Crayons & peanut butter & friends & neighbors…

[Sapphire Blue]

Saturday I got some crayons (boxes of 64, w/the sharpener built right in) to pass out to a few friends… (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1704977)

We talked about launching Beauty Bombs worldwide, as Robert Fulghum wrote about in his essay. Fun idea, huh :) ? We thought so… at first. But so many people today are living (and dying) in poverty, so many people today are hungry, it’s kind of hard to appreciate the magic of crayons w/little or no food in your belly… or in your kitchen, either.

So, instead of launching Beauty Bombs, we went back to our normal routine… today we went to Costco… we got jars of peanut butter & jam, canned meats, soups, vegetables, & fruits, juices, breakfast cereals, beans, rice, and other nonperishable items. Then we took it all to the food bank… because, you see, we have neighbors who have little or no food in their bellies or in their kitchens… they are hungry. (You can learn about & help some of them here: http://www.secondharvest.org/)

After making this delivery, we then made another delivery of sorts to the UN World Food Program in the way of monetary donations. You see, we also have neighbors the world over who have little or no food in their bellies… they are hungry, too… they are living (and dying) in poverty. (You can learn about & help some of them here: http://www.wfp.org/english/)

Please, if you can, will you help our neighbors? They need us desperately.

[renate]

1. that's so lovely!

I'll second that recommendation of America's Second Harvest, big time. You get a huge bang for your donation buck--every dollar turns into $20 worth of groceries on someone's table:
http://www.secondharvest.org/how_we_work/

(It's unfortunate that their website kind of buries that information--they also don't go out of their way to say that a whopping 98% of your donation goes directly to providing services to the hungry.)

I get a warm fuzzy feeling just reading about how you spent your morning--how warm and fuzzy you must be feeling. I'll be hoping that something extra special happens for you today--you've already made something special happen for the families in your area.

:hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

2. Your seconding the recommendation of America's Second Harvest...

... is a good thing :) . :hi: :hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

3. kicking... for my neighbors

:kick:

[Sapphire Blue]

4. !

:kick:

[bobbolink]

5. What a true good Samaritan you are!!

Just reading this made me feel like an active part of something so much bigger, and so important.

To know that there are still a few people like you who remember the rest of us during your good times means so much!

Now... get out your crayons, and have yourself a big beauty bomb! I'm so grateful to you for doing for "the least of these" when others don't give it a thought, but remember to take time for yourself. You certainly deserve it, and balance is so important.

Part of balance is finding beauty, and if, for now, beauty is to be found in a box of crayons, then please, go for it!

Beauty!

You Are.

[Sapphire Blue]

6. And who is my neighbor?

Some live down the street, and others live a little further away...

WFP food reaches Lebanon as agency launches operations


Lebanese families fleeing the fighting arrive in the southern city of Sidon.

"We need to reach these people fast. It is bad enough that their lives have been shattered without them having to go hungry as well." - Amer Daoudi, Emergency Coordinator, WFP operations in Lebanon


Rome, 24 July 2006 - Following the arrival on Sunday of WFP’s first shipment of humanitarian assistance in Lebanon, today the agency launched an emergency operation that will reach over 300,000 people, including 50,000 people who have fled across the border to Syria.

Twenty-five metric tons of high energy biscuits which arrived in Beirut port from Brindisi, Italy, will be distributed among the people, many of them children, displaced by the shelling that started on 12 July. This is the first shipment in a much larger operation over the coming three months.

Today, WFP launched a three-month emergency operation in Lebanon, as well as taking the lead on logistics for the overall US$130 million UN Flash Appeal.

Continued @ http://www.wfp.org/english/?ModuleID=137&Key=2177

[bobbolink]

35. Who is our neighbor? The RW says "You're on your own."

The Dems (on a good day) say, "We're all in this together."

We're all one.

As an Episcopal priest once said, when asked what he considered pornography, "To me, the concept of "Us" and "Them" is pornography.

Thanks for living Matthew 25, Sapphire Blue! You are an inspiration!

:hug: :pals: :hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

46. You know, it doesn't really matter what either side says.

What matters is what we do to change things for the better... better for everyone, not just the elite.

