Roles, Labels, & The Homeless Population

What is a Role? Quite simply, it is a function, a character, or something that is assigned to our stature. Labels? Is a label any different? Why do we, as a society, put so much emphasis on these roles and labels that we inhabit? If I were to tell you that I was a teacher, doctor, nurse, etc., you would quickly assume that I am a good person. With the exception that we have been extremely wronged in our past by an individual of this label. But certain "roles" and "labels" come with a positive outlook. While this is true for many, the same can be said for plenty of others.

If we were to look at a homeless individual, is he inferior? Possibly. Is he inferior because he is homeless? No. People are not good, and people are not bad, simply because the roles and labels that we, as a society, have placed upon them. There has been countless studies done that indicate what a positive, or a negative, role can do to our psyche. Suddenly a positive label can inspire the uninspired, or a negative label can defeat the invincible. It is truly unfortunate, in my opinion, as we are failing to look at the individual.

I am currently in the process of reading Down To This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-city Shantytown. It is the story of Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall who moved into a small shanty town outside of Toronto, Ontario for a year. This shanty town, commonly referred to as "Tent City", houses a large population of homeless individuals for the area.

Tent City, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Toronto, Canada's largest city, was also home to its own "Tent City" until September 2002, when the residents of Tent City were evicted by the owner of the property, Home Depot. It was situated in the downtown core of Toronto, near the waterfront, and was home to hundreds of people who were homeless. Many of the residents built their own shelters or brought tents and some were even able to have certain luxuries like computers and television by illegally tapping into the city's power grid. A number of critics, including some citizens of Tent City, noted that many people in Tent City were substance abusers who chose to live there because they could spend their money exclusively on drugs. Some residents also resorted to prostitution to supplement their income and support their habits.

Tent City was mainly self-governed, as police would not usually enter it unless a major crime was committed. One of the oldest residents of Tent City became the appointed "Mayor" and oversaw the operation of the city and helped deal with the crime that did occur. In one instance a resident who was leaving Tent City sold his shelter twice to two separate individuals, making a profit for himself and leaving the buyers to resolve the dispute. There were also citizens who turned to theft in order to make money. Despite these conditions, there were some residents who felt more secure in Tent City than they did in the Government shelters and chose to live in a self-regulated area where they could defend themselves.

Tent City @ Wiki

Bishop-Stall's portrayal of life in this town is absolutely remarkable. His demise into alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and even depression was astounding. Within days, you could see this negative label consuming him and truly detrimenting his psyche. There are plenty of bad people who happen to be homeless. But you are not a bad person because you are homeless. Roles & Labels do exist that are a determining factor in who is good, and who is bad. But for the most part, we determine a life's worth on benign details of an individual, that really offers no real indication.

Down To This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-city Shantytown

Journalist Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall gave himself a more unusual assignment, and decided to tackle a story that was close to home, yet potentially lethal. At crossroads in his young life, Bishop-Stall decided to move into Tent City for a year and chronicle his experience.

One cold November day, Bishop-Stall packs up a new tent, some clothes, his notebooks and a pen and goes to live in Tent City, twenty-seven lawless acres where the largest hobo town on the continent squats in the scandalized shadow of Canada's largest city. The rules he sets for himself are simple: no access to money, family or friends, except what he can find from that day on. He'll do whatever people in Tent City do to get by, be whatever bum, wino, beggar, hustler, criminal, junkie or con man he chooses to be on any given day.

When he arrives, he finds a dump full of the castaways of the last millennium, human and otherwise. On the edge of the world, yet somehow smack in the middle of it all, fugitives, drug addicts, prostitutes, dealers and ex-cons have created an anarchic society, where the rules are made up nightly and your life depends on knowing them. Not only does Bishop-Stall manage to survive until the bulldozers come, but against all odds his own heart and spirit slowly mend. An astonishing account of birth, suicide, brawls, binges, tears, crazed laughter, good and bad intentions, fiendish charity and the sudden eloquence and generosity of broken souls, Down to This is Bishop-Stall's iridescent love song to a lost city like no other.

Down To This

I highly recommend this book to anyone. I'm half way through it in only two days, and I can not put it down. If I am not at work, I am either posting on ATS or reading this book. It is consuming me quite literally. There is one quote where he finds himself opening doors for strangers who are entering and exiting a local shopping mall. He can not bring himself to beg for money, but eventually he caves and begins to ask. Initially he says how he'll do a bang up job, keep a smile on his face, tell a few jokes, and really make a difference. But very quickly he realizes a very harsh truth. For those around him, it is no act. It is his hand, his hat, his voice, and his face that is reaching out to strangers and asking for some change. It may be an act for him, but for others it is not. Can you be anything more than a beggar in the eyes of society? Can society look at you in any other light?

