Just something got in my eye and a case of the sniffles, that's all.
1 day ago
Monday, November 28, 2011
13 comments:
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No one should have to live like that. Sniffles indeed.
ReplyDeleteAll our oligarchs that have outsourced our jobs overseas for profit should be sat down Clockwork Orange style and forced to watch this video over and over again. Sadly, 99% of them would shrug and say "So?".
ReplyDeleteBT
ReplyDeleteWorse than saying "So?", would be that they don't even have a frame of reference to understanding it. Their world is so out of touch with the reality of most of us live with that "So?" is a legitimate question. It's the why they are asking it which is important. They are like a high school clique on steroids. With automatic weapons.
Makes me sick that the state still thinks taking children away from parents in these situations is okay. Guess it depends on the case, but taking children from parents who love them should only be done when it is absolutely, clearly needed. They did that to my mother when her mom got divorced and it fucked her up the rest of her life.
ReplyDeletesomeofparts, 50% of the children in some counties of Florida are homeless, and Florida's foster care system is in a shambles due to budget cuts and scandals. So the chances of the State of Florida taking your children away from you for the crime of being homeless are pretty slim. That's what counts as "compassionate" in Florida's "compassionate conservatism".
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Compassionate Penguin
Badtux, honestly while part of me shares your sentiment, another part of me thinks that any effort to get certain people to have any kind of sympathy for the less fortunate is futile.
ReplyDeleteSomeofParts, That makes me sick too. And I've had some arguments recently with some conservative types that have made me very aware that there are lots of people who feel that it is a good policy. So frustrating!
God, that was heartrending. Those kids are so amazing.
ReplyDeleteTux, you could make the oligarchs watch the video forever and they still wouldn't get it. These will never be "real" people to them.
ReplyDeleteKaren, Lynne, Ruckus, yep. Like I said, 99% of them would shrug and say "So?", because cold-blooded lizard people from planet Sociopath have no ethical or moral connection to actual human beings and have not a clue as to why it is so wrong to treat innocent children this way.
ReplyDeleteJ., your comment is going to be the basis of this evening's post...
- Badtux the Processing Penguin
It has been a topic of discussion around here lately, that is for sure. Our governor and republican legislature recently put a cap on welfare benefits which has cut off *thousands* of people from the only thing keeping them from being homeless. Most of the recipients affected are families with children. And when it is pointed out to people, they say things like, "of course we can't let children be homeless, that is why we have a foster care system".
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that these Republican voters aren't necessarily sociopaths who don't care about anyone. The problem is that they have some kind of weird belief that poor people bring problems onto themselves and are essentially bad people. To these sorts of Republican voters, they are doing the kids a favor by removing them from loving but poor families because they see poverty as a moral failing and removing children from poor parents is the same as removing them from parents who have other moral failings (like drug use or abuse or whatever). To these folks, kicking the parents off of welfare is doing them a favor too because they honestly think that the reason people are poor is that they don't have sufficient incentive to work. All the facts in the world wont dissuade them from this view either (I know, I've tried).
I grew up dirt poor, at times living under tarps and cooking on a campfire. It was great training and helped make me wise about my use of money.
ReplyDeleteBBC- I couldn't afford skis when I was a kid so I nailed boards into my feet. It was a great learning experience.
ReplyDeleteI was so poor my family lived at the bottom of a lake......
ReplyDeleteSeriously, I've had conversations with conservatives at my local Occupy site. I can point out to them homeless people that simply cannot work. People that absolutely have medical problems that prevent them from working.
They say again and again...."Well, we can't just give people housing. That would be wrong." Or some variation. These people literally feel it's better to let people die in the streets than provide them with free shelter.
They're sociopaths. Whether they are born that way or trained to it makes no difference. It's how they behave.