The Poverty Forum

[question everything]

Most of us just visit, read and post on GD and the other "big forums."

But I want to call your attention to the Poverty forum

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=230

which really should matter to most of us.

[Sapphire Blue]

1. K&R!!!!! Thank you for posting this, question everything!

I've posted in the Poverty Forum, but it doesn't seem to get much traffic. If you're trying to bring attention to an important issue, well, GD has more traffic, thus more visibility... but often poverty threads tend to sink quite fast.

I recently posted a link to another DUer's Poverty Forum thread in GD; one person replied w/a "Thank you' & said that they didn't even know DU had a Poverty Forum! So, again, thank you for posting this thread, question everything!

With 37,000,000 people in this country living in poverty, and more slipping into poverty w/gwb's every breath, we really do need to start caring for one another and taking action on behalf of one another. To do anything less is not acceptable.


Something that I posted a while back...

Then they came for me... (an updated version)

First they came for the welfare mothers, but I did not speak out; I wasn't a welfare mother.

Then they came for the union workers with union busting tactics, but I did not speak out; I wasn't a union worker.

Then they came for the minimum wage workers, by refusing to raise the minimum wage, but I did not speak out; I wasn't a minimum wage worker.

Then they came for the unemployed, setting stricter eligibility standards, but I did not speak out; I was not unemployed.

Then they came for the homeless, reducing funding for low-income housing, criminalizing sitting on the street, criminalizing sleeping in public, but I did not speak out; I was not homeless.

Then they came for the hungry people, reducing funding for food assistance programs, but I did not speak out; I was not hungry.

Then they came for the Katrina victims & survivors, but I did not speak out. I couldn't speak out. You see, several weeks before Katrina, I lost my job, I lost my car... I had no money & no way to evacuate. I drowned in the flood.

[question everything]

3. I am familiar with the original version, of course

but reading yours sent a shiver down my spine.

Thank you! Sapphire Blue

[Sapphire Blue]

7. ..

:hug:

[EFerrari]

8. I was taken back this morning. There was a mudslide

about half a mile from the SRO where we lived for about six months.

It's not a bad place as far as SROs go in San Francisco. But I'll never forget how during those six months I felt completely apart from the rest of the world -- a world I still had to interact with somehow as I had a teaching job at a local college.

We were in some similar but alternate world. It's really strange to be refugees in your own home town.

/oops

[Sapphire Blue]

16. Feeling apart from the rest of the world... in a similar but alternate world... refugees...

... in your own home town. So many people are there right now... invisible to this world where people look, but do not see... swept by the likes of the Giulianis of this world into oblivion through the ongoing assault of gentrification. Pretty it all up for the rich, damn the poor. Damn the poor.

[EFerrari]

25. If you had seen us on the street,, you'd never have guessed

our real situation -- unless you know how to look. Unless you can spot the wear and tear of constant anxiety or notice the tunnel vision, narrowed to deal with the next hurdle.

It is a different planet, isn't it. A smaller, circumscribed, frightening one. I remember feeling so much relief when we had enough dough to have lunch and dinner, too. And I remember several owners of greasy spoons that let me sign until payday. Unknown, unsung good guys.

I've never written about that year. Doug did but he glosses over so much, maybe because to this day he blames himself, shames himself.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ALL OF US}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{SAPPHIRE BLUE))))))))))))))

[Sapphire Blue]

26. They say the eyes are the window to a person's soul... and you can see it...

... if you look into a person's eyes... it's all right there if you just look. You might even see your own reflection there.


(((((((((( ALL OF US ))))))))))

(((((((((( sfexpat2000 ))))))))))

[Dammit Ann]

34. Recommended!

This is so important. Fighting poverty is our gmost important cause. Of course, if you are like me, you are used to it. ;-)

[EFerrari]

2. K&R

Thanks, question everything!

[Nutmegger]

4. Giving this some R and K love!

:loveya:

:hug: to you.

[orleans]

5. thanks for the heads up. (i didn't know there was a poverty forum) n/t

[EFerrari]

6. I didn't either for the longest time.

:kick:

[question everything]

36. Neither did I. But I wanted to post some stories

and did not want them to sink in GD, so I looked at the very long list of forums and found it.

[NMMNG]

9. K&R

This definitely needs more attention than it gets.

[papau]

10. K&R - and reposted in EDITORIALS AND OTHER ARTICLES - this needs as

much exposure as possible.


The posting in Editorials/other articles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x265674

[theHandpuppet]

11. K&R!!

:kick:

[marmar]

12. K&R....

:kick:

[Sydnie]

13. K&R n/t

[Irishonly]

14. K&R

[veness]

15. k & r. n/t

[Jim Warren]

17. Good thought

I do get a little caught up in only reading the tempest that GD can sometimes be.

I'm gonna head over and change up my routine, thanks.

[porphyrian]

18. Kick for the Poverty forum, and for one day not needing it. - n/t

[mntleo2]

19. Kick!

:kick:



And I thought I was the only one of a few who care about poverty in America and its devastating results on families. I liked what SFexpat said and it is true, poverty is a different world, it is almost another country right under your noses. Thank you Sapphire for bringing this thread to my attention. :loveya:



My 2 cents
Cat In Seattle <----welfare advocate and volunteer at http://www.wroc.org which is a 501C can always use some lonvin'

[Warpy]

20. Shameless K&R

so everybody knows where it is.

I'm not poor any more, but poverty was recent enough that I remember the boredom and indignity that went with it. This forum is necessary.