This subject of socities' roles and labels, and the expectations that comes with these labels, is quite interesting. Some labels can affect us positively, and some of them can affect us negatively. But why? Why do we put so much merit into them?

I believe, as a society, we've come to understand that individuals who inhabit positive roles, can certainly behave in a negative manner. People we assume are good, can definitely turn out to be bad. As a society, we've come to understand this. But what we have failed to understand is that people who inhabit negative roles, can end up being some of the greatest people we meet.

This book has been an eye opening experience.

This is a very interesting concept to read about. Please let me know how the whole book is and maybe I will pick it up.

It is true that out society does label people good and bad by their roles, however this is sad. It's sort've like the saying "Don't judge a book by it's cover," we can't judge somebody because of their role in society, that is ridiculous.

For instance, I am a poker player and some people feel that I don't give back to society. They look down upon me as a hustler who is an alcoholic and gets caught up in the back rooms of bars, which is totally false. I'm a pretty nice guy overall and I am not a criminal. Although society would put a doctor higher than me just because he's got his PHD even though he may be a complete jerk.

-ONIAG

chissler

This book sounds like a very interesting read. But I looked on Amazon, and they are asking $99.00 for it. That's a lot of money.

$99! I wonder if any of it will go to help the homeless... Sounds like a really good, eye-opening book!

Interesting subject. I have been homeless (many years ago) I lived on the streets. My sister and her husband were also homeless fairly recently. They lived in their van and came and stayed with my husband and I. It helped them to get back "on their feet".

I am very thankful for the experiences I've had in my life because it's easy for me to be understanding of people in very different circumstances. I know what it feels like to be called a bum. I know what it's like to wait in line at the soup kitchen for that one meal a day. I know what it's like to ask strangers to give me some of their hard-earned money.

Yeah, good people come in all roles.

Some labels can affect us positively, and some of them can affect us negatively. But why? Why do we put so much merit into them?

Because of life's complexity. Our minds are crammed full of stuff... we just don't have the time to get every last detail of information on every single individual we come across. So you have to stereotype people to some extent.

Homelessness hits the soft part in my heart. Call me a sucker, but I don't think so. People like BH are strong and smart enough to rise above it, but most aren't.

We managed to raise the bucks to buy a 9 unit building here for the homeless recently. And those units went to families with kids.

I hate it that people have to sleep outside at night, in all kinds of weather. I wonder what gives them the strength to wake up and face another day.

Originally posted by jsobecky
chissler

This book sounds like a very interesting read. But I looked on Amazon, and they are asking $99.00 for it. That's a lot of money.

Really? Looking at the copy I have, it says $22 Canadian, and $15 American I believe. A co-worker has loaned me the book, so I have not purchased it myself, but I would assume that it is not much more than $20 or so.

Price Quote on Down To This

Down To This: Squalor And Splendour In A Big-city Shantytown
Author: Shaughnessy Bishop-stall|See more titles by Shaughnessy Bishop-stall

List Price:$22.00
Our Price:$16.72

You Save: $5.28 (24%)

irewards Member Price: $15.88

Which is about what is priced on the back of the book. I read another fifty pages or so last night, and it was an emotional roller coaster. One page has me slapping my knee in laughter, and the next has my heart bleeding.

What these Roles & Labels have done to this man, and the other characters in the book, well it is absolutely remarkable. How an educated, relatively wealthy, and complete "normal" person, could plunge into this life style in a manner of weeks, well that is earth shattering in my opinion.

The workshop I am working on for next week is geared towards the "uneducated" and high school dropouts who may feel inferior to others, simply because they may of dropped out of high school. Nobody is inferior because they dropped out of high school. As a society, I think we need to stop judging people on benign roles and labels.

Racism, Prejudice, Bigotry, etc., I think this issue is something that tends to be overlooked.

This is what I got from Amazon. I'll have to look into your sources, chissler.

Squalor And Splendour In A Big-city Shantytown

DOWN TO THIS: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City Shantytown by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall (Hardcover - 2004)
1 Used & new from $99.00
Books: See all items


Amazon.Com

As a society, I think we need to stop judging people on benign roles and labels.

