United States Mint Police (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

As I sit here in my office and think about life in general it always comes back to the same thing no matter what it is always about politics. 

Politics in the nation, politics in the world, politics in the office and politics at home. Why does life have to be so dam political. Why is every decision every made dependent on someone else and their opinions. Why is how much we pay for gasoline or an orange depending on what the people in higher power believe it should be.

I often wonder what the future holds for all of us this these times of troubles. How long are regular Americans going to to able to survive when the weekly pay check of $300. ends up being $230. after we fill our gas tanks? Is it going to come down to feeding our families or having to fill the tank to get back and fourth for the 200 lousy dollars a week to survive.

I myself feel like I am  in sinking mode. No matter what I do there never seems to be enough money for everything especial with gas prices escalating to parts unknown and food prices also on the rise. How much can we all take before we just slide into the dark abise with no hopes of floating again? Rent, heat, lights, phone, food, gasoline, car repairs, these are just the tip of the ice burg of what Americans pay on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Is it going to take finding a second or a third job to be able to maintain? That is of course is if you can find one job. America the beautiful seems to be becoming America the struggle. Politics and politicians make our lives the way they are. Do they struggle daily and wonder where the hell their next meal is coming from? Of course not making the yearly salaries they do that won’t be a problem.

How far can this all go? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel or is this tunnel a never ending ride to no place good? I want to stop this train from hell and get back on the gravy train and once more plant my feet back on American soil with pride knowing that things will be alright and will change for the better.

I honestly don’t see much difference in America and third world countries at the moment, we too have people living in poverty with nothing but the shirts on their backs. The homeless are on the rise and have been for a very long time. Living in cars or under a bridge. Not knowing if you will get a job and even after that if you will be able to survive and tread water with the dollar amount written on your check at the end of the week.

I feel sad with the happenings of today, I feel sad for people who are good and try their best to make it all work, I feel sad because looking into the future is a grim sight. I don’t see anything changing for the better only for the worse. Whats next on the agenda taking those who are burdens out back and standing them in front of a wall to be shot? maybe in a long run it would be more humane. 

Sometimes  i believe cults and small groups of people trying to make their lives and others better have the right idea. They want to make a universe that is not all about struggle, but about unity and working together to make life better.

Yes I know I am ranting, but voicing my opinion on paper is all that I know. It is not hurting anyone and maybe it will make me feel better. Seeing woman with babies walking down the street holding signs that says we are hungry, or Veterans begging on the street corner makes me angry! In this place that is supposed to be wonderful and take care of their own and others around the world, I would say they are not doing a very good job!

Stopping world hunger is a joke for sure, America cannot even stop American hunger let alone any place else. Until the day that the politicians see what is really going on with the little guy and always seeming to make it harder just for us, I guess fixing things will not happen.

I don’t want to be rich, but I do know that working my ass off every single week for nothing is getting old. I am a good person and try to be the best I can, but it seems that makes no difference. I will continue to struggle and try to make ends meat but how long before my utilities have been turned off and there is no food in the frig. Being evicted from my apartment will be next and where will I go? Who will care if I am one of the many living on the streets with no place to go?

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Living in This Day and Age in America

It is a small jail in a provincial city. From outside it doesn’t look like a jail. One passes through an iron wrought gate after having told the guard in the tower that one goes to call on one of the inmates. He nods. It is visitors’s day. On the big iron gate there is a small barred window. When one presses the bell, a guard will open the little window to ask him to whom one is coming to call on. Then, he will tell the visitor to wait in what they call the waiting room and he will close the little window again. The so called waiting room is a bare room. There are few wooden benches and some litter swirls around. The walls are in need for a good lick of paint. Inside, the visitor will cross a patio following the guard. The visitor will walk along corridors with different doors that the visitor presumes they are offices and all of them, painted in dark brown,  are locked. These are weekly visits and they only last for 30 minutes. The conversation turns difficult behind a thick glass in the cabin and one has to talk to the inmate looking to the microphone over the little counter. The inmate may apply for a personal visit once a month that lasts for one and a half hour and it takes place in a grimy squalid room.

I have also read on the appalling conditions that prisoners have to endure in Moroccan jails where torture and ill treatment happens everyday. Or in the Guantanamo one. A prison should be a place where inmates not only have to complete their sentences, but they should have a chance to improve themselves for the day when they come out free. But the sad fact is that they are even worse when they leave.

One has read a lot of reports on the situation of inmates in jails around the world and one can’t understand how these places can be turned into luxury hotels. Who would like to sleep in a place where there has been people being tortured? Not even a good makeover to these buildings would clean them from their bleak past. It is in my opinion one of these trends suitable for snobbish people who have never been in a jail. People who don’t know what’s being down and out. 

In estonia, for instance, they gone way too far to leave the jail as it was. there are actors that act as guards. There is grub and all the windows are barred and all is in the same situation as it was during Soviet times. It is a hostel on these days and it cots 10 Euro a night. 

It is pure snobbery, I think.

BBH, an international advertising firm, has started a “beta program” where homeless people are the hotspots. Through PayPal, one can donate a small fee to said person, in exchange for access to the Internet.

Obviously, this has caused a lot of controversy, through claims that these people are being exploited and have become objectified. As well, with the recent news that cell phones are possible causes of cancer, there are concerns that the homeless are being exposed to potentially dangerous amounts of radiation.

However, some say that this has given the homeless an opportunity to connect to the public in a whole new way that they could not before. Who knows, these “homeless hotspots” may even spark a new wave of viral videos or stories centered on the low-income earners, not unlike those of Ted the Golden Voice or this one-of-a-kind taxi driver below.

External Links

Homeless Hotspots

Richard Codey looking Homeless and finished

He is a millionaire by all standards and a senator at that, but he wanted to personally experience what a typical Homeless American goes through. According to the 2011 report of the National Alliance to End Homelessness in America, there are more than 636,000 people who fall in the description of the homeless in the United States. Richard Codey  has been rumored to eye the position of the Governor and this project of faking homelessness is seen by many as a political positioning to win votes.

He hired an artist to disguise his looks and transform his appearance from that of a millionaire to a homeless man. Anybody who knows a millionaire’s looks  will agree with me that it was not an easy task because it had to take a lot of creativity on the part of the artist he hired to this politician assume the looks of a homeless pauper. He got a phony beard and a tattoo fixed and with a soiled shirt on his back blended with a cheap head gear, ex Governor Richard Codey’s appearance as a legitimate homeless man looking for shelter in a cold American night was unmistakable.

Richard Codney the powerful Governor

When he landed at the door-steps of the Goodwill Rescue Mission in Newark, shivering with rattling teeth, pleading to be let in, he was rudely turned away. Codey went on to be denied entry into 25 other local shelters mainly because he did not have SSI, welfare and disability support.When he insisted and was finally given a shelter at Goodwill Rescue Mission in Newark, he was given a thin mattress, blanket and a pillow over his head. It was the worst night of his life, sleeping on the floor and in beddings that he has never known all his life.

 From his investigations, Richard Codey learnt that single men and those with mental health problems were the most affected by homelessness since they were often the category unfairly denied entry into local shelters. He plans to make public his findings to the State so that more federal money is made available to address the plight of the homeless in America. This could be an election winning strategy which many in New Jersey will find very appealing because this guy seems to be really people centered,   the kind of leader anybody needs!

UNEMPLOYMENT LINES

I never thought I’d see the day

at least ‘til I retired,

that I wouldn’t have a job;

only once have I been fired

and I’ve enjoyed all the perks

and benefit of working

and enjoyed my employ…

but now I’m really hurting.

Being in the welfare line

does not bring a moment’s joy

while I’ve used up every cent I saved

while I was gainfully employed.

There is nothing quite so humbling

as being unemployed

after years and years of steady work,

of signing in, punching the clock;

and now not having that paycheck,

well, it sure hurts a lot…

But I find I’m not alone

in the unemployment line;

the line extends around the block,

folks that were doing fine

but are now worrying tomorrow;

seems it’s a sign of the times…

We wonder, how will we ever make it?

