Is BEING HOMELESS A CHOICE?

[Jill]

The fractional banking system, fiat currency, and the entire capitalist way of live is built on lies and deceit. The best liars and deceivers bubble up to the top of the steaming pile of human excrement we call western civilization.

That we agree on.

[Jill]

I think anyone would be remissed not to judge a situation but you would be hard pressed to find anyone I have worked with to say I judged them.

[MzKwietStorm]

I still believe that homelessness is a mixture of people who chose to be homeless and those who don't. It would be foolish to think that EVERY person that's homeless made the decision to be there.

[Istlota]

Originally Posted by afrocentric

bro islota, how was she judging her?

Istlota's rant du jour:

Go back and re-read her first post. She began by stating, as a director of homeless shelters, that 90% of the people she helps are homeless because of "bad choices". She then, by way of example, described the plight of the woman who lived in a graveyard.

I know from personal experience that her opinion of the homeless is not unique among people who work in homeless shelters. When I had my near bout of homelessness, and called around to a few shelters as someone seeking help [whereas my previous contact had been as someone seeking to donate funds], I found out real quick that I was viewed, not as a fellow citizen seeking help, but rather as a customer at Burger King.

You know what I mean. You walk in, and the person behind the counter acts like they are doing you this big favor by waiting on you. America thinks it is okay to treat homeless people with that same air of suspicion and impatience because a person's worth, in our society, is judged by their wealth. If someone is homeless, they are _judged_ as less worthy of respect.

Coppertops, Smiths, and the Architect

Homeless people are not fulfilling their role, as programmed by the Architect, which is to function as coppertops for the Machine World. Hence, the Smiths [cops] spend a lot of time patrolling neighborhoods hunting for homeless people who try and sleep anywhere other than a shelter. Even if a homeless person has a car, the Smiths will arrest him for sleeping in his own car. Why? Because coppertops are supposed to remain jacked into the Matrix, worked like farm mules as wage slaves to put profits into the pockets of the laziest SOBs on the planet -- rich people. If a coppertop can no longer afford to pay for rent/mortgage --- he or she is supposed to report to the local homeless shelter where he or she can be programmed into accepting that a person with no home is of less intrinsic value than the majority of humanity, Pavlov's dogs, the coppertops, who spend their entire lives working like dogs to build wealth for the aformentioned SOBs.

At the shelter, the homeless are brainwashed into accepting that a person with no job and no money deserves no better treatment than to be warehoused like a dog or a cat at a kennel.



America's Most Infamous Homeless Shelter

Is this not the lesson learned by all those homeless people who stayed at America's most infamous homeless shelter --- the New Orleans Superdome? The cops were too busy beating up retired shool teachers and threatening homeless people trying to escape to enforce the law in the Superdome. But, then, the Smiths _never_ properly enfore the law in homeless shelters. The Architect wants shelters to have the same lawless atmosphere as a county jail.

Official tells of Katrina dome horror - Breaking News - World - Breaking News

[afrocentric]

oh.... okay, i see what you mean.

[Jill]

Question: What "good choices" leads to homelessness?

[Jill]

If your logic is true then never, never, ever give to a "bum (your words) a dime or volunteer in a shelter or any social organization because you would become one of us. How insane.

Here's what makes sense: Everything we do is because of a thought process and a decision made and that is the answer to the original question. I don't think there are very many people who awake and decides to become homeless as if it is a great idea, no more than one decides to smoke crack and leave their baby abandoned. Yet there are CONSEQUENCES to our decisions. And they are decisions (choices).

Frankly it is condesending statements like yours that make people not want to help. And I don't know where that pic comes from but it is not the all inclusive face of homelessness, actually the firgures also show that children are the nations highest homeless as I can witness.

[MadameX]

Mr. Wendal by Arrrested Development

Here, have a dollar,
in fact no brotherman here, have two
Two dollars means a snack for me,
but it means a big deal to you
Be strong, serve God only,
know that if you do, beautiful heaven awaits
That's the poem I wrote for the first time
I saw a man with no clothes, no money, no plate
Mr.Wendal, that's his name,
no one ever knew his name cause he's a no-one
Never thought twice about spending on a ol' bum,
until I had the chance to really get to know one
Now that I know him, to give him money isn't charity
He gives me some knowledge, I buy him some shoes
And to think blacks spend all that money on big colleges,
still most of y'all come out confused

[CHORUS:] Go ahead, Mr.Wendal (2x)

Mr.Wendal has freedom,
a free that you and I think is dumb
Free to be without the worries of a quick to diss society
for Mr.Wendal's a bum
His only worries are sickness
and an occasional harassment by the police and their chase
Uncivilized we call him,
but I just saw him eat off the food we waste
Civilization, are we really civilized, yes or no ?
Who are we to judge ?
When thousands of innocent men could be brutally enslaved
and killed over a racist grudge
Mr.Wendal has tried to warn us about our ways
but we don't hear him talk
Is it his fault when we've gone too far,
and we got too far, cause on him we walk
Mr.Wendal, a man, a human in flesh,
but not by law
I feed you dignity to stand with pride,
realize that all in all you stand tall

Mr.Wendal, yeah yeah yeah, Lord, Mr.Wendal

[afrocentric]

Frankly it is condesending statements like yours that make people not want to help. And I don't know where that pic comes from but it is not the all inclusive face of homelessness, actually the firgures also show that children are the nations highest homeless as I can witness.

take your shades off.

[Jill]

Ok, I am looking but I can't see for the life of me how the Superdome is represenative of this topic, but I will try.

1. No one makes a decision to have a major natual disaster and then become homeless and displaced because of it.
2. No choice (the topic) they made the day before, the week before or the month before could have possibly contributed to their being homeless
3. The superdome is obviously not regulated or monitored to be a homeless shelter

Ok, the similarities: still irrevelent to the topic but:

1. Rape, death, murder, desolation, confusion, abandonment, dismissed by society, mental illness, abused, neglected, etc. That happens to be my work day and night. I walk right into it everyday, talk is cheap. I don't turn and ignore any of those things, I am in the mist.

You know it is fruitless to try to defend every shelter on the earth. Its a waste of time and the topic is not about shelters. The question pertains to weather it is a choice or not and I said and still say it is due to poor choice (s). I don't think one can choose to be homeless. I only met one. However I do know consequences of a few bad choices can and do lead to homelessness.
As far as shelters are concerned and even those working in them how can one person defend all shelters the world over? I am sure there are some I wouldn't want to work in but I would nevertheless. You are criticising me on a personal level that is crazy. How can I represent the Superdome?? However I did take in some from New Orleans and they successfully made connections to family and relocated although to me they are still displaced. My opinion differed from yours and you reached several times in left field to discredit my opinion but my opinion still stand true.
Disagree if you will and that is ok, there is not a one among us who cannot say they have made unwise decisions that may not have lead to homelessness but did lead to some sort of hardship or heartache and if the truth were to be told we would make different discisions if we could change them and because of them we make different discisions today.

Listen thanks for having me on this topic but it is going way beyond the question I addressed. As we can all witness to talk is cheap, if homelessness and shelters are a thorn in the side or an eyesore then do something. I run a shelter as I want it to be ran because as a mother of three who was homeless for many years, I know how I was treated. So now I do it the way I wanted to be treated and my track record stands on its own merits. But I got in the trenches to do it and I am in the trenches everyday and quite frankly I wouldn't do anything else.