Racism, Prejudice, Bigotry, etc., I think this issue is something that tends to be overlooked.

So true.

I was thinking today about this. We've all responded to heated threads here about racism, immigration etc. And what bothers me is that that I have friends, co-workers, and neighbors who are black and hispanic. They are mostly all good, decent people. If any racist person or group were to attack them, I would stand between these people and danger.

But after participating and reading some of those threads, I wonder if it is changing me inside. I don't want that to happen.


[edit on 24-3-2007 by jsobecky]

Originally posted by chissler
The workshop I am working on for next week is geared towards the "uneducated" and high school dropouts who may feel inferior to others, simply because they may of dropped out of high school. Nobody is inferior because they dropped out of high school.

Hey, chissler... Some people look down on me because I didn't attend high school at all. I have even been "teased" about it here on the board. What they don't know is that I didn't go because I was having 20 seizures a day and could not function in society. But by the time I was 17, I was taking medication that controlled it pretty well and I went into Phoenix College and took the GED without studying (with an 8th grade education) and finished a 10 hour test in 5.5 hours with incredibly high marks. The testers were all amazed.

Then I was able to go on to college where I was on the Deans' List and Honor Roll the entire time. I graduated with high honors.

So, yeah, labels like high-school drop-out and people who make fun of others' educations make me laugh!

Via international forums such as this, I've learned that quite often, many Americans do tend to disparage and blame the homeless. Maybe I'm wrong about that, which is why I've couched the remark with qualifyers such as 'quite often', 'tend to' and 'many' etc.

However, in the past few years, I've found myself heatedly defending homeless folk in forums and have never understood the mindset that could blame the homeless basically for existing and cluttering up neighbourhoods.

Obviously, with a population of 300 million, give or take, the US population has more experience of the homeless and the problems caused, than a resident of Australia with it's far smaller population.

Australia has its own homeless populations of course, but generally, Aussies respond to this with sympathy and charity. Here, there is far less of the 'blame' mentality than in the US. So it's reasonable to assume that this attitude of blame is a conditioned response, and or passed from parent to child.

It IS difficult for people of other cultures to understand how Americans could blame people for being 'homeless', when America is and almost always has been, portrayed as such a wealthy, luxurious country. I'm thinking of the numerous US situation-comedies, going all the way back to 'I Love Lucy' and 'Leave it to Beaver', 'Father Knows Best', 'Dobie Gillis' and more recently, 'Friends', 'Sienfeld', etc. All these tv shows (and many more movies) portray the US as being a land comprised almost completely of middle-class, upper-middle folk.

Only the 'grunge' type movies and 'reality-tv' shows such as Cops, reveal the actual ugliness afflicting much of American life. And it's a shock, initially, to learn of this, just as it was a genuinely depressing shock to learn that thousands of the revered 'Americans' actually lived in rags, deep in tunnels beneath cities: a hidden population of reviled beggars and the unwanted ... the unseen. We were really shocked out of our skins when we saw how these people live, right beneath the noses of all those properous American families.

How did this happen? How --- when the US continues to allow millions of foreigners to swell its cities and further deplete resources ?

Not blaming Americans -- it's happening here too. But it's insane, nevertheless. Charity begins at home. You take care of your own before you start grandstanding and taking care of others. If everyone took care of their own, then it would largely be a case of problem-solved.

But to BLAME people for being homeless? What's THAT about?

Well, we KNOW what 'that' is about, of course. It's an easy way of denying any sort of responsibility. It's a way out. If you blame the victim then you tell yourself you have no obligation to assist the victim or help reduce the problem.

But there's MORE to this. It's an atavistic fear of 'contamination'. This is what prompts folk to blame the victim. They don't want to 'catch' or 'contract' poverty, homelessness. So they go into denial. " I can't see it so it's not there. I WON'T see it, that way I can TELL myself it's not there."

But it IS there. Damn. How to make it just go AWAY !

So it soon becomes a case of: " It's their own fault ! " and " They did it to themselves -- they put THEMSELVES in this situation."

Sure. In the same way you will put YOURself in that situation if you just happen to be unlucky enough to be retrenched, and/or if the bank repossesses your home and/or if you abuse your credit card trying to pay your family's medical expenses at the same TIME as you're retrenched. So be careful, huh, or YOU could be labelled and blamed as being 'homeless'.