Brother can you spare a dime?

It is scary being unemployed

and in that unemployment line,

to find no job day after day…

It sure hurts a lot

when you go to apply for any job

and find the front door locked,

a sign, going out of business;

shops, mills and factories,

down-sizing or shutting their doors;

it’s a sad sight to see.

It leaves you feeling hopeless

to know you are not able

to keep a roof over your head

or put food your table;

to wake up in the morning

to wonder again what you can do

to make it through another day,

to somehow just get through.

I’m seeing homeless on the street

who once were doing fine.

They’ve worked hard for most their life

and I’ve worked most of mine

but the days look dark and gloomy

here in the unemployment line

feeling like an empty, worthless shell;

Seems it’s a sign of the times.

We wonder if we’re going to make it…

Brother can you spare a dime.

It all started last year in Madrid and it was amidst the municipal election campaign. Hundred of youngsters camped with their tents in the heart of the city centre to protest against soaring unemployment, the financial fraud that has plunged several countries in sheer poverty and the lack of opportunities for youngsters to get a job with a living salary. These were the main demands, but as the days passed, the demands grew and were posted on walls and wherever there was space to do so. There was, of course, repression and the campers were evicted out of the square.  Then, groups of youngsters gathered permanently in the square, but this time they sat everywhere without their tents. However, all politicians were on their campaigns and they couldn’t afford to take on youngsters and not so young. Therefore, the tents were up again until they decided to end it peacefully and by their on will

A fresh and new movement had been born amidst all gloom and doom.

It is what it is known as the NO NO generation going into the streets to fight for what it’s right and against what it’s wrong.

No Job. No pension. No home, but No fear! they wrote everywhere and they yelled in all demonstrations.

During the election campaign, the square was packed with all sorts of people at all times. Since this huge mobilization had started on May 15th 2011, the movement took the name of Movement 15-M. After the election, they took another direction. They didn’t camped in the heart of the city centre, but they started to work in different areas, creating permanent assemblies with everyone who wishes to join in. 

The movement that spread everywhere.

This movement spread outside the boundaries of Spain, reaching to other European capitals and cities as well as in NYC, occupying Wall Street. 

They took part in many other mobilizations such as to protest on the Pope’s visit to Spain or the global one on October 15th 2011. 

Some people may not agree, and in fact, they don’t, with many of these occupations in the heart of any city centre. They must know why they don’t agree with it. Yet, for the thousands of people, young and not so young, who have lost their jobs and their homes, it is the only way to get themselves seen and heard. They aren’t harming anyone. They want to demonstrate peacefully and none of us want to act violently. 

The financial markets are ruling the world and governments are nothing but mere puppets in the hands of these markets, which are condemning many countries to sheer poverty and hardships.

Some people may criticise all these global mobilizations against the financial fraud, but all of them who are marching and protesting in the streets of any capital city or city are right in doing so. As it was said in the global mobilization we are the 99% of the world population, but they are just a bunch of greedy speculators who are getting richer and richer out of millions of people’s disgrace. 

 I have seen vagrants roaming around the city streets. When I was at a younger age, all I know about these people is just they are homeless. But, as I was growing up I became more concerned about the quantity of these homeless people and question why, they are indeed. 

And these are some of the things I learned:

1. Due to poverty
2. Mental Disability
3. Infidelity (sounds crazy, I know! But I know someone who has actually gone through with this situation that drove that person mad and lost his senses)
4. Due to alcoholic problems (that their very own family disowns them)
5. Stowaway’s
6. Relocate (these are people who are searching for a greener pasture, believing that they can find jobs so easily yet, they are left to be homeless and jobless in the end)

These are just some reasons that I know, the rest is yet to be known. But the main reason is poverty. All around the globe we fight against this one common enemy. WE strive each day for survival.

hot cup of coffee and a good book time…not in the ghetto.

