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Alumbrado -> RE: HIV positive man gets 35 year sentence for spitting on officer (5/19/2008 5:08:36 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: MusicalBoredom
Ok here are some real examples. I agree with kitten and I was there, hands on sleeping in a tent at night and working my ass off during the day, in New Orleans after Katrina. I spent my time away from NO here in Lafayette working to set up temporary offices and find temporary work for people. I spent my weekends here setting up a "Music Camp" to give the displaced kids something to do with their time. If anyone thinks that the only people who actually care about people who are in trouble are those that aren't involved then they are mistaken.
I know people abuse the system. I know there are assholes and jerkwads living on the system but then there are assholes and jerkwads who aren't living on the system. I saw tons on "respectable" businessmen come from all of the US to "help" by getting every fed dollar they could while providing very little in terms of benefit for that dollar. There were also people who came from all over who actually did help. There are users and abusers on and off of welfare.
I'm glad I spent my time wading in waist deep "hoax" trying to find bits and pieces of people's lives.
As far there being a huge group of people that live off of the government, there is that group in every city. When you congregate people with little or no income, little or no education and little or no hope into one area you get a ghetto. Every city in the world that I have ever been in, and yes I do travel, has them.
As far as the rhetoric about being Christian, what gets said sometimes makes me want to vomit -- it destroys the name. I don't know what bible you guys read but in the one I read Christ was asked what was truly important and the response was to put God above all else and lover your neighbor as yourself. To me that says do all I can to help out the guy on the street. I try my best to live up to my own morals -- sometimes I fail sometimes I succeed. My spiritual thoughts are about what I should do not about what others should do.
As far as the OP goes, I can't really think that someone who bites and spits in public as a means of "defense" could be considered sane in anyone's book. I don't believe in putting insane people in jail for the crime of being insane.
** Rant Over **
No matter how many times Oprah says that New Orleans was levelled by Katrina, it still never happened.
Now those who went to where enormous numbers of homes were instantly reduced to kindling, and tried to help those folks glue things back together, know what devastation looks like.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48135670@N00/108748122/
http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~bkv04/Data/katrina_aftermath_03.jpg
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/hires-image/katrina_aftermath_-_1.jpg
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/hires-image/katrina_aftermath_-_11.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankenspock/54943040/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frankenspock/54941481/
Here's what New Orleans faced...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slidelldan/450038003/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64514569@N00/128191626/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/macliotr/43151665/
http://www.mongabay.com/images/external/2005/katrina-new-orleans-la-4-08-31-2005b.jpg
Everybody is free to set their own values... in my book, doing something that might harm another person isn't to be dismissed lightly because the person doing the harming has problems, or is old , or is young, or is rich, etc. The response can be mitigated by factors like that, but they are just that... factors, not free passes.
In my book, the people in Mississippi are the real Katrina victims, and defending those New Orleans people who looked at the near miss as a chance to 'get over' on the system is nothing to applaud.
But that's just me.
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