Hello readers!
Seems I'm a little more fired up about things than usual these days and felt like I needed to write another blog post. It is a very cathartic thing, to organize ones thoughts about something that makes you angry into a coherent and thought out document. It seems to clear the system of negative energy, so I'm glad to have the opportunity to do that for the few of you who actually read my blogs. :)
Let me start with an oft quoted bible verse...
Luke 6:37 "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven."
The part of that verse you hear most often is "Judge not, and you will not be judged..." It's a verse I've always liked but admit that at times I had a tough time living up to. I mean, come on, we all judge right? And my husband made a good point last night of saying that we should listen to our judgments sometimes, because they can keep us safe from harm. That's a good point. It's not unwise to cross the street when you see a creepy looking guy walking your way, even though he might be completely harmless. You don't want to judge but you want to be smart enough to keep yourself safe.
As I've gotten older, I have found that I am far less judgmental than I was as a young person. I'm not saying I don't judge at all, because I do. But I don't do it as much and I think more about things before I do make a judgement call about something.
So that's my background for what I want to talk about. Because lately I've come up against some of the most judgmental people I've ever seen in my life, and I just need to try and wrap my head around why these people are like this!
The worst of it I'm finding is on the RTV6 news Facebook page. I only started following them, to be honest, to try and win a contest, but I started reading their articles and the comments that inevitably follow, and this is where I've found this group of folks casting judgement around as if they were the hand of God or something. It's disturbing on so many levels. I want to tell you about a couple examples of why this makes me so angry.
The first was a few weeks ago, a story about a teen mother, homeless, with a four month old baby. She was helped out when a local organization that helps teen Mom's contacted a blogger with a large following in Florida to see if they could get the money raised to be able to take this girl in. They can only help so many girls and kids at a time, and didn't have the funding to help her. So this blogger took to the net and was able, in a very short amount of time, to raise over 85 thousand dollars which helped not only this girl but another who needed help as well. Heartwarming story right? Not to a lot of the people who follow RTV6 on facebook...
The picture posted with the article was a close up shot of a girl with her hands on her pregnant belly with pink painted fingernails. No face, nothing like that, just the belly and the hands. Instantly, people were ranting about her having a 4 month old and another on the way and why should we help someone who can't make good decisions. If she opens her legs she should face the consequences, how could she afford to get her nails done but not have a place to live... I could take up days of your time but that was the gist of most of the comments. My husband and I both ended up arguing with these people, many of whom had read ONLY the headline, and saw the picture. They hadn't read the article. Having worked at a newspaper for four years, I knew the look of a stock photo when I saw one, and so I contacted RTV6 both on Facebook and by email to find out if the picture was the actual girl, or if it was a stock photo. My suspicions were confirmed. It was merely a stock photo.
So, the girl wasn't pregnant with another child (the pic was at least a 5 month or more pregnant belly, she has a fourth month old child...I commented to folks, do the math) and no one knows whether or not this girl had her nails painted. So first of all people were making judgement over a picture that really had nothing to do with the story and was not a wise decision by those who decided to use it, and there was a complete lack of compassion for this girls situation. No matter what you feel about her decision making skills, should you not be happy a sweet, innocent four month old baby is off the streets and somewhere safe and warm?
Apparently not, they would rather just start a lynch mob for the poor kid who made a bad choice. We don't know this young woman, her circumstances, how she ended up where she is. All people cared about was that she was going to end up a drain on taxpayer dollars and oh we have to support her and her spawn...Really? I'm sorry, do you consider your grandchildren to be 'spawn'? What if your son loses his job and can't support his family and ends up on welfare?
Anyway, I won't go into that anymore, but it was one example of people with NO CLUE making judgement. The number of people that just go off the headline and don't read the articles before they start spouting off opinions just baffles my mind.
Another example is a very sad story that started last night when an infant was found in a creek. Today's update says that the infant was a newborn (no specified age, which could mean it's anywhere from a day old to 28 days old according to my research). There is no news yet on the baby's cause of death, how long it was in the creek, etc.