Rats run the streets looking for a warm place to be…sometimes

it’s human body heat….in the ghetto.

 Warm pair of slippers and a remote,

just the things we need to stay off the cold….not in the ghetto.

Seems we just don’t understand,

it can happen to anyone of us man.

Out here sleeping in the street,

no place to dry your feet… in the ghetto.

 One day you’re at the top of your game,

good family, home and bills get paid..then the ghetto.

 Stock market crashes down, jobs lost with factories shutting down…

then the ghettos.

 Yes it’s a two way street, some homeless have been known to steal.

Drugs and lack of motivation,

no education.

Drunks and street rip Raf

but just see it better man,

this can be you too…. in the ghetto.

Just think about those motgage loans,

who pays them when the company folds?

Then it will be you out there,

cold, frustrated and a little scared.

So, next time the wind starts to blow,

things get miserable , wet and cold.

Think on  and be thankful for your dry feet

and just maybe, just maybe, take a box of canned goods to someone

who has nothing to eat….. in the ghettos.

 It’s a sad day when people have to struggle so hard to just get by every day. Sure the churches and homeless shelters can help provide food and belongings when needed but there isn’t a place to call ‘home’. Parents lost their jobs or had to take a lower paying job, and couldn’t afford to pay a mortgage payment or rent, but could only afford food instead.

 Companies that have fired people to save themselves money, are also fighting these same people against their unemployment benefits, so the company can save more money.  And with all the big banks and  foreign banks foreclosing on homes then just turn around and sell them for pennies on the dollar to get some kind of money out of them. It’s a horrible cycle, the rich keep getting richer and they, don’t care about the lives they have destroyed, just to make a dollar.   

 In the light of all of this we are finding alot of people who really care, and want to help. justgive.org is selling newspapers, artists are selling their art to donate the money toward the homeless. And so many others have joined in, teachers who bring extra supplies, or the cafeteria staff that makes weekend lunches for the kids to take home. So next time you’re cleaning out your closet, make that trip down to one of your local homeless shelters instead of that clothes bin in the parking lot. Just so you know they will be going to someone who needs them. 

Homelessness has been on the rise again over the last few years.  Many transients are the stereotypical types found drunk and passed out beside a downtown building, but many more are there against their own wills.  Society tends to create its own plagues be it viral or social.  As the wealthy get richer, and more and more background checks are implemented to profile people as law enforcement does, we create situations that keep people from obtaining proper shelters that they could otherwise afford.

Example:  A family grosses enough monthly income to pay three times the rent as required by most property management companies, has clean criminal history, but very bad credit scores.  This family will be denied a rental just because of this issue.  Let’s just be honest here.  We have a bad economy and this is going to impact many families’ credit scores as well as companies.  By denying families just because they have bad credit seems a little harsh.

Insurance does it as well.  Apparently having bad credit makes you a liability or a bad driver.  I understand that there are bad people out there but good or bad we all need a place to live.  If they are bad enough then they should be in jail but if they are not criminal then why are they left to live on the streets?  Profiling is helpful in many things but it should never keep someone homeless.

Image by Todd Huffman via Flickr

Society has created this homeless issue and blames the people or some other “Fall-Guy” rather than note the obvious.  Evictions are necessary for those who are worthy of it.  Families with children who are making efforts to pay rent but fall short of paying rent on time are evicted every day.  Between these two issues and several others, we have created a rise in homelessness.

Changes need to be made regarding rental criteria and home ownership.  It wasn’t that long ago that you could work a part-time job making $4.75 an hour and still have enough to pay rent, all your bills, and have enough for recreational fun.  It is all simple maths.  People have become greedy.  Governments have lost sight of their purpose.

I am not, nor do I ever wish to be a politician, but someone needs to step up and do the right thing.  Life should not be a struggle to live.  People should never have to worry whether or not they will have a roof over their heads.  Profiling should be banned.  My credit should not be an issue for renting a home, just buying.

http://pastoralblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/statistics-on-homeless-in-oregon-and.html