But there are others, too, who -- through no fault of their own -- become or are simply born-into a less than ideal lifestyle. Do you imagine prostitutes ALL save in order to send their children to private boarding schools? Or do you suspect many children of prostitutes simply drift out of a sad home and onto the road or streets? Same with children of alcoholics and the children of the long-term unemployed or children of those who are physically or mentally weak.

Some families are doing well until they lose everything through misfortune. And misfortune happens commonly. Then, they lose the nice house in the nice neighbourhood, they lose the car and clean clothes and healthy foods. And they lose their self-esteem and confidence. And this is going on all the time. It's part of life. There is no real insurance against misfortune. And when a group of misfortunes occur simultaneously to a person or family, then it's as if the ground has disappeared from under their feet. It's very difficult to claw their way back to anything like their previous life or even 'normal' standards.

It could happen to any one of us at any time. And we know it. Which may be why some people are almost superstitiously terrified of homeless folk, for example. They imagine if they 'curse' (via disparagement etc) these people, then they will magically gain 'immunity' from poverty and homelessness.

There's an element of the biblical 'scapegoat' mentality in all this, as in:
"If we ostracise, criticise, alienate the scapegoat-aka-homeless (in this instance) then we have separated ourselves from these things (poverty, homelessness).
We will force the homeless to carry the burden. We will make homelessness theirs. We will PERSONIFY 'homelessness' and then we will place that load on that Person Over There --- FAR AWAY FROM OURSELVES.
We will make those people a separate breed. We will discuss them as if they have NO CONNECTION with us or OUR safe little lives (pray god!).
We will ALIENATE them. Then, every time we point to them and deride them and blame them --- we will WIDEN THE GULF between them ('them' being what we fear most) and ourselves. "

Most of us are not really that selfish or unfeeling. But IF we allow ourselves to be carried along with this 'label and blame' attitude because it is EASIER than confronting and dealing with NOT ONLY the problem (homelessness, poverty, etc) BUT ALSO our personal terror of having it happen to us (i.e., the atavistic fear of 'catching' it, like a disease) then yes, we will have a nice, easy life. But ----- is having a nice, comfortable life the reason for our existence?

This categorisation and blaming of those less fortunate than ourselves begins very early in life. Ignorant parents very often produce ignorant offspring.

Without going into personal detail, who amongst us has not, at some time or other, been victim of cruel ignorance?

We see it when we first attend school. That little boy or girl over there, with their less than perfect clothing --- less than tv-commerical cleanliness-- empty lunch-box -- lack of pencils and notebooks -- unable to pay to go on the school-excursions -- those with the poor-looking homes -- or those who simply cannot grasp the content of lessons in class with the same speed and ease as others.

Out in the playground, those little children are ruthlessly teased, picked on, hit, ridiculed, derided. Yet they have no control over the circumstances of their lives. None. They are bewildered and hurt. They are lonely and often friendless. They are made to feel ashamed and unwanted.

Some sit and cry. Some sit on their own, pretending not to care. Others try with all their might to be liked. Some are so hurt, so often, and so helpless to change their circumstances -- that they hit back and rebel or SEEK others' DISapproval, because it's all they've ever received and they've grown used to it and can 'handle' it.

Very often, such children are unable to remain in school for very long. Often, their parents are forced to move from place to place. Or their parents need the wages they could bring home once they leave school. Or, those children leave home at an early age and are forced to fend for themselves. etc.

So then they're out in the big, cruel world, with just the clothes on their backs and whatever courage they've managed to amass.

Same problems: when it comes to a choice between them and their natural intelligence & ability, compared with a child who's product of a relatively privileged upbringing and education, who does the employer choose?

So they take low-paying, low-skill jobs in order to have the money for a small room somewhere. And unless there's a Fairy Godmother incident in their lives, that's where they stay.

Is anyone suggesting these underprivileged folk should not fall in love and have children? How do they avoid that, when often the thing that's been most ABSENT in their sad lives is love and approval ?

The unfortunates amongst us are FAR MORE needful of love and approval and are FAR MORE LIKELY to marry young and have children, BECAUSE they are TRYING to create what they never HAD and which they MOST MISSED and CRAVE.

But again, they often did not receive the education and training which would provide them a decent living. So there they are, trying to create a home for their family on pennies.

Unfortunately, the underprivileged are no more immune to divorce, loss and sadness than is anyone else. So it often happens that a man or woman who's never had it easy -- now has it even harder, and has children to support.

