Man makes sure that "motel kids" don't go hungry.

[Lyric]

Anaheim, California (CNN) -- In the shadows of Disneyland, often referred to as the "happiest place on Earth," many children are living a reality that's far from carefree.

They are living in cheap motels more commonly associated with drug dealers, prostitutes and illicit affairs.

(snip)

"Some people are stuck, they have no money. They need to live in that room," said Bruno Serato, a local chef and restaurateur. "They've lost everything they have. They have no other chance. No choice."

(snip)

When Serato learned that these children often go hungry, he began serving up assistance, one plate at a time. To date, he's served more than 270,000 pasta dinners -- for free -- to those in need.

Read the story: http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/03/24/cnnheroes.serato.motel.kids/index.html?hpt=Sbin

-------------------------------------------------------------------

When I read this article I was moved to tears by the kindness and generosity of the man who's doing this. And then I made the mistake of reading all the comments, where there are many supportive ones...and also many "Screw those illegal immigrant brats; their parents are lazy parasites!" type comments. That stuff hit me hard; how can ANYONE, or at least anyone HUMAN, want to punish innocent children with hunger just because some of their parents are immigrants? Do they have any idea what real hunger feels like? Do they know how traumatizing it is...how you never, ever get over it?

It made me realize something I'd never admitted to myself before; I don't WANT to live in a country with people who think like that. I don't mean that in a philosophical, "Let's change their minds" way, because those people are NEVER going to change their minds. Their minds are Closed, permanently. No, I just don't want to share a nation with them anymore. For the first time in my life, I actually found myself WISHING for a peaceful division of this Union so that those greedy, heartless bastards can't have a say in our nations' laws anymore. I don't want to live with them; I don't even want to KNOW them.

If that means dividing up the land because half of our citizens are too stupid and cruel to show an ounce of basic human compassion to an innocent, hungry child, then SO BE IT. I don't want neighbors or co-workers like that. They'll kill us all out of spite and ego and greed if you give them half a chance. I'm tired of people like THAT getting to poison the well of our nation's laws and policies. Reasoned argument doesn't work with them, because they are unable to be convinced except by having empathy FORCED upon them through personal hardship and suffering. Well, any ultra-conservative nation would surely have PLENTY of THAT...so let them go there.

I don't mean ALL conservatives. There is room for civil disagreement. But people who are SO fanatic and obsessed with their ideology that they literally want to see children STARVE because they dislike their parents?! People who want to see others put to DEATH for being gay?! People who are SO radicalized and extreme that they would LITERALLY be killing us in the streets if they weren't afraid of prison?! Let them take their hate somewhere else and leave the rest of us alone so that we can make some attempt at restoring America's dignity and honor. They claim the mantle of "the only TRUE patriots": well they aren't "patriots". They're hardly even HUMAN. They are nothing more than wild, vicious beasts that endanger everyone around them.

This society has turned into Lord of the fucking Flies, and those people are Jack's violent, lawless pack of beasts, masquerading as human beings. Let them go kill and hate each OTHER for a change, so the rest of us can try to help each other and ease the suffering of our fellow human beings without being constantly thwarted, abused, and villified for it.

[midnight]

1. This man is doing what we all should do.... Help.

And those who are elected to do the helping are only helping themselves and those who don't need any help......

[RKP5637]

2. How will we ever get beyond the hatred in this country today. It defies logic anymore, it seems

hatred is this countries number one product. It is completely irrational. It's like much of this country is suffering from a massive psychosis.

[Starry Messenger]

3. k&r

[a la izquierda]

4. Thanks so much for posting...

and your commentary at the bottom is spot on. I'm tired of living in a hateful, angry society. It makes me angry...and I don't like being irritated and angry.

This country is in serious need of a look inward.

[bobbolink]

5. Yes, I came to that place quite some time ago.

But, here is the thing.... while hatred is ugly and hurts (I know because I get some of it almost every day), what is worse is INDIFFERENCE.

And, if you are honest, you will admit that the Democratic party and "progressives" have been indifferent to poverty and homelessness.

The simple fact is, if this country cared about poor people, really CARED, and decided to eliminate homelessness, it would. The only thing that keeps homelessness being an epidemic is INDIFFERENCE.

Yes, this man is keeping children from starving.

But it is doing NOTHING to change the situation in which they live.

If he would also spend some part of his time protesting the situation that is causing this, and organizing others to do the same, it would have an impact.

And the same is true of everyone here.

If 300,000 people can write to keep Olbermann in his job, then why can't that many people get inolved in stopping the cuts to low-income housing, and creating enough housing for everyone?

WHY IS THAT?

[roxiejules]

8. So true, time for indifference to be replaced with action

Good reminder for all of us to write or call our local, state and federal representatives and get involved.

[bobbolink]

13. Thank you! However, the problem is, that there aren't enough people at this point to

make any difference with congresscritters.

What is needed now is raising awareness and passion so that there WILL be enough people to create the necessary pressure.

But, those of us who have tried can't even get THAT much action.

IN-FUCKING-DIFFERENCE.

[roxiejules]

15. Isn't that what Chris Hedges has been saying, too?

We were too busy and comfortable in our own worlds.