After all, we are all, even the elite, nothing more than minute specks on a little blue dot. Minute specks... neighbors on a little blue dot.

[bobbolink]

54. Actions speak louder than words? You're so right!

I guess most can't imagine being that insignificant.

sigh...

[Sapphire Blue]

51. kicking for my neighbors, near & far

:kick:

[grannylib]

7. What a lovely idea! Thanks so much for sharing this, and for the

inspiration.

It's been a while since we had a food drive at work...think it's time to get another one going.
Will do that as soon as I get in tomorrow.

[Sapphire Blue]

9. I'm so glad that you're willing to have a food drive!

The big food drives are during the Thanksgiving & Christmas season. Summer, not so much... and people are just as hungry in the summer.

Please also encourage donations to the UN World Food Program, too. Our neighbors a little further away need our help, too.

:hug:

[Canuckistanian]

8. How about sending Crayolas to the kids of Iraq or Aghanistan?

If someone has a son, daughter, father, brother, etc. serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, why don't we donate Crayola boxes and send them to be distributed?

It may be trivial, but we know how much we enjoyed getting them when we were kids.

Just a thought.

[Sapphire Blue]

10. There IS an 'Operation Crayon'!

Smiles from Iraqi children plentiful in 2nd BCT’s Operation Crayon: http://www.1id.army.mil/1ID/News/November/Article_06/Article_06.htm (includes an address for donations)

Operation Iraqi Children (http://www.operationiraqichildren.org/schoolsupplies.asp) requests coloring pencils for their school supply kits, w/the notation that crayons melt in the Iraqi summer heat.

[Canuckistanian]

11. Never thought about the heat

Good idea. Any way to reach the children...

[EFerrari]

12. Blood on the Clownsuit: The Tenderloin

(a snip from the show we're mounting. please cross something, I think this will run.)

The Tenderloin is in the theater district and has about 50 residence hotels with tiny rooms once used by dock workers in the 30’s.

The Tenderloin has it’s own climate, it’s own weather. It’s poverty and hopelessness and despair.

Let’s take a tour of the Tenderloin.

Everybody please stay together.

Here’s Market Street, the financial district. People in sharp clothes on cell phones. You can beg for change for them and sometimes they slow down and say “No”.

Let’s go two blocks North. Here’s St. Anthony’s Dining Room, where you get your free hot lunch after spending a pleasant social hour in line with the other guests. Down the street here is Glide Memorial Church. I think we may be too late to get a good table. What a turnout, huh? They serve donated leftovers from restaurants and bakeries three times a day to a full dining room. Every now and then, they run out of gloves in the kitchen and you get gastrointestinitis. Then, you have to find a toilet that you can sit on for three dayS. If you’re lucky, you get to go to the hospital.
Back on Market Street, we come to Carl’s Jr., open 24 hours. You can stay there all night as long as you never go to sleep. See, the security guard is going around and poking the guys that are nodding off. If they fall asleep, he has to kick them out. (Wave goodbye to the guard.)

It’s dark out here now but if you look carefully, you can see here’s a guy passed out on the sidewalk with a needle in his arm. Just step around him, like everybody else. Okay -- here’s the St. Francis Theater that showed two new movies for $3.50 starting at about noon. I saw 100 movies here.

Now, we go about six blocks west on Market to our next stop. It’s early, so the only people out are people going to work. I remember that.

Now we’re here at the famous Pill Corner. You can buy any pill in the world here. People sell their medication here to dealers for a few bucks or sometimes they take merchandise in trade. It’s sort of like an urban flea market only without the hotdog vendors or the carousels. And here’s Sixth Street between Market and Mission, the Walmart of Crack.

That woman – that skinny woman in the middle of all those big scary guys, she has a big plastic bag with 100 rocks of crack cocaine in it. You notice, there’s no policemen? There’s never any police. Those guys all have guns. Let’s keep moving.

Are we all still here? Nobody got robbed? Good. Hope you enjoyed the tour.


It was easy for me to become a crackhead. You don’t snort it, you smoke it, so your brain gets it in seconds. Then I would forget I was in the Tenderloin. I would forget who I was. And who I had been. I wasn’t me, I was just a crackhead.