These are those who sometimes, despite all their efforts, become the 'poor' in our societies, who become homeless or who are forced to create a home in 'tent cities' and the like.

BUT ---- give them respect, give them the tools to earn a good living and provide their families a decent home ------- and they would be indistinguishable from those who currently deride and alienate them.

In the past, when people were more interested in REMOVING DIVISIONS than in CREATING them, there were movies and stories galore with the Rags to Riches theme as their core: which showed how the impoverished (therefore assumed to be criminal, dirty, useless) in society proved themselves to be individuals of honour, courage, decency, compassion, etc.

Those people are still all around us, in homeless-encampments AS WELL AS in 'respectable' neighbourhoods. It's just that in the past few decades, it's become 'kewl' to BLAME the victim instead of giving him/her and hand up.

Up until recently, we were all made aware of the truth in the old saying: "Give a dog a bad name and it'll live up to it."

or ---- 'Self fulfilling prophecy' (and we all learned what that meant).

Every class I attended when young had it's one or two 'bad kids'. The teachers (often extremely ignorant) would make those kids sit at the front. They were blamed for everything, all the time. They were class scapegoats. It was common.

No surprise then, to learn that later in life, these same kids were the ones who'd ended up in jail, on the scrapheap, or dead.

Then, education became more enlightened and this unthinking victimisation/brain-washing/programmed self-defeatism declined along with knowledge of 'self fulfilling prophecy'. Children with problems were assisted. Teachers were stopped from CREATING life-long problems for these kids.

But hard times seem to create a need for scapegoats and lately, along with 'muslims' etc., the 'homeless' appear to have been 'elected' to the role.

Homeless people are simply people without permanent abode. Often, they've NEVER enjoyed a permanent abode. VERY often, they are unable -- through lack of intelligence, ability, skills, opportunity, etc -- to provide themselves with what we (and THEY !) would describe as 'decent housing'.

Yes, very often they destroy that decent housing if it's provided them. They don't appreciate it, some of them. But MOST would and do.

It *IS* a huge problem, providing for and supporting financially and educating the unfortunates in society -- and many good folk have broken their backs trying. But if we don't CONTINUE to try, we will end up with a very large 'subclass' of such immensity that it becomes virtually impossible to eliminate.

And there are MANY, many, who are very deserving of a hand up. They could be you or I were our circumstances to change.

'They' are not an homogenous group. 'They' are all individuals.

As verbal shorthand, we are sometimes guilty of referring to 'them' and attributing to 'them' a 'type': i.e., 'dirty', 'unemployed', 'homeless', 'druggies', 'wiccans', 'foreigners', etc. The other person 'knows what we mean'.

As individuals however, at bottom, we know this is unjust and wrong. We mean to help 'fix' things, but time rushes by.

So, as individuals, we should make a little vow -- to try to help as much as we personally are able, when the opportunity arises. Every bit helps, especially if we all get involved.

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
Hey, chissler... Some people look down on me because I didn't attend high school at all. I have even been "teased" about it here on the board.

Shameful behaviour is you ask me. Grant it, as a society we need to have certain "credentials" to cipher out who is appropriate, and not appropriate, for certain jobs. But since when did a high school diploma become a determining factor for the worth of life? Honestly though? I've worked along side some of these individuals for a few weeks now, and I find myself inspired to do something better. I, you, or we, can not change society. I'm not here to change the world. My goal here, and with this workshop, is to inspire these young minds and try to alter their mindset. You should not feel inferior because you do not have some "credential". I have no intentions of downplaying the importance of this piece of paper, but I do not think it should be enough to consume our way of life. It appears to me that this diploma is creating two groups of people in our society. The "Haves" and the "Have Nots". The "Haves" have mobility and do as they please. Hope, ambition, etc., all come with the territory. Then there is the "Have Nots". This group consists of drop outs, drug abusers, etc. These individuals have this ceiling above their heads every day of their life. Some days the ceiling seems slightly lower, almost frightening. This ceiling is a reminder to the "Have Nots" that they are inferior, and they are not as deserving.

Bollocks!

I just hope that these individuals can see that they do deserve better, and if they work hard enough, they may be able to enjoy the luxuries that the "Haves" do. It is not an easy path to travel, but it is better than standing still. And I think a lot of these youngsters are simply standing still as life passes them by.

