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Every Monday at 4 p.m., Stephen King fans gather at 2100 Lakeside Men's Shelter. So do readers of Louis L'Amour, James Baldwin, and Malcolm X.

One recent afternoon, they spotted fellow King devotee Donna Kelly as she rounded the corner by the front desk. They followed her down a brightly lit hallway to a locked room, where she dropped her cases of sodas and snacks before backtracking to the shelter office to find a key and announce the start of the book club over the public address system.

Newcomer Marc Zak, a young man wearing thick glasses and work boots, waited outside the door, eager to start talking about books.

"That's all I do," said Mr. Zak who has been at the shelter for two months and favors mysteries, science fiction, and adventure titles. "I just read."

At the end of the recent 2100 Lakeside book club meeting, no one asked Kelly, "When can I see a doctor?" Or, "Where can I get a job?"

They asked, "When do we get more books?"

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

       For those who remain homeless, you have to call it either a lifestyle choice, or a consequence they are willing to accept for other lifestyle choices.

      That said, I donate old paperbacks to a local shelter/homeless outreach a couple times a year.  Some time with a good read might be the best part of the day.

And are you unaware that they have no showers to pee in?

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ORIGINAL: Padriag

Kinda gives you the warm fuzzies an all...

... but the part the got me is the ending... nobody asked for a job or anything... they just read.  So while this sounds like a really nice thing, and for these bums I'm sure its a sweet deal... I have to wonder what, if anything, it is actually accomplishing.  Or is it just another program that has the appearance of doing something, but little practical value.

Its a problem I'm particularly aware of right now because its one I'm directly wrestling with.  I moved to a small town that has problems... drug use, prostitution, homelessness, unemployment, crime.  I came here with the intention of doing something about it.  Initially I felt the problem was that there weren't enough jobs.  The furniture plants which had been the mainstay of the local economy had closed their doors and gone to China.  I became a strong advocate for creating new jobs, bringing in new industry... and I still am.  But having been here awhile, I've discovered that's not really the real problem.  There actually are jobs available, quite a lot of them.  I know of two manufacturers and one other business here who are hiring... or at least they want to... if they can find applicants.  The problem is not enough people are applying to fill the available jobs!!!

Much to my amazement, a significant portion of this lil town is living on welfare.  And they don't want to give it up.  Much of the rental properties have become HUD homes with the federal government (and ultimately the taxpayers) paying the rent.  There's a thriving underground market trading food stamps for anything from cash to drugs to appliances to farm equipment.  There's a local soup kitchen, run by a local church, which hands out free food daily to anyone who wants it... you don't even have to be homeless... hell, there are local construction workers who eat lunch there everyday.  There's no requirement of ID or attempts to get a job (or even to be jobless) to get a free hand out.  Welfare is killing this town, strange as that seems.

So I can just see it now... next we'll have these welfare bums spending all day at the local library reading, because why not... they've got plenty of time what with having no job, no reason to get a job, no ambition, and besides the drug dealers mostly don't come out til after 6 PM.  Lovely.

But hey... they'll be literate, jobless bums!

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ORIGINAL: Padriag
But hey... they'll be literate, jobless bums!

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When you really stop to think about how foolish so much of modern life actually is - and I mean really, idiotic at almost every level - this make far more sense. It's political dissent at its finest.

They are just refusing to live the way everyone else expects them to.

What will you do instead, lock them up?

Good luck with that...

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ORIGINAL: mnottertail

OK, OK...sorry sorry.

I thought this said homeless boob club and I was gonna offer to take 7 or 8 of them in.

Never mind.

Ron

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ORIGINAL: SugarMyChurro


They are just refusing to live the way everyone else expects them to.