Of course I started reading the comments, and among the many sad condolences for this poor, sweet angel, there are just as many calls for the mother to 'face the consequences' and "How can someone do this to a baby I hope she rots in hell." and "Why couldn't she just take advantage of 'Safe Haven' laws and drop the baby off at a hospital." or "So many people wish desperately for a child, they would have loved to have this baby!" the list goes on and on.
I pointed out that no one knows anything about the baby's mother, nor about how the baby actually died. It could have been stillborn in a sudden home birth or died from SIDS and if the mother was a teen maybe she panicked and put the baby in the creek because she thought she'd be blamed. It could have been killed by an abusive father and dumped by him. The point being that we don't know what happened, and should we judge this mother before we have all the facts?
So someone comments back at me, "So you would dump a stillborn or unwanted baby in a creek if you were a teen?"
*crickets*
Seriously, this was a direct response to my remarks. Wow.
I've had to restate my remarks at this woman several times now because she just doesn't get it. She was called out by a couple others (for her politics actually for other remarks she'd made) and she says, "How is what I said about others defending what happened a political statement."
I was floored! She actually sees me as defending a child murderer. Seriously? Talk about taking remarks out of context. I have restated myself a couple times, saying I'm not defending anything because we don't know what happened. If it turns out the mother did indeed kill this child either on purpose or through severe neglect, then yes, I'll be as outraged as anyone. People that do that should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But NO ONE knows what happened yet, so to cast judgement is simply foolish. I admit that in the majority of cases it turns out that it is the mother or both parents that are the cause of these sorts of things. But we don't know that yet in this case, and isn't everyone considered innocent until proven guilty?
My point in all this, is that we should be try to be more compassionate and that we should ALWAYS look at the facts before we make a judgement on something or someone. All those who act high and mighty now may fall someday, and who will be there to catch you? Probably some of the same people or organizations or the government that you once criticized.
I suppose some will say it's just human nature to be judgmental and perhaps it is. But as thinking, growing, changing human beings, we should try our best to rise above that. It just makes me so angry to see words thrown around, condemning speech, when there is no basis yet for the anger. In the case of that poor baby, we should be sad for him and his family until we find out what actually happened. But angry? No, save that until the case presents you with something to be angry about. Unnecessary anger is, to me, wasted brain cells.
So that is how I feel about judgement. Feel free to chime in with your own thoughts, stories or experiences.
Thanks for listening, as always,
Dawn
Monday, March 18, 2013
Friday, March 8, 2013
Hunger...An unacceptable and unnecessary problem
Hello readers!
As usual, I write a blog post when I get fired up about something, and I am tonight. Recently, my Pastor Cherie Isakson recommended a documentary. Now I'll tell you, I have become a documentary junkie in the last six months or so. I LOVE them! So I decided to check this one out. Never, in all the docs I've watched, have I been so emotionally wrung and so angry. So very, very angry.
The documentary is currently in theaters and is also available On Demand from Comast cable and it's called 'A Place at the Table' I watched it on my own yesterday and then again this evening with my husband. It is amazingly eye opening, well thought out, and very, very well done. One would have to be brain dead to not feel more strongly about the hunger issues facing our country today after watching this movie. If you are able to watch it, please do. It's not yet available on Netflix, but as they do have a great selection of documentaries hopefully they'll have it sometime in the future.
Hunger is an issue both my husband and I know very well. We both agreed that as children, we didn't face hunger. We both remember having enough to eat and having good food to eat. Vegetables, fruit, etc. But both of us faced hunger as young adults. When I first lived on my own, after my monthly expenses for housing, heat, electric, etc (and keep in mind I didn't have cable, cell phone, internet, etc at that time) I often had little money left for food. When I worked at McDonald's the free meal I got was often all I had that day.
Then, when I left McDonald's to work in telemarketing, was when I really felt the lack of food. I was making less money when I first started, working days. At one point, I stood in my kitchen with 10 cents in my pocket and half a box of spaghetti noodles in my cupboard (nothing in my fridge) and wondered how I was going to eat because I didn't get paid for a week or more yet. Luckily at the time my parents were able to come to my rescue and they showed up on my doorstep with 3 big bags of groceries. But other people aren't so lucky.
When my husband was young and in University in England, while his housing was paid for, he didn't have money for food and heat. So he allowed himself use of a heater only an hour or so an evening and ate one small personal pizza per day. He ended up with frostbite on the tips of his fingers and in hospital with malnutrition. So that gives you a little background of what both of us know of hunger.
Right now, over 50 million Americans suffer from hunger. When we began to watch the documentary though, Kevin said, "But these people don't look hungry." and I told him to wait, that it would be addressed. And it most certainly was. Hunger is at an all time high, but so is obesity. "What?" you say, "If people are obese they are obviously getting enough to eat!" WRONG! So much of it has to do with the quality of food that people have access to.
I used to think that farm subsidies were a good thing, when I was under the misapprehension that farm subsidies helped out the little guy. Hometown farmers out there working land they've had in their family for generations. I was very wrong. Farm subsidies now benefit huge agri-businesses, mega-farms, if you will, and they only subsidize foods that turn a high profit. Rice, corn, wheat, soy, and cotton were the biggies. What do we get from from these crops? Highly processed foods with little to no nutritional value.
Where are the subsidies for fruits, and vegetables like celery and carrots? They don't exist because they are produced in much smaller quantities and are less hardy and less likely to have good yields than the big cash crops. I was blown away.
I was also blown away by finding out that in the seventies, during the Nixon administration, we nearly eradicated hunger in America with programs designed to get people fed. Food stamps, WIC, elderly feeding programs, etc. Then the eighties, the decade of excess happened, and those programs began to be underfunded, and we now have the inefficient programs you see today that are extremely difficult to qualify for and don't do enough for those that do qualify.
I watched as they documented the fight in congress to increase spending on children's school lunches, only to not only take the president's recommendation of 10 billion over 10 years down to 4.5 billion, but they paid for it by cutting money for food stamps...Really? I mean really?!? Are you kidding me?! Those damn politicians were so smug about it too. What did the president want to do? Take away subsidies from rich (rich being the operative word) landowners to fund the program. That proposal died in less than 24 hrs...
I was astonished at the affect hunger and poor nutrition has on children. Not just physically, but their brain development. So what you have is kids whose brains don't develop properly because they are hungry when they are young, then they grow up unable to learn and with behavior issues their parents can't do anything about because it stems from brain issues, who then can't become functioning, tax paying, successful members of society. Who are then ridiculed, ostracized and picked on by conservatives who tout 'personal responsibility' as the most important virtue in life, and say "Oh why can't you go out and get a good job?"
The ONLY way we are going to end the cycle of poverty in this country and give our citizens a snowballs chance in hell of succeeding, is to start with the core problems. Social welfare isn't the problem. Corporate welfare is what is bankrupting our nation. The increase of 4.5 billion to the school lunch program (which translates to an increase of just .06 cents per child) is nothing compared to the 700 billion we paid to bail out the banks when they would have failed. Banks that are now making record profits and the dow jones is now higher than it has EVER BEEN!
We need to stop letting corporations support politicians that only have THEIR interests in mind. We need to put the money where it is needed most. To give people a chance to succeed. Kevin told me that in Britain they were able to lower the crime rate simply by providing free vitamins to people. Which enabled better nutrition, thereby better learning, thereby better citizens who could get jobs instead of turning to crime and ending up on the taxpayers dime by being in jail. Novel concept huh?
If our citizens had better nutrition and access to better quality food we could create citizens that could play a roll in building a better nation, a nation that COULD BE the greatest nation on earth. It certainly isn't now. I love Obama and support him wholeheartedly, but the section of the documentary that showed a snippet from one of his speeches where he said that was what we were, made me more angry than anything else in that documentary did. We ARE NOT the greatest nation on earth, and WILL NOT BE until we address the huge problems that face us. And the national debt and budget deficit pale in comparison to the ripple effect that hunger has on this nation.
If people had access to better food and more affordable healthcare, the costs would go down because people would be healthier. Rather than throwing money away on the end effects of hunger, combat the problem at the start. The effect on everything, INCLUDING the national debt and deficit, would be astonishing.
The worst thing about all this is the perception, created by conservatives who believe big government is evil, is that the poor deserve what happens to them. They deserve the struggles they endure because they are irresponsible and stupid. And what we have as a result of that, is a widening gap between the poor and the wealthy. A gap that will never get narrower if we continue to allow things to go on as they are. Not because the rich should give all their money to the poor, but if all those who were able gave a little, to lift up those who are poor and help those who can become productive citizens, then we could virtually eradicate hunger and poverty in this country. Not by making the government Robin Hood and steal from the rich to give to the poor. But by giving everyone an equal footing to succeed. That is something that does not exist in this country now.
And as I always say in these sort of posts, are there people who will game the system? Yep! Are there people who will try to take advantage and do what they can to not have to work? Yep again! But those people are not the majority, as conservatives would have you believe. Most people who need social welfare fight tooth and nail to stop from having to go on it, and then do so only as a last resort. I was one of those, working 40 hours a week, and still needing food stamps to feed my family. The movie covered this part of hunger as well, highlighting several people who worked hard, but still struggled to buy food to feed their kids.
It's unacceptable, in a country in which there is ENOUGH food, that people go hungry. That children go hungry. Let's work toward making this a country where there truly is opportunity for all, and not just the few, the rich and the privileged.
Thanks,
Dawn
As usual, I write a blog post when I get fired up about something, and I am tonight. Recently, my Pastor Cherie Isakson recommended a documentary. Now I'll tell you, I have become a documentary junkie in the last six months or so. I LOVE them! So I decided to check this one out. Never, in all the docs I've watched, have I been so emotionally wrung and so angry. So very, very angry.
The documentary is currently in theaters and is also available On Demand from Comast cable and it's called 'A Place at the Table' I watched it on my own yesterday and then again this evening with my husband. It is amazingly eye opening, well thought out, and very, very well done. One would have to be brain dead to not feel more strongly about the hunger issues facing our country today after watching this movie. If you are able to watch it, please do. It's not yet available on Netflix, but as they do have a great selection of documentaries hopefully they'll have it sometime in the future.
Hunger is an issue both my husband and I know very well. We both agreed that as children, we didn't face hunger. We both remember having enough to eat and having good food to eat. Vegetables, fruit, etc. But both of us faced hunger as young adults. When I first lived on my own, after my monthly expenses for housing, heat, electric, etc (and keep in mind I didn't have cable, cell phone, internet, etc at that time) I often had little money left for food. When I worked at McDonald's the free meal I got was often all I had that day.
Then, when I left McDonald's to work in telemarketing, was when I really felt the lack of food. I was making less money when I first started, working days. At one point, I stood in my kitchen with 10 cents in my pocket and half a box of spaghetti noodles in my cupboard (nothing in my fridge) and wondered how I was going to eat because I didn't get paid for a week or more yet. Luckily at the time my parents were able to come to my rescue and they showed up on my doorstep with 3 big bags of groceries. But other people aren't so lucky.
When my husband was young and in University in England, while his housing was paid for, he didn't have money for food and heat. So he allowed himself use of a heater only an hour or so an evening and ate one small personal pizza per day. He ended up with frostbite on the tips of his fingers and in hospital with malnutrition. So that gives you a little background of what both of us know of hunger.
Right now, over 50 million Americans suffer from hunger. When we began to watch the documentary though, Kevin said, "But these people don't look hungry." and I told him to wait, that it would be addressed. And it most certainly was. Hunger is at an all time high, but so is obesity. "What?" you say, "If people are obese they are obviously getting enough to eat!" WRONG! So much of it has to do with the quality of food that people have access to.
I used to think that farm subsidies were a good thing, when I was under the misapprehension that farm subsidies helped out the little guy. Hometown farmers out there working land they've had in their family for generations. I was very wrong. Farm subsidies now benefit huge agri-businesses, mega-farms, if you will, and they only subsidize foods that turn a high profit. Rice, corn, wheat, soy, and cotton were the biggies. What do we get from from these crops? Highly processed foods with little to no nutritional value.
Where are the subsidies for fruits, and vegetables like celery and carrots? They don't exist because they are produced in much smaller quantities and are less hardy and less likely to have good yields than the big cash crops. I was blown away.
I was also blown away by finding out that in the seventies, during the Nixon administration, we nearly eradicated hunger in America with programs designed to get people fed. Food stamps, WIC, elderly feeding programs, etc. Then the eighties, the decade of excess happened, and those programs began to be underfunded, and we now have the inefficient programs you see today that are extremely difficult to qualify for and don't do enough for those that do qualify.
I watched as they documented the fight in congress to increase spending on children's school lunches, only to not only take the president's recommendation of 10 billion over 10 years down to 4.5 billion, but they paid for it by cutting money for food stamps...Really? I mean really?!? Are you kidding me?! Those damn politicians were so smug about it too. What did the president want to do? Take away subsidies from rich (rich being the operative word) landowners to fund the program. That proposal died in less than 24 hrs...
I was astonished at the affect hunger and poor nutrition has on children. Not just physically, but their brain development. So what you have is kids whose brains don't develop properly because they are hungry when they are young, then they grow up unable to learn and with behavior issues their parents can't do anything about because it stems from brain issues, who then can't become functioning, tax paying, successful members of society. Who are then ridiculed, ostracized and picked on by conservatives who tout 'personal responsibility' as the most important virtue in life, and say "Oh why can't you go out and get a good job?"
The ONLY way we are going to end the cycle of poverty in this country and give our citizens a snowballs chance in hell of succeeding, is to start with the core problems. Social welfare isn't the problem. Corporate welfare is what is bankrupting our nation. The increase of 4.5 billion to the school lunch program (which translates to an increase of just .06 cents per child) is nothing compared to the 700 billion we paid to bail out the banks when they would have failed. Banks that are now making record profits and the dow jones is now higher than it has EVER BEEN!
We need to stop letting corporations support politicians that only have THEIR interests in mind. We need to put the money where it is needed most. To give people a chance to succeed. Kevin told me that in Britain they were able to lower the crime rate simply by providing free vitamins to people. Which enabled better nutrition, thereby better learning, thereby better citizens who could get jobs instead of turning to crime and ending up on the taxpayers dime by being in jail. Novel concept huh?
If our citizens had better nutrition and access to better quality food we could create citizens that could play a roll in building a better nation, a nation that COULD BE the greatest nation on earth. It certainly isn't now. I love Obama and support him wholeheartedly, but the section of the documentary that showed a snippet from one of his speeches where he said that was what we were, made me more angry than anything else in that documentary did. We ARE NOT the greatest nation on earth, and WILL NOT BE until we address the huge problems that face us. And the national debt and budget deficit pale in comparison to the ripple effect that hunger has on this nation.
If people had access to better food and more affordable healthcare, the costs would go down because people would be healthier. Rather than throwing money away on the end effects of hunger, combat the problem at the start. The effect on everything, INCLUDING the national debt and deficit, would be astonishing.
The worst thing about all this is the perception, created by conservatives who believe big government is evil, is that the poor deserve what happens to them. They deserve the struggles they endure because they are irresponsible and stupid. And what we have as a result of that, is a widening gap between the poor and the wealthy. A gap that will never get narrower if we continue to allow things to go on as they are. Not because the rich should give all their money to the poor, but if all those who were able gave a little, to lift up those who are poor and help those who can become productive citizens, then we could virtually eradicate hunger and poverty in this country. Not by making the government Robin Hood and steal from the rich to give to the poor. But by giving everyone an equal footing to succeed. That is something that does not exist in this country now.
And as I always say in these sort of posts, are there people who will game the system? Yep! Are there people who will try to take advantage and do what they can to not have to work? Yep again! But those people are not the majority, as conservatives would have you believe. Most people who need social welfare fight tooth and nail to stop from having to go on it, and then do so only as a last resort. I was one of those, working 40 hours a week, and still needing food stamps to feed my family. The movie covered this part of hunger as well, highlighting several people who worked hard, but still struggled to buy food to feed their kids.
It's unacceptable, in a country in which there is ENOUGH food, that people go hungry. That children go hungry. Let's work toward making this a country where there truly is opportunity for all, and not just the few, the rich and the privileged.
Thanks,
Dawn
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