Originally posted by jsobecky
I was thinking today about this. We've all responded to heated threads here about racism, immigration etc. And what bothers me is that that I have friends, co-workers, and neighbors who are black and hispanic. They are mostly all good, decent people. If any racist person or group were to attack them, I would stand between these people and danger.

I'm not sure why, how, or even what for, but there are times when I've put my neck on the line for complete strangers. When I see an individual in distress, and I think for one second that they are an innocent victim, I can not help but take action. My heart bleeds for innocent victims. My girlfriend is currenlty working with a non-profit organization that offers disabled individuals an opportunity to get out in the community and participate in various activities. They are severely underfunded and there are days when they are scrounging for nickels and dimes to allow these individuals to go for a swim. Things like that, I just can not handle it. What have they done wrong? What have they done to deserve this? Are you telling me that we, as a society, can not spare ten dollars to allow a disabled person access to a swimming pool? She can not move or communicate, but her eyes light up when she is able to swim. Problem is, she rarely gets to go swimming due to underfunding. In the winter months, it is very difficult to get around outside. Her wheel chair broke earlier in the week, and they are trying to figure out a way to replace it.

Just typing this, I find myself getting upset.

Innocent victims, I can not stand by and do nothing. Whether it is race, gender, sexual orientation, or physical/mental disability, if I feel someone is being taken advantage of, I can not stand by. The "Have Nots" that have been stigmatized with these labels are an innocent victim in my opinion. They've made bad choices, plenty of mistakes along the way, and probably will continue to do so. But none of that is an excuse to tell someone that they do not deserve something, or that they are less of a person because they failed to complete this sacred education process.

Originally posted by jsobecky
But after participating and reading some of those threads, I wonder if it is changing me inside. I don't want that to happen.

As Maslow said, negative thoughts are completely normal and to be expected. A few "unpleasant" exchanges would certainly be enough to leave a nasty taste in our mouths. But I think it is important to remember that this is a small portion of the population, and should do very little to paint the broad spectrum of the race as a whole.

We are all our own individual. I do not speak for all men, all whites, all heterosexuals, all Christians, etc. I speak for myself. My behaviours dictate what I think, what I do, and nothing more. My behaviour represents myself, and nobody else.

I do not think you are changing, I just think you be in need of a positive exchange between yourself and an individual of another race. Just to reinforce all that good stuff, ya'know!




[edit on 24-3-2007 by chissler]

In amongst all this, I feel we need to give credit to the majority.

Whether we like it or not, our origins are animalistic: we are evolved animals. Those WE regard as 'animals' (the animal kingdom) instinctively maintain the integrity of their herd, group, flock whatever, by driving away any that are malformed, ill, old, weak, 'different'. That way, they do not breed inferior stock.

As evolved animals, we nevertheless retain many animalistic instincts, one of these being to shun, alienate, fight, destroy etc. those who are 'different', be that physically and mentally handicapped, 'foreign', diseased, etc.

In reaching out to the underprivileged in our societies, therefore, we are actually OVERCOMING our own basic instincts. That's not an easy thing to do, particularly when it does not immediately and greatly benefit us.

As well, it's only a few decades ago that we (the vast majority of us) gave generously -- often more generously than we perhaps could afford -- to those whom we were assured comprised the needy and underprivileged.

*THEN* we discovered that only TEN CENTS out of every dollar we'd contributed, was actually REACHING those whom we'd wanted to help.

The OTHER 90 cents was going straight into the pockets of 'CEOs' and 'administrators' !

They must rue the day that information became mainstream ! Now, in order to make up the shortfall in THEIR obsecenely massive personal profits, they are inundating us like never before with images of the 'underprivileged', who in fact are often coached to appear 'heart-rending' and 'heart-breaking'.

Mr. and Ms. Average have nowhere near the amount of disposable income as even a decade ago. Ten dollars handed to charity then didn't make a dent in the family budget and provided the giver with a warm, fuzzy feeling of having in some way balanced the disparity between our lovely Western lifestyle and those of poor folk elsewhere.

Yes, it was often guilt-money. We often knew it. More importantly, the 'charitable organisations' and their greedy CEOs knew it --- and they exploited it for all it was worth.

Meanwhile, home-grown charitable organisations continued to struggle for funding as they always had.

And it is our home-based organisations that STILL need our assistance but who were tarnished along with the 'phoney charity scam' organisations, run, as these things always are, by the Usual Suspects, for whom money, more money, is never enough as they play the role of Greatest Victims in History.

