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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: The homeless, are they in YOUR backyard?
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R. Andrew Diercks
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 232
From: Marion, Iowa (In the middle of everywhere)
Registered: May 2003
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posted 08-07-2003 12:28 PM
In college I worked for Juvenile Court where I had to supervise kids perform their community service. We often cleaned out homeless living quarters. This is when I lost sympathy for bums.
We always filled at least 2 sharps boxes with used needles. There were piles and piles of porn and liquor. One of the men that we had to kick out all the time was known to have a home and family, but he liked this lifestyle and they liked him because he could buy real booze for the rest.
The group held races to see who could steal or beg for enough to get the first bottle of mouthwash each day. We also served at the soup kitchen and the mission told us they were never full except some cold winter nights. The reason is the mission has two requirements...Stay Sober and go to a Church Service. All of them went to church...they would not stay sober. BUMS are BUMS. Homeless people are homeless people. I have to differentiate as I have worked with bums and poor people just down on their luck and life.
As far as cost of living increases. They are great to receive, but all it does is help inflation. When the GDP goes up, so do our expenses. Rent is insane. I could not imagine living in a large city. I have friends in LA that make the same money I do but pay twice the rent. The trouble is we can't control the market. With most things when price is too high, it won't sell. Everyone needs a roof and someone will pay it.
Low income housing is a joke that won't let anyone out. Since rent is based on income, if you get a raise, rent goes up, hence you can never save to get out. It should be a stepping stone to help you out. Same is true for welfare. Why would anyone on welfare get a job. If they do we cut them off completely. It's all or none (except for title 19). A four person family on full benefits receives the equivelant of about $18,000/year. If it is a one parent household, a minimum wage job would yield about $12,000. Why not still help them out to show that work will still yield a better life. I did my thesis on this topic in college.
Oh, and this should be in the political thread. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 08-07-2003 01:43 PM
There was an abandoned drive-in down the street from me that I frequented to take pictures of. (That's where the one of me in the straightjacket was taken.) One day on one of our adventures, we saw smoke coming out of what used to be the concession/projection building.
Inside were two homeless guys grilling on a fire and an old A/C vent cover. They were so glad to see us! True, they were a little drunk, but what are you gonna do with your day, right? We talked for a while, with crazy dreams to open the drive-in and whatnot, pretty much until the sun started to go down.
I went back there a couple times to visit, and one of the guys who was in his late 20's told me about how he got where he's at. Long story short, he had a wife, kids, and a business until he tried crack and ended up smoking his whole business. Wife divorced him and took the kids. He had been clean for a while, but there was no going back or asking for forgiveness. It's hard finding a job when you can't shower every day or have any clothes to go to the interview in. You just get depressed and drink your depressions away as day after day goes by.
It irritates me when people say "Go get a job" especially with the way the country is right now. Yeah, go find a job when a guy like me, with a car and a great resume still can't find one that will pay all the bills. McDonald's won't even keep the lights on let alone pay for a roof over your head. Slave-wages!
Yeah, most of these people got to where they are by their own faults, but people make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes throw you in a hole that's not easy to crawl out of, especially when there's people throwing dirt on you. It may not be a good enough reason to show compassion towards them, but there's also no reason to condemn them.
I came back to the drive-in one day before I left town and brought the two guys some gallons of drinking water and mosquito candles. (They were both pretty bit-up). It drove them to tears that a person actually still cared about them. When I came back after a week, they had moved on.
=TMP=
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 08-07-2003 06:06 PM
The homeless issue isn't a political one. That's being too nice and absolving a lot of guilty parties from blame for it. This is a greed problem. Many of the homeless need to be in special homes or hospitals of some sort. But since there's no profit in taking care of these sorts of people they get cast out on the streets.
quote:
Any business, theatre or not, that is trying to promote a family atmosphere, does not need some homeless guy hanging around any public area...Do you want your kids watching some homeless guy pissing on your doors in broad daylight...Regardless of mental condition someone has to draw a line.
Sure, no one wants some homeless guy around, especially a nut job who took a fresh dump in his pants! But where do you send him? Just a few blocks down the street so he can become someone else's problem?
I think much of the American public couldn't give a shit where any homeless guy goes just so long as he isn't hanging around on their corner. And that's just f**king ignorant. Judging by the sentiment of some I've run into over the years, I think a good number of Americans would have the homeless round up and shot if they thought they could get away with it.
quote:
No! Its up to the person to pick themselves up by their own friggin' bootstraps.