[Czolgosz]

21. K & R

[mntleo2]

22. Harborview and My LTTE

Yesterday it was posted on DU about and article in Seattle's newspaper (the PI) saying that our public hospital, Harborview, was quietly doing credit checks to make sure that poor people are poor and the well to do are not cheating and saying they are too poor. Here is the letter I wrote to the editor

Dear Editor:

I was amused 10 years ago when my employment used insurers for a nearby hospital to Harborview who evidently assumed a family's big night out would be waiting in a sparse waiting room for hours with several other ill families on a Saturday night with nothing but a torn financial magazine, a broken Tonka toy, and a fish tank. This insurance company complained that families were "abusing" their coverage as if we plotted for ways we could jack up their costs. I wanted to tell them that I confess, they were right, a Saturday night with a sick kid gasping for breath and a temperature of 102, oh yeah, it was like going to Disney Land all right ~ and I could hardly wait for that quality family time to come around again so I could "abuse" my insurance..

Soooo, now Harborview is checking low income patient's credit to see if they are really poor. As if the poor would lie about being poor or the well to do would want to come to Harborview and are too cheap to visit the doctor they know and can afford. Harborview admits with this new system in place, it shows that a huge percentage, 73%, are not lying about their financial situation. If we had a national health care system in place, Harborview would not need to do this and they would have enough staff, enough beds and enough medical care to care for whomever came to them without such nonsense.

Meanwhile corporations are resisting national health care for reasons that are a mystery to me. Instead of enjoying the benefits millions of other enlightened citizens and businesses do in other parts of the world, they foolishly resist this idea while taking their employment opportunities overseas in droves. Or they refuse to cover their workers because of the rampant runaway of health care costs, so they say. The taxes corporations should pay anyway for being allowed to BE corporations and their workers, could in tandem cover the costs and it is a win-win situation for all

The problems being illustrated around Harborview's attempts to cover costs proves the desperate need for a better health care system. When oh when are we going to get national health care in place?

Cat Sullivan
(address and phone included)

[EFerrari]

29. Good for you, Cat, and thank you for speaking up.

It means so much. :yourock:

[Jcrowley]

23. k&r

[Cleita]

24. Thanks for drawing attention to the Poverty Forum.

Everyone who is one paycheck away from being homeless needs to partake in the discussion here.

[AbbyR]

27. Odd this post appeared today...

I work in Dumas, Ark. It's a town of 5,300 or so, and all of those people are still alive. That, to us, is a miracle, because two tornadoes ripped the town apart on Saturday, and today, we are rebuilding. This is a town in the Arkansas Delta. Most of our school children are on free lunch, and the food pantry does a bustling business.

Three of our major employers were destroyed. One of our grocery stores is gone and about 80 percent of the business district is demolished. Our boil order was just lifted, and if we are very lucky, the lights will be back on tonight. The substation was destroyed, but the electric company brought in a portable one. But no one - not one person - died or was seriously injured.

Three local churches and a local bank are feeding people all three meals. Bottled water was shipped in by the Red Cross - they are here too.

This is a poor little town, but we will rebuild, and we will survive.

I read the poverty forum daily. It always hits home, when you live in the Delta.

[EFerrari]

28. Wow. That does sound like a miracle.

:hug:

[donsu]

30. I saw the news about your town - wishing you well

nt

[question everything]

37. Thank you for posting

I know of too many selfish conservatives who do not "believe" in free lunches for kids at school. Someone needs to remind them that today's kids some day may be their care givers at the nursing homes. May even be their heart surgeons.

[butterfly77]

31. I usually check into the poverty forum every week...

and I always wonder why there are not that many post about the growing homeless population. I saw a crawl at the bottom of the screen this morning about the large number of homeless but the media doesn't pay much attention to it. I was shocked to see how they were throwing people out of nursing homes and puttin them on skid row. This is suppose to be the richest and greatest country in the world.
BULL!!!

[EFerrari]

32. kick

[manic expression]

33. Can we have an anti-capitalist forum too?

because capitalism is what creates poverty.

[BlooInBloo]

35. If the implication is that not participating in the Poverty Forum means...

... that we don't care about poverty, then that's just asinine.

[question everything]

38. Why would you draw this conclusion?

As you can read from some of the comments, most of us were not aware of this forum. And if you do go there, you can see that all of a sudden there are many new posts there, compared to previous weeks.

It was just a suggestion for DUers to visit that forum on occasions. I am sorry that you took it as an insult.

[BlooInBloo]

44. Because of your "which really should matter to most of us."

[EFerrari]

41. What?!

Are you feeling attacked in some way, Bloo? No one here seems to have that intention. :shrug:

[faithnotgreed]

39. a big love kick and a recommend

[BluePatriot]

40. K&R

[Cobalt Violet]

42. K& R.

:kick:

[nam78_two]

43. K&R

Agreed-I visited it a few times when I first registered but it seemed very quiet, so I stopped visiting.
But you are right, it is a very important forum and we all need to visit it more :kick:

[Reterr]

45. k&r.eom

[ismnotwasm]

46. Another kick

I've been away for a while, and I'm most happy to make this my first post!

[faithnotgreed]

47. and another

[bobbolink]

48. Thank you so much for caring! We poor folk feel very alone, very isolated

and.... well, like we just don't count.

I will add... please go to the poverty forum every time you visit DU, and recommend the posts that really strike your fancy.

Too many important issues in the Poverty Forum never see light of day because so few people read that forum, and by the time they get around to seeing the posts, it's too late to recommend, so they aren't seen on the greatest page.

THANKS! :toast: