"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." ~~~~~ Dom Helder Camara poverty politics homelessness justice disability accessability prejudice tolerance addiction liberation ignorance resourcefulness illiteracy education abuse struggle hate love depression celebration disease health greed generosity
Poverty Is Not an Accident
Nelson Mandela
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Monday, December 17, 2012
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Friday, December 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
stop demoralizing!
You are reading http://livinginthehood.blogspot.com
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I had to answer some condescending crap that just appeared in my feed. I go through this shit, every damn YEAR! SHUT UP! quote: "Some of us have problems during the holidays and sometimes are overcome with great sadness when we remember the loved ones who are not with us and many people have no one to spend these times with and are besieged by loneliness. We all need caring thoughts and loving prayers right now. If I don't see your name, I'll understand. May I ask my friends wherever you might be to kindly copy, paste, and share this status for one hour to give a moment of support to all those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues, worries of any kind. and just need to know that someone cares. Do it for all of us, for nobody is immune. I hope to see this on the walls of all my friends just for moral support. I know some will!! I did it for a friend and you can too!"
My reply: I JUST posted an announcement re: what people can do that would help. And I read this: "besieged by loneliness. " A total demoralization. I'm alone. I'm isolated. It's not a war; it's social injustice. I don't want pity. I want real support and respect. I'm not a charity case; I'm a wonderful human being who has been ostracized from society b/c of disabilities, sexual orientation and gender identity I can't help. I don't want prayers and happy thoughts; I want justice. And I don't want to be used as some "boogie man," so people will feel they at least escaped my circumstances. I'm not a poster child. Nothing in that status says anything about changing anything to make things better for those of us who've fallen through the cracks & been rejected by our culture. It just says, "be glad you're not them." Here's the status I just wrote: ATTENTION All non-MuriKKKans and unaMuriKKKans, I'm alone. It's cold. People r posting pics of families & friends & foods I can't afford. I didn't get much sleep b/c neighbor is in loud, manic phase. I don't want to get demoralized today, so please, send me really cool stuffs, so I don't feel so isolated. And I CERTAINLY don't want to feel deprived! Thanks!
I had to answer some condescending crap that just appeared in my feed. I go through this shit, every damn YEAR! SHUT UP! quote: "Some of us have problems during the holidays and sometimes are overcome with great sadness when we remember the loved ones who are not with us and many people have no one to spend these times with and are besieged by loneliness. We all need caring thoughts and loving prayers right now. If I don't see your name, I'll understand. May I ask my friends wherever you might be to kindly copy, paste, and share this status for one hour to give a moment of support to all those who have family problems, health struggles, job issues, worries of any kind. and just need to know that someone cares. Do it for all of us, for nobody is immune. I hope to see this on the walls of all my friends just for moral support. I know some will!! I did it for a friend and you can too!"
My reply: I JUST posted an announcement re: what people can do that would help. And I read this: "besieged by loneliness. " A total demoralization. I'm alone. I'm isolated. It's not a war; it's social injustice. I don't want pity. I want real support and respect. I'm not a charity case; I'm a wonderful human being who has been ostracized from society b/c of disabilities, sexual orientation and gender identity I can't help. I don't want prayers and happy thoughts; I want justice. And I don't want to be used as some "boogie man," so people will feel they at least escaped my circumstances. I'm not a poster child. Nothing in that status says anything about changing anything to make things better for those of us who've fallen through the cracks & been rejected by our culture. It just says, "be glad you're not them." Here's the status I just wrote: ATTENTION All non-MuriKKKans and unaMuriKKKans, I'm alone. It's cold. People r posting pics of families & friends & foods I can't afford. I didn't get much sleep b/c neighbor is in loud, manic phase. I don't want to get demoralized today, so please, send me really cool stuffs, so I don't feel so isolated. And I CERTAINLY don't want to feel deprived! Thanks!
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Angelou Wept
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Are you weeping over the "kill" list? The drones over Pakistan & over US air space? Do you weep that a Monsanto CEO heads the FDA? Or that Wall Street controls every cabinet post, while our citizens are attacked by paramilitary forces for e
Are you weeping over the "kill" list? The drones over Pakistan & over US air space? Do you weep that a Monsanto CEO heads the FDA? Or that Wall Street controls every cabinet post, while our citizens are attacked by paramilitary forces for e
xercising
their right to free speech? Do you weep that global warming wasn't
mentioned in the Presidential debates? Do you weep that the only female
candidate for President was arrested for attempting to participate in
the debates? How moved are you by Guantanimo? Planning to write a
Hallmark card about perpetual war, Lockheed Martin? General Electric?
Halliburton? What happened to you, Angelou? Was being a real
revolutionary too hard? Or is all that fat money just too soft. When did
you turn into a lap dog? And why?
I
was grateful to see President Obama’s victory speech. I was over the
moon to see the audience. There were about 60 percent white voters the
other 40 percent were African Americans, Asian, Spanish speaking etc. I
wept at that spectacle, it told me that the pundits that continue in our
country to try to polarize us, to keep us apart, are not succeeding.
Americans are waking up not only to the truth, but the truth in each
other. Hallelujah!
Friday, November 09, 2012
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Friday, September 07, 2012
Sunday, September 02, 2012
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Friday, August 24, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Monday, August 06, 2012
Thursday, August 02, 2012
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Thursday, July 05, 2012
Atheists Helping the Homeless Benefit Show
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I'm really humbled by this. Some of the participants are real, heavy hitters, like Dr. Krauss & Michael Shermer from the Skeptical Inquirer magazing (and close friend with the late Dr. Carl Sagan). Here I am, mobile homeless, in a travel trailer, with no running water, in a parking lot, in a rural, redneck town in New Mexico, and I'm participating in this event. Truly, the interwebs can be a great equalizer. We can self-publish & self broadcast. It amazes me. And today, I'm on a live feed with the Huffington Post's "Gay Voices," discussing the dangers of "coming out," and how that's not possible for me IRL where I presently live, but only online, where I'm very active. blows my mind
I'm really humbled by this. Some of the participants are real, heavy hitters, like Dr. Krauss & Michael Shermer from the Skeptical Inquirer magazing (and close friend with the late Dr. Carl Sagan). Here I am, mobile homeless, in a travel trailer, with no running water, in a parking lot, in a rural, redneck town in New Mexico, and I'm participating in this event. Truly, the interwebs can be a great equalizer. We can self-publish & self broadcast. It amazes me. And today, I'm on a live feed with the Huffington Post's "Gay Voices," discussing the dangers of "coming out," and how that's not possible for me IRL where I presently live, but only online, where I'm very active. blows my mind
Wednesday, July 04, 2012
so, I should paint with my feet?
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This is how we exploit disabilities: we find some "exception" to hold up as super human, "brave, courageous, etc." and tell everybody else: "you're just not trying hard enough." I don't know if this person is homeless, an alcoholic, a child abuser. I only know he paints with his feet, so I should feel bad because I'm not an artist? No. I refuse. For every Oprah, there are tens of thousands of African American incest survivors who will never earn a hundred thousand dollars, let alone millions. For every Hellen Keller, there are millions of able-minded people, locked up in institutions, assumed to be "crazy" or "retarded." For every Stephen Hawking, there are millions of neoro-non-typicals who languish in poverty, dispair and short, miserable lives. These exceptions are fed to us so we'll hate ourselves just a little bit more, hide our needs a little bit deeper (so as not to inconvenience people by "playing the victim") and work all the harder, to prove we're good slaves. If this man weren't capable of painting -- if he were begging on the streets -- would his photo be exploited to prod us to keep feeling inadequate, keep covering it up, keep up production?
This is how we exploit disabilities: we find some "exception" to hold up as super human, "brave, courageous, etc." and tell everybody else: "you're just not trying hard enough." I don't know if this person is homeless, an alcoholic, a child abuser. I only know he paints with his feet, so I should feel bad because I'm not an artist? No. I refuse. For every Oprah, there are tens of thousands of African American incest survivors who will never earn a hundred thousand dollars, let alone millions. For every Hellen Keller, there are millions of able-minded people, locked up in institutions, assumed to be "crazy" or "retarded." For every Stephen Hawking, there are millions of neoro-non-typicals who languish in poverty, dispair and short, miserable lives. These exceptions are fed to us so we'll hate ourselves just a little bit more, hide our needs a little bit deeper (so as not to inconvenience people by "playing the victim") and work all the harder, to prove we're good slaves. If this man weren't capable of painting -- if he were begging on the streets -- would his photo be exploited to prod us to keep feeling inadequate, keep covering it up, keep up production?
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
child poverty rates
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Child Poverty
Nearly 15 million children in the United States – 21% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level
– $22,050 a year for a family of four. Research shows that, on average,
families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic
expenses. Using this standard, 42% of children live in low-income families.
Most of these children have parents who work, but low wages and unstable employment leave their families struggling to make ends meet. Poverty can impede children’s ability to learn and contribute to social, emotional, and behavioral problems. Poverty also can contribute to poor health and mental health. Risks are greatest for children who experience poverty when they are young and/or experience deep and persistent poverty.
Research is clear that poverty is the single greatest threat to children’s well-being. But effective public policies – to make work pay
for low-income parents and to provide high-quality early care and
learning experiences for their children – can make a difference.
Investments in the most vulnerable children are also critical.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Monday, June 04, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
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