Here’s how you do crack. You leave your roach infested room and go to Sixth Street. You don’t give that skinny lady all your money until you see the rock. Its yellowish-white, about the size of one dice or that thing you use to chalk your pool cue. It has to have bubble holes in it or it’s not crack. When you see what you think is your money’s worth, you make the exchange. I would usually spend a hundred dollars. That way you get a better deal. If you’re not careful, they’ll sell you a peanut or a piece of drywall. You get ripped off a lot. Then you go to the liquor store a few feet away and buy a glass pipe for two dollars. You know that little flower in glass at the counter you picked up for your girlfriend while you were waiting? That’s a crack pipe. You buy some Chore Boy. It’s like a Brillo Pad but with no soap on it. They have boxes and boxes of it in those stores.


If people bought that stuff to clean with, the Tenderloin would be the cleanest place in California. You buy a lighter. You rush back to your room and lock the door. Your char some of the pad with the lighter to burn the paint off – you don’t want get sick inhaling chemicals, right? -- and put a little wad in one end of the pipe. Then you break off a very small piece with your fingernail, put it on the pad, hold it up, and light it. It melts, and you fill your lungs with smoke.

Bam! You feel like a million bucks. You’re not speedy, you’re not down, you’re not depressed, you’re not in physical or mental pain, you’re perfect. For two minutes. Then you need more. Now. Powder cocaine gets you high for 20 minutes to an hour. With crack you have to keep doing it. Hit it now. You talk with someone if you have somebody there. If you’re alone, you don’t eat, you don’t watch TV, you don’t do anything but smoke. Hit it again.

Crack is the designer drug of poverty.

After a few hits the pipe is caked inside with dried crack. You have to take a wire you buy at one of the many head shops, or take a piece of a TV antenna off of the hotel TV, and you push the Chore Boy all the way through the pipe to the other side. And you have to do it just right, collecting the crack inside as you push. And you push it until the little crack nest is at the other end of the pipe. There are two more hits in that nest and the last thing you want to do is drop them. Be patient now because you will light the side you were puffing on and suck the side you were lighting. You don’t want to burn your lips. You will. Hit it now. You can burn your nose too but you don’t care. Hit it again.

When you run out you will sell your own shoes to get more. The crash is horrendous. Your brain freezes. It says, “Where’s the fucking crack? I need more now!” Some people in the hotels did heroin – the preferred drug of the Tenderloin – to come down. I just suffered and went to sleep. Some people will search the floor of their room for hours to see if they dropped any. I saw people looking on the ground on the street. Nice high, huh?

I thought I had no friends and never called any of my old buddies or told my wife or my mother or anyone what was happening. I was too ashamed.

My one friend, Trent Hayward, who I met in a shelter, always slept under a bush. He was too proud to get a check from the government and never had money so I bought him tobacco. We both smoked Gauloisie rollies, the strongest unfiltered cigarettes in the world. Trent and I spent a lot of time at the library and at cafes talking. He was taking a journalism class and wanted to get hired by the Bay Guardian. He would never sneak into one of my rooms or let me have him as a guest and I can’t blame him. Those rooms were gray prison cells.

When you’re homeless and you’ve smoked all your hotel money, you stay in shelters; you have to leave at 5 am and you can’t go back until 6pm. Once, I didn’t go back for my stuff fast enough and they gave it all away.

[Sapphire Blue]

13. Crossing everything I can! This is powerful!

[EFerrari]

14. We're mounting a 2 act play in 4 weeks.

thank you.

:hug:

:grouphug:

[renate]

15. oh wow

I don't know whether the "I" you refer to is actually you or a character in the play, but

1) if it's you, I admire you tremendously for repairing your life, and
2) I hope it wasn't you, but I know that the life you describe is the life being led by a lot of people... such a hard existence.

[EFerrari]

20. Hi there, renate. The play is from my husband's pov.

He spent a year homeless because we couldn't get access to medical tech just a few miles away.

Go figure.

:kick:

[lonestarnot]

16. Two more homeless men died here in the last two days.

[EFerrari]

19. The numbers from the last ten days will not be good.

:(

[lonestarnot]

21. no they won't.