That might be easy to do, provided that you're not afflicted with schizophrenia or any number of other delibitating mental diseases. Oh yeah, and you need a good education (we're talking college level) since corporate America is exporting as many manufacturing jobs as it can to places like China.
Mentally ill people aren't equipped "to pick themselves up by their bootstraps" and they make up most of the homeless population. Without any kind of supervision they will take to doing all sorts of harmful things to themselves (and potentially other people too). But who gives a shit as long as they're out of sight, right?
The only people in the group that I cannot provide sympathy are the idiot drug abusers that wound up homeless. Just like some dumbass teenager that starts smoking today before he is out of high school, I have no regards for morons who start up drug habits knowing what we know about those substances today. They know the risks. And if they still want to do the stuff, then they deserve to have life kick them squarely in the ass.
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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 08-07-2003 08:12 PM
Why is there so much beating up of unfortunates and disadvantaged? From the Hitler Youth to the NY teenage punks who spray the homeless with lighter fluid and torch them, violence against the homeless seems to increase in hard economic times. Violence not only physical, but verbal, as in this forum?
I think it's because all realize the fragility of our "successful" lives, where an accident or layoff leading to loss of income could lead to foreclosure by our mortgage-holder or eviction from our rental home or apartment. Then we'd be out on the street, like those "bums." "There but for the grace of God go I." The arsonist punks would rather kill the homeless lest they become so themselves.
Hundreds Face Street As Chicago Housing Project Faces Demolition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/07/national/07CHIC.html
As you read this, note the faces of some of the 388 men, women and children, from babies to the aged, with no place to go.
No, there are not enough shelters, jobs or rehab centers, and those that exist have long waiting lists. Hunger, malnutrition and disease terminate the lives of many whom the fortunate would prefer not to know about, wishing they's just go away and remain invisible.
The poor are always with us. Bashing is cheap but no answer.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 08-08-2003 08:33 PM
We live in a society where the people in power are great at manipulating and misdirecting the rest of us.
I think Americans need to be pissed off. But they need to be pissed off about the right things.
Here's a good analogy. Take a country like Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. Those are places where the richest .01% of the population controls nearly all of the wealth and assets. Most people in those places live in terrible poverty and exploited on a daily basis. Yet the guys in power keep them pissed off at people in Israel. That's political misdirection.
The U.S. economy has been tanking for over 3 years now. But the folks in power don't want to admit to it. All they want to talk about is the war on terrorism, the war on drugs, overturning Roe V. Wade and other hot-button issues that don't really have a damn with putting food on the table. Ask a politician or corporate executive about improving things for the American people and they'll probably give a response like "we're gonna find Bin Laden someday." I think the guy is already cold and dead, but it's not politically profitable for anyone to admit that. Same might be true for Saddam. As long as their spirits are alive, our government can talk more about war and less about the economy. They don't want to talk about the economy. They don't know what to do about it. Their rich friends mean more to them than "The American People." So they want to put off dealing with tough issues as long as they can. For now, "let's kick ass!"
You get the same nonsense with things like health care, child care and even caring for the homeless. Not a whole lot of monetary or political reward for that. But if those in power actually cared about things like morals, "being a good Christian" or reducing abortions and unwanted pregnancies, doing substantive work on those problems would actually do something to solve those hot button issues mainly used for political misdirection.
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Will Kutler
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1506
From: Tucson, AZ, USA
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 08-10-2003 08:45 PM
Sunday August 10, 2003 Associated Press. "MAYYTAG MOVES SOUTH, Appliance Jiant Moving 3rd Plant To Mexico".
First Maytag moved two parts plants to Mexico; now, a refrigator plant is headed down there.Maytag CEO Ralph Hawke, who declined to interviewed for this article, has been blamed for this move, does not have any more plans to move plants to Mexico. He then backed up his decision by stating that 90% of Maytag refrrigators will still be made in the U.S. This year Maytag has cut 510 jobs, following 300 cuts in 2001. Mexico has become a popular destination for manufacturers. About 200 compaines, including Black and Decker and Whirlpool employ about 70,000 people in 10 industrial parks in Mexico. Mexican workers earn about $2.60 to $3.00 per hr including benefits. American Maytag employees earn about $15.00/hr. These major companies claim they need to reduce costs to stay competitive by passing on the savings to consumers. But while these compaines are saving themselves money by moving offshore, the reality is that they are not necessarly passing on savings to customers thru reduced prices.
