If there's one thing I simply cannot stand, it's poverty shaming.

[Ed Suspicious]

44. That story brings tears to my eyes. What terrible terrible people. What would Jesus say?

I'm not a Christian, but I despise that I seem to follow his teachings more so than many of the self-professed Christians I know. This sort of attitude flows to the children as well.

I remember in eight grade at St. Patrick's catholic school . . . I was a young, fragile, awkward teen with an acne problem. I was new to the school the year before, so I wasn't in any way a part of the in-crowd. My family was poor so we were always slightly out of place at school surrounded by so many who could afford private school without assistance. One day I arrived at homeroom to most of the class enthusiastically greeting me at the door. They welcomed me in. Told me that it was my lucky day. I was to go to the front of the class to open the beautifully wrapped gift they got for me. It was a small box wrapped in red paper with a gold bow on top. I was nervous, but naive enough to not really suspect anything would be amiss. The class gazed upon me at the head of the class as I unwrapped the box. The wrapping paper gave way revealing, to my horror, a box that contained a bottle of Oxy-10. Oh the laughter was uproarious. I cried my teenage insecure eyes out on that day right in full view of the entire class where they giggled and assured me that no slight was intended. The whole ceremony was all done in my interest. Thanks to my class I could finally have fewer zits on my face. They felt so proud that they pulled this off so expertly.

Your story brought me right back to the mean-spirited assholes at catholic school from the Nuns to the priests to the principle, to the teachers, to the students. It was all about pointing out difference and deficiency. It was all about casting out the other.

Fuck them all.