[Sapphire Blue]

24. 5 deaths possibly linked to Phoenix heat (all believed to be homeless)

5 deaths possibly linked to Phoenix heat

Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.24.2006

(AP) - A heat wave that has included a three-day streak of record-breaking high temperatures and a series of above-average lows may have contributed to the deaths of as many as five men in the Phoenix area in less than a week, officials said.

Four men believed to be homeless died during the weekend, when the temperatures hit record highs on Saturday (116 degrees) and Sunday (114 degrees), said Sgt. Joel Tranter, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department.

The fifth man, who was found in his truck and was also believed to be homeless, died on Thursday, when the temperature was an above-average 109.

Tranter said the cause of death in the five cases hadn't been determined yet.

Continued @ http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/139226.php

:cry:

[EFerrari]

31. God forgive us. (And I never use the g word)

I think I'm going to call the local homeless coalition and see what can be done here.

:nuke:

[bobbolink]

37. THank you, Beth! Would that everyone who reads these words

becomes as motivated!

:loveya:

[EFerrari]

38. Phone calls. We can make calls and ask questions.

:hi:

[bobbolink]

52. WE? The posts asking for that on poverty issues sinks like huge boulders!

I'm always begging people to do just that, and it falls on deaf ears.

It's highly discouraging.

To say the least.

x(

[Sapphire Blue]

58. VERY discouraging.

[bobbolink]

59. ...

:hug:

And very discouraging that the posts of rancor get so much more attention than the uplifting and caring posts.

:(

"Wadda country!" Yakov Smirnoff.....

[Sapphire Blue]

60. Sometimes...

... I feel like I'm walking through a minefield, and there are tripwires all over the place... some are pretty well hidden... next thing I know, hurtful words, animosity, rancor, etc, are exploding everywhere. People condemn the ME for the violence going on there, taking sides, condemning either or both sides... while there are ugly little wars going on right here.

Pass the crayons, please...

[bobbolink]

61. Minefields, tripwires, and tightropes, oh my! :-/

Yes, I know exactly what you're saying.

I've heard so many people now talking about how nasty everyone is becoming, and trying to figure out how it can be turned around.

Remember the days of Joan Baez, and her school of nonviolence? She began with teaching nonviolent communication, which is so important. We really thought we were going to change our country for good, and now .... it's so much worse than ever!

I reveled in seeing the video of her on T R O U T H O U T last summer, when she was at CAmp Casey. I know that she stayed longer than planned, and taught nonviolence training there.

It's so needed... we ALL need help in figuring out how to respond better!

Thanks so much for this post... you have described exactly what I feel!

[bobbolink]

36. This is the answer to my fervent plea!! Theater and film on poverty

Thank you so very much for this!

Is there any way we can see that this becomes a play performed in every city? In every church?

PLEEEEEZ....?

:hug: :loveya: :hug:

There is such a need for the understanding that efforts like this bring... including the huge need right here at D.U.

Thanks! :toast:

[Sapphire Blue]

39. Seconding your request for this to be done in every city & every church!

:toast:

There is, indeed, a need for understanding that powerful efforts like this bring!

[EFerrari]

45. M Moore's film on health care will do some heavy lifting! n/t

[bobbolink]

57. I'd like to see a compliation of poverty education resources

such as this powerful play.

As it is now, it's so much easier to find resources on all the other issues, and there is a crying (literally) need for these.

I wish I could start a website on this. It would be great to have this play and other resources all listed together somewhere!

I"d so love to see this produced at churches!

You go, Beth and Doug! :loveya: I'll be cheerleading in the back row! :bounce:

[EFerrari]

44. Well, hope with me that Doug and I do a good enough job.

I think most people are looking for a way to think about poverty. But, obviously, I'm biased.

lol

:toast:

[bobbolink]

53. From your lips to the ears of the goddess.....

...cuz that's not my experience.

:cry:

:pals:

[lonestarnot]

17. What a wonderful DU soul! I love you Blue.

But the U N food program, do they actually get most of your donation to needy recipients, or do they eat it themselves in administrative costs?

[Sapphire Blue]

22. ((((lonestarnot))))

:hug:

I honestly don't know how much is allocated for WFP's administrative costs; we chose WFP this time because of their emergency response to the crisis in Lebanon... and ongoing response worldwide.

Of course they're not the only organization... there are many, many more...

