May, 2008: Walk in someone else's footsteps.

[Sapphire Blue]

Too many people still think that there is a 'safety net' for people going through hard times. If that's what you believe, you really should check out what is (and ISN'T) available in your own community....

This is a slight update of a thread my mom posted on October, 3, 2007 (http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Sapphire%20Blue/576). I hope that some of you will consider this seriously.


It's Monday, May 19.

Your car broke down 3 months ago. You haven't had the money to fix it, so now you're riding the bus.

You go to work to find out that you no longer have a job.

Your behind on all your bills, including your rent.

You've arrived home to find a 3-day eviction notice posted on your door.

You have $12.68 to your name.

I encourage you to spend one day, just one day, this month walking in someone else's footsteps.

What will you do in those footsteps?




There are so many people in similar (and worse) situations. What can you do to improve our country for all of its citizens?

What WILL you do?


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

[waiting for hope]

1. Thanks Indigo Blue!

This was a real eye opener too - http://www.tv.com/30-days/minimum-wage/episode/425972/summary.html?tag=ep_list;ep_title;0 30 Days: Minimum Wage. I signed up for The Half in Ten initiative - I hope I'll be able to contribute something to the cause, if not money, then my time.

[Sapphire Blue]

3. I'm really glad that you joined Half in Ten, waiting for hope.

And your time is very valuable; it's a great contribution!

I saw that episode of 30 Days; I hope it WAS an eye opener for a lot of people! So many people bitch and moan about not being able to make it on 50K a year; and many of those same people are absolutely opposed to increasing the minimum wage. It makes my head spin!

[wellstone dem]

2. add this

you investigate selling plasma, but the donation site would take a gallon of gas to get to and there is no public transportation near your rural home.

[Sapphire Blue]

4. And that's another reality for many of us. Thanks for adding it, wellstone dem.

[navarth]

5. my friend, you have touched on the basic problem with America

not enough exchange of information between the social strata. The White Man needs to learn a whole hell of a lot from The Black Man. And The Black Man can certainly learn a few things from The White Man.

Our separate-but-unequal society is doomed unless we start being more pluralistic. Need a peace corps for our poor neighborhoods, our inner cities. People of good will have to set the example, but the rest have to get the idea. Ignorance = Fear = Hatred.

[YankeyMCC]

6. I typically only give Recs to Environment/Energy issues but

this hits at the heart of it all, all that gives our lives meaning - caring for others - and is something we all need to remember, so here's a K&R and thanks.

[Hydra]

7. I don't have to walk in someone else's footsteps

I live that.

And it pisses me off to no end to hear people say "We don't need any major changes- I'm comfortable."

If you are comfortable letting other people be taken advantage of, then you won't mind when it happens to you, will you? Oh, is that somehow different?

I keep hoping for change, but I know it won't come until EVERYONE is hurting. Then, it might possibly be important.

[truedelphi]

8. I'm there too.

And I too am amazed how people don't get it until it happens to them.

[Hydra]

12. "It can't happen here!"

and "I'm not lazy- it can't happen to me!"

As George Carlin put it:

"It's a big club- and you aren't in it! You and I aren't in it!...They don't give a fuck about you, at all, at all!"

So, if you aren't in the club, it most CERTAINLY can happen to you.

[truedelphi]

13. It's been fun interviewing for jobs with people who were

Super affluent a few years ago and now have hit the skids.

They tell me, right after they have parked the 3 year old Mercedes, that they can't pay me the going scale - they are having to cut back on daily expenditures. I always wanna say, "SO if I work for you for a year for a reduced rate, do I own half the Mercedes? Or six of your $ 1,500 handbags?"

[Hydra]

14. *chuckle*

Ya, their worst day far better than the best of some of ours.

It's all relative...but it IS funny to see so many not benefiting from Bushenomics, and yet they still say the Left doesn't have the answer.

How many people will continue to vote against themselves?

[Sapphire Blue]

16. Unless and until a majority of people recapture the ability to empathize with others,

... I think you're right; change won't come until EVERYONE is hurting. We need a 'great awakening', a 'great awakening' of the heart... or a whole lotta hurt.

[Hydra]

19. Hurt is easier

Because it's this myth of the "invulnerable nation" that has allowed things to become as bad as they have. Maybe a dose of the opposite reality can wake people up a bit.

[lonestarnot]

9. K & R

[smokey nj]

10. K&R

[butterfly77]

11. Thanks Indigo Blue..

She was way ahead of me "We are the change we have been waiting for".

[Javaman]

15. Sounds like my neighbor. :( nt

[Sapphire Blue]

17. Your neighbor, my neighbor, his brother, her mother, their grandmother. Any one of us.

[Javaman]

18. You're reply sounds like that line from the end of "grapes of wrath".

When Henry Fonda is talking to his mom before he has to run from the police. I don't know the exact quote, but it was something along the lines of, "where ever there is a family starving, I'll be there...etc."