally starting to get his benefits in a week (the start of the month) and was working with an agency to get housing but they had told him it would be at least 3 weeks to get him in somewhere. Personally, I thought he was argumentative (likely d/t stress) and that caused issues at the shelters but if he had had even a basic efficiency apartment, he would be fine. People need a little space to themselves. Anyway, I put a referral in to the social worker for him.

We have a lot of guys at intersections with signs but I think people are kind of desensitized to them and many believe they are not truly homeless/unemployed but work these corners as a job. Which I think is ludicrous. One nurse I work with was accustomed to one guy by an exit she frequented and always made sure to keep $5-$20 in the car to slip to him. Then he wasn't there and she was worried about him.

Then there are working poor who live in poverty but still have a roof over their heads and little else.

[JackDragna]

26. "The working poor" is soon going to be the best most of us can hope to be.

eom

[BobbyBoring]

32. That was back in the days

that we still had a media. Now that the media is owned lock stock and barrel by the oppressors, we will see what they want us to see and nothing more.

[stlsaxman]

17. so the "400" can keep us convinced we're middle class.

[Warpy]

18. Invisibe might be good since the next stop is criminal

What kills me is the utter invisibility of service workers as the entitled people go through their daily lives.

[1776Forever]

22. 60 Minutes had a report on tonight about U.S. children in poverty being 25% now!

They did an excellent job and the lady from the school they interviewed said every week now she is getting 5 to 15 more children reporting they are homeless! It is something that is not going away and the report was one that I am sure will start a lot of discussion!

[bobbolink]

24. Thank you so much for giving a voice to those of us who are ignored!

:hug:

[jillan]

25. The poor is one of the groups that is invisible. So are the disabled.

[bobbolink]

27. Yes, disabled poor people are left to flounder.

It is a crime in the richest country in the world!

[louslobbs]

33. Sad, but true

You can tell by the few responses to this thread, that people don't really want to deal with this issue or even admit that it exists. It sickens me. Anyone of us, in the current climate we live in, could find ourselves at a soup kitchen or in a homeless situation. Just how deaf, dumb and blind has this nation become?
Lou

[bobbolink]

37. It has to do with being organized.

We are not.

We need to change that.

[Iggo]

34. Takes money to pay the light bill.

So to speak.

[Populist_Prole]

36. Lots are poor and don't realize or want to admit it.

The natural inclination is to believe that so long as somebody isn't living on the streets or under an overpass, they are somehow middle class, even if lower low. Most are working class ( as am I ) but for many the stigma is too much for them to bear and they lump themselves into the middle class as well. Gives them a bit of bragging rights and allows them to look down on somebody

As long as there is somebody who is lower on the rungs than they, they'll want to jealously guard it and distrust and show contempt for those below them.

Of course the wild card are social issues/religion. Mustn't forget those.

[bobbolink]

38. I'm not willing to have poor people accept the blame again.. and again and again and again.

1. Look at the "progressive" media... there is hardly EVER a mention of poverty... it is all about the middleclass.

2. Look at Madison... do you see those people actually speaking out for poor people and including them? No, it is all about them.

When people are constantly ignored and invisible, is it any wonder that they stay in the shadows?

At least be willing to share the responsility for this.