Bread for the World: http://www.bread.org/

Other Anti-Hunger and Poverty Organizations: http://www.bread.org/learn/links.html#U

You can help our neighbors through whichever organization you choose ;) .

[lonestarnot]

30. Thanks again!

[watercolors]

18. Thank you for the reminder

I see it everyday in certain area of our community. I regularly get a box together for our Sharing Center. We are a caring country and I'm sure most communities have a place to donate, that is where it begins.

[Sapphire Blue]

23. Thank you for your caring & kindness in helping the neighbors!

Some see, but just look away; thank you for not looking away. :hug:

[goclark]

25. Sapphire Blue always points us in the right direction!

Sapphire may be Blue but she thinks about all the colors on the planet.

[Sapphire Blue]

26. Hmmm... viewed from space, isn't our planet just a little blue dot?

Seems that would include "all the colors on the planet", doesn't it? ;) :grouphug:

[goclark]

28. You make every day special Sapphire BLUE nt

[bobbolink]

55. "Big Blue Marble" ^_^

Sadly, I've come to find out, it's just a generational thing.

MOst younger ones weren't affected so much by thaT pivotal revelation.

sigh....

[demgurl]

43. Talking about looking away....

I have this Pink Floyd song on my fridge. It is there to remind me how lucky I am, how much others need my help, and how I should live my life. I now never turn away from someone on a street corner or a bench.

On The Turning Away

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we wont understand
Dont accept that whats happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or youll find that youre joining in
The turning away

Its a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that were all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
Its not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that therell be
No more turning away?

[Sapphire Blue]

47. Thank you so very much for not turning away

:hug:

:toast: to no more turning away!

[demgurl]

48. Well thank you for your original post.

It is always nice to see something positive posted anywhere. It is very easy to fall into a trap of negativity. Thanks for being positive and an inspiration. :toast:

[faithnotgreed]

27. kicking for love (and "food not bombs" would be great too)

second harvest is supposed to be a good place but just in case i wanted to pass along another organization that has been amazing (and among other things worked quite hard in the midst of katrina devastation even when other "sanctioned" groups werent there)

and of course please do anything you can for or with your local homeless shelters
and then certainly there are animal shelters needing support too but to me thats just a natural part of reaching out in love
and not meant to hijack the thread of giving food or whatever we can to those in great need - and who are largely and intentionally ignored

thanks sapphire
its great to see you and thank you for spreading LOVE as you do

[Sapphire Blue]

29. So many ways to help our neighbors... lots of links here, too...

http://www.bread.org/learn/links.html

:hi: Great to see you, too, and thanks for including Food Not Bombs (http://www.foodnotbombs.net/)!

[faithnotgreed]

34. oh exactly - many ways to reach out and give

thank you for including that link to food not bombs
i should have but again i didnt want to interfere with your wonderful post and suggestions

thank you friend
its threads like these that can help counter all the destruction

[Sapphire Blue]

40. Your suggestion is a very valuable & appreciated addition to this thread!

Here's to countering the destruction :toast:

[EFerrari]

32. Getta load of this. My mayor, Gavin Newsom, ran on

his plan to fix homelessness.

So, I just called the Mayor's Office of Housing and Commmunity Dev, and asked, what plan or strategy is being put into use for our homeless residents during this heat wave?

"You gotta call his office."

"So, your office has no knowledge of a plan?"

"No."

"Thanks. I'll call the Inner Sanctum."

I feel on OpEd piece coming on. :evilgrin:

[EFerrari]

33. Okay. I have called the Mayor's Communications office

and notified them of my intention to write on our homeless programs with regard to the heat wave.

Let's see how they do.

Imho, it's just a good question to raise. And I will write something for OpEdNews.

SB, you troublemaker. :loveya:

[Sapphire Blue]

41. Excellent question to raise!

Raise some hell while you're at it! :evilgrin:

[EFerrari]

42. I will be fair and balanced.

:rofl:

[bobbolink]

56. Please post here when written!

I really want to see it!

Thanks!

:pals:

[Zhade]

49. Kick

(and is there a way to help the poor innocent Lebanese, too?)

[Sapphire Blue]

50. Posted in the OP:

http://www.wfp.org/english