I did paraphrase this article.
Once again the American Government and Washington ploiticians are selling out the American worker. I do believe that there is currently legislation on Capitol Hill to reelax restrictions on illegal Mexican workers and migrant workers comming into America.
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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays
Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 08-12-2003 02:47 PM
Bruce McGee wrote: quote:
Tim, did you work on the projectors in Moore Auditorium? Also, did you stay at the Interstate Motel? By the Civic Center? If so, thats why you were harassed. It is also known as the intercourse motel.
Yes, yes, and YES!! Was that you?! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Yep, you're right on about the intercourse motel... they even checked me into a room that had just been "used" one night. I went back to the front desk and said, "I think someone's already in that room."
The equipment at Mars Hill hasn't been used in probably 20 years. When it was, it had very little hours on it. Almost like new. I'm not sure if it was Moore Auditorium, but that rings familiar. It was a moderately-sized building on the left, just after you top the hill. I think administrative offices are there, too.
Last time I stopped by to say hi, the equipment was still there, but it had long been neglected and they were using the booth as storage. The same guy was still in charge of that department, but I've forgotten his name. Very nice people there. At one time, there was a young lady named Leeny Foiles who was the program coordinator, but she has since moved on. I always enjoyed her company.
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 08-12-2003 05:45 PM
quote:
Sunday August 10, 2003 Associated Press. "MAYYTAG MOVES SOUTH, Appliance Jiant Moving 3rd Plant To Mexico".
First Maytag moved two parts plants to Mexico; now, a refrigator plant is headed down there.Maytag CEO Ralph Hawke, who declined to interviewed for this article, has been blamed for this move, does not have any more plans to move plants to Mexico. He then backed up his decision by stating that 90% of Maytag refrrigators will still be made in the U.S. This year Maytag has cut 510 jobs, following 300 cuts in 2001. Mexico has become a popular destination for manufacturers. About 200 compaines, including Black and Decker and Whirlpool employ about 70,000 people in 10 industrial parks in Mexico. Mexican workers earn about $2.60 to $3.00 per hr including benefits. American Maytag employees earn about $15.00/hr. These major companies claim they need to reduce costs to stay competitive by passing on the savings to consumers. But while these compaines are saving themselves money by moving offshore, the reality is that they are not necessarly passing on savings to customers thru reduced prices.
I did paraphrase this article.
Once again the American Government and Washington ploiticians are selling out the American worker. I do believe that there is currently legislation on Capitol Hill to reelax restrictions on illegal Mexican workers and migrant workers comming into America.
I think you're mixing apples and oranges. Manufacturing has ALWAYS followed the cheapest labor. Always has, always will. It has nothing to do with Washington (and I am certainly NOT a Bush supporter.) Want to support American manufacturing? Boycott products that aren't manufactured in America. But the American people won't do that because all they want is cheap products. Wal-Mart, the #1 retailer in the US, cuts costs by paying sub-par wages to its workers, forces them to work overtime off the books and forces suppliers to lower prices, which in turn forces suppliers to turn to overseas manufacturing or to cut wages for their workers.
The US no longer has a manufacturing economy, so get over it. We have a information/technology and service economy for better or worse. Unfortunately, the technology economy still isn't doing well and the service economy pays cruddy wages. But even that can't be blamed on Washington. Blame it on the corporate psychology that says the only thing that counts is shareholder value and not being a good corporate citizen or having allegiance to one's workers.
As far as making it legal for foreign workers to work in the US, look at the situation we have now. We've got hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of undocumented residents or people who came on tourist or student Visas and overstayed. Technically, they're not allowed to work. So they work illegally if they can get fake ID, or in sweatshops or in the underground economy, doing semi-legal work, such as childcare, housecleaning, massage parlors, etc. And most of them don't pay taxes because they're afraid of being "noticed." Most of these jobs are not jobs American workers would take. Other of these jobs pay lower because the workers are undocumented. And we don't get the tax revenues. We'd be a lot better off if we created a class of jobs that foreign workers were eligible for (giving legal immigrants and US citizens priority) and collected taxes on their wages. That would also probably have the benefit of raising wages in those job categories. That would be far better than the present situation.
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that we have to deal with these people that have made decisions/mistakes to live like this. Is anyone gonna help me if i f*&k up? No! Its up to the person to pick themselves up by their own friggin' bootstraps. ![[beer]](graemlins/beer.gif)
Mike
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