"The liberal class refuses to recognize the obvious because it does not want to lose its comfortable and often well-paid perch. Unions, organizations formerly steeped in the doctrine of class struggle and filled with members who sought broad social and political rights for the working class, have been transformed into domesticated negotiators with the capitalist class. .... blinds citizens to corporate structures that have made it impossible for families to lift themselves out of poverty or live with dignity. But perhaps the worst offender within the liberal class is the Democratic Party."

-Chris Hedges

[bobbolink]

14. Consider this:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4789119&mesg_id=4789178

[Lyric]

9. I don't know, Bobbie.

I ask myself that same question every day. When they came to take my Mom's oxygen tanks away because she couldn't pay, I asked myself that. When me, Rhythm, and LyricKid were homeless and sleeping crowded onto a friend's living room futon from April until August, 2010, I asked myself that same question. When we're in a hard month and we're feeding several families on Food Stamps meant for two people because the alternative is to watch my family members go hungry, I ask myself that.

I liked to delude myself into thinking that more people don't get involved because they don't really KNOW...but I just can't believe that anymore. They know. I just don't think that they care. Our values system is so fucked up that many people, even on the "liberal" side, think that hunger and homelessness are someone else's problem. They feel bad, but they think that some charity or nonprofit or government program is going to help, and then they just put it out of their minds.

Well let me tell you...those charities, nonprofits and government programs? They've NEVER been able to "take care of it", and what they're doing now is significantly less than they used to be able to do. I read an article in our local paper; the Salvation Army food bank is down to a couple shelves' worth of canned vegetables and 10 boxes of cereal to feed 75-100 families this month. God only knows what they're gonna do next month. Welfare checks, Food Stamps, and Section 8 vouchers are becoming less and less available as the government starts squeezing the poor...and what they DO get, has to go even further now because food, fuel, and household essential costs are going UP. It was never enough even before--when I got a "welfare check" for a few months back in 2003, I got less than $300 per month--but now that money has to be stretched thinner and thinner, and people are getting desperate.

At least our side has the decency to feel bad about this, and I do believe that people WOULD support more government assistance for housing, food, and basic necessities at the very least, except that WE can't do shit because the psychotic destructionists on the right would rather see poor children starve than to bend their rigid hateology even a single inch toward compassion.

We can't get anything done when the other side has completely lost even the vaguest sense of human compassion and our side is so exhausted from battling them just to keep the nation and our families from sliding into total collapse and right-wing totalitarianism that we have little energy left for much beyond that. That's why I wish we could just break in half and let it be over with. I know that's not the ideal solution, but we're fighting a battle against fanatics and we can't win. I don't see any way out of this that doesn't involve either a slow surrender to despair, or breaking things in half completely just to preserve *something* of our nation's dignity.

Diplomatic solutions don't work when the other side of the bargaining table is pointing a loaded gun at your head.

[bobbolink]

12. I can't say it any better than you have. CHARITY will NEVER, can NEVER take care of people.

Yet, "progressives" actually say the same thing that conservatives do about it. When confronted with their lack of action "*I* give to food banks", "I volunteer at a shelter", "I throw a buck to the guy on the street."

I don't give "our side" the same pass you do......it is the same INDIFFERENCE as many conservatives.

I will repeat for what what I have said here so many times.......People could send 300,000 emails to reinstate Keith Olbermann, but they can't write the same media people to nudge them to educate people and the myths they repeat about poverty and homelessness. It just isn't important. It isn't sexy.

You say "they would if they could". So, then, why is poverty and homelessness on very few of the lists of priorities that come around on DU regularly?

Why are there big street protests now for middleclass issues, yet still none for poverty issues?

The list of INDIFFERENCE goes on and on...

I understand that is it very difficult to realize that "our side" cares no more than the "other side". I have gone through a lot of pain grappling with that very thing.

Yet, that is the fact of the matter..

[EFerrari]

6. I feel exactly the same way about them.

That's why I don't join any discussion about how to talk to them. I don't want to talk to them. Let them spew their poison all over EACH OTHER. I want to spend the rest of my life with social human beings, not those perverted throwbacks.

[roxiejules]

7. Inspiring!

Thanks for posting.

[isuphighyeah]

10. I made the mistake of reading the comments too.

I usually skip the comment section on CNN articles because the haters really come out of the woowrok. This is a great story and what this man does for these children is wonderful. They can't ruin that for me.

[Adsos Letter]

11. "The Greatest Mistake Is To Do Nothing Because You Can Do Only a Little"

This quote is usually ascribed to Edmund Burke; but the source really doesn't matter, as it speaks a profound truth. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by the immensity of problems in the world, including our own personal ones, that we often feel helpless because we can't fix it all.

If we just do something, anything/any way we can give, however insignificant it may seem, helps someone.

Even the ancient proverbs of Israel speak to this: "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to act. Proverbs 3:27 And the story of the Good Samaritan gives me a pretty good idea that those "to whom it is due" is pretty inclusive.

And even when we despair of our contribution to make any difference, remember another quote from Burke: "Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair."

I'm not just tossing out pabulum here. To the degree that we can incorporate these things into our persoanl attitude toward the world within our reach, to that degree the world will be a better place.

This chef has certainly done it.

[onethatcares]

16. if we don't start helping out each of us,

we aren't ever gonna make it.

It doesn't matter what you can give or how much, but if you just give a bit, a little bit, to someone that has nothing
you will be richer for it.

You never know when your turn at the bottom is coming.