What is happening now is that the generous majority are having to prioritise. Money to feed and clothe their own families is paramount and quite rightly so.

Then, they try to sort the wheat from the chaff, as far as giving to charity is concerned. And it's getting harder to do all the time.

For example, there's a tough, suntanned-to-mahogany individual who tries to wheedle -- then strong-arm -- money out of shoppers in the local mall. He pretends to be collecting for a surfing organisation. In fact, as most of us now know, he uses the donations for his personal use and drug supplies. He's scary. Shouldn't be there. But he still does very well out of tourists.

There's another group who claim to be collecting for people in a handicapped shelter. Not many believe them. Most give them wide berth. One of these 'collectors' threw a massive tantrum the other week, and swore and insulted a man who'd refused to part with his own money.

On the other hand, I never pass a Salvation Army collector and have even dragged heavy bags home by hand for several kilometres because I've given my bus money to the 'Salvos'. I don't agree with some of the Salvo's edicts (such as not allowing disadvantaged people to buy fruit juice or condoms with money given to them) but I respect the Salvos and what they do for the underprivileged and they will always get as much as I can possibly spare.

So people are prioritizing and they have been burned. And they're overcoming their natural instincts. AND they're out there trying to assist any time there's a call for help.

Most people are pretty great most of the time. They deserve some credit.

What I SHOULD have written (less time, space, etc) is:

They bit the hand that fed them, a lot of these 'charitable organisations'.

And during past eras when people were giving more than was wise, certain 'groups' were encouraged in an arrogance of belief that THEY were entitled to receive ... receive more, more, more.

Then OTHER groups jumped on the waggon because the same people (Usual Suspects) encouraged THEM to believe that they were ALSO a 'special' group deserving of the majority's hard earned cash.

Soon, there were INNUMERABLE 'needy causes'.

The majority (the givers) were exhausted. And exploited.

The majority was programmed/brain-washed/persuaded/encouraged to feel endlessly guilty and to believe that they OWED all these groups.

Yes, they bit the hand that fed them.

And we're seeing the fall-out now in those 'collectors' with immense belief in their 'entitlement'. They believe the majority should have their hands permanently in their pockets, giving, giving, to the rest.

But how can we BE the 'majority' any longer, when there are SO MANY guilt-inducing advertisements and pleas and demands for the money we're all finding it increasingly difficult to obtain?

Obviously, there exists no more 'majority': just about all or any of us could claim membership of some disadvantaged group or other.

The inevitable result of greed and biting the hand that fed them was bound to be a tightening of the majority's purse strings. And now the majority is pretty well immune to those choreographed commercials invoking us to 'give, give, give'. After all, those 'charitable organisations' grant contracts to their Marketing brothers and sisters to produce those 'heart-rending' 'cash-cow' commericals at several million dollars a time ! And that's BEFORE the slick 'administrators' and 'CEOs' grab their gullet-full.

The majority IS compassionate and tender hearted --- but they don't remain fools forever. The greedy should have borne that in mind when they were grabbing like there was no tomorrow.

I like how you think "outside" of the box. Creative. Very true as well.

But I am not trying to ridicule society for not having the time and money to contribute to the less fortunate. We as citizens can only do so much. If it is a few bucks here and there, lending a hand, or even being an empathetic voice in random discussions with those who are blatantly ignorant, I think all of them are of equal value. My problem lies with those that hate for the sake of hating. The ones who will not give the light of day to listen to simple logic. The ones who know it is wrong, but still hate anyways. The flat out hypocrits. Or the depleted psyche of the "Have Nots". Individuals who feel that they are inadequate, inferior, or not deserving, simply due to a benign role that they have inhabited. A role that they may not of even chosen for themselves.

You are correct though. It is an innate tendency within the human race to maintain our animalistic tendencies. The selfless and altruistic approaches of many are something that Hollywood can not even try to represent.

Thank you for that compassionate post chissler. Very well thought out, and it sounds like a fascinating book. I intend to buy it and read it myself. It's true that negative labels create a vicious circle.

Also true that many homeless people are substance abusers. That's a disorder all about vicious circles and criminalizing them contributes to pattern.

In countries where drug addiction is not criminalized and treated like a health problem the recovery rate is much higher. Simply because they're treated like human beings.

Some homeless people can't stay in homes even when they're given them. For them, the streets something on the inside. The walls close in and they can't sit with their pain, on the street, there's always diversion.

Most of it stems from childhood abuse. One in four girls and one in ten boys is abused in childhood. One of the saddest stories I ever saw was a woman on the Montel show. She had been raped as a child and had had both her hands cut off.

She ended up divorced from an abusive dead beat dad and living in her car with her two children. Many people would denigrate her for that, including child services who wanted to take her children.

400,000 children go missing a year in the USA out of the child welfare offices. They are assumed dead or missing. Granted, many of them are probably teenage runaways, but what are they running from.

Child services will pay someone $1000 to $1500 a month to foster someone else's child, but government agencies generally pay birth mothers who have fallen on hard times $100 dollars a month per child. So fostering is a good business for ruthless abusers.

Single mother has different connotations than foster mother.

If you're interested in the homeless problem, you might like "The Mole People, Life in Tunnels Beneath New York City" by Jennifer Toth. The mole people have been debunked, but truth is stranger than fiction.


[edit on 24-3-2007 by clearwater]

Originally posted by clearwater
Some homeless people can't stay in homes even when they're given them. For them, the streets something on the inside. The walls close in and they can't sit with their pain, on the street, there's always diversion.

I appreciate the praise. Thank you!

As for this concept, it is absolutely amazing how accurate this is. Within the first 50 pages of the book, it was made clear that more than one resident of "Tent City" was there on their own. Some of them actually had a job where they could have an apartment, but they chose to live in a shanty town. Weird phenomenon if you ask me, but interesting nonetheless. How someone could possibly want to live outside in the middle of a Canadian winter, well that is beyond my level of comprehension.

I think it all comes back to the depleted psyche. They've been taught to feel that they are inferior and undeserving. By rejecting these "luxuries", they may feel they are justifiably punishing themselves for their past mistakes.

Interesting.

(Off to read another 50 pages)



[edit on 24-3-2007 by chissler]

chissler, as you go into ths workshop, don't forget to point out that there are many people who have been in their shoes and are today wildly successful. I know that you won't give them false hopes, but at the same time, they need to realize that they have not reached a dead-end in their lives.

I think it all comes back to the depleted psyche. They've been taught to feel that they are inferior and undeserving. By rejecting these "luxuries", they may feel they are justifiably punishing themselves for their past mistakes.

Have you ever thought of interviewing some of these folks? It might be interesting..




Dock6, I loved your posts. If I had another WATS vote to give this month, you would get it.

jso, that is the struggle I find myself in currently. To what extent can I go to inspire them, without offering false hopes. I honestly believe that the inspired can overcome any and all hurdles in life, but it is not my time and place to be unrealistic with individuals who are living a pretty rough life.

It is a pretty apathetic crowd, but through random conversations, it is quite clear that some of them are quite smart. They have opinions, they are aware with what is going on around them, they just lack the basic motivation and drive to overcome these problems. I hope that this workshop will offer a light at the end of the tunnel.

As for Thursday, I am only hoping that they come out of the shell for a few hours and are willing to discuss issues that pertain directly to their life.

I have voted Dock6 for the Way Above Top Secret award.

Chissler, this is a wonderful and important thread and all of the posts, including Benevolent Heretic, clearwater, jsobecky, and especially Dock6 have been relevant and helpful toward perhaps understanding a little more of the problems of the homeless or disenfranchised.

One size does not fit all. Not all have the same reasons for becoming homeless and one solution will not help everyone.

Perhaps for the life tragedies problems, loss of job, home, insurance, car, etc., of the homeless, money would be the answer for a hand up out of the pit.

For the problems of taking care of the disabled mentally and physically, money again would appear to be the answer. But, also chances to use what talents or abilities they have would be even better.

And Chissler, it sounds as though you are addressing one of the other problems, youngsters who have come from bad situations with a feeling that there isn't any other way to go. Thank you!

In my younger days, after making many bad choices in my life, I too ended up homeless. Only a very few days, in NY City, living out of the lockers and getting naps, and using the wash rooms in Grand Central station.

Looking back I believe that my bad life choices ended me up overwhelmed with no way to get back on track and so I ran away.

For many years I did not get out of this rut. I continued to exist, but in a very unhappy and desperate way. I know no one wants to hear this part so I will make it short. One day, I said to myself, "Self....is this all there is?" Long story short I went to find Jesus. That was the start of my life. Many years later it is still working for me.

I just checked my library listing and "Down to this:" is not a listed book in this county's catalog. I do intend to read it so will pursue other ways.