To politicians who put the whims of the financial elite ahead of the needs of working families:

[Political Heretic]

Corrupt, you're corrupt,
and Bring corruption to all that you touch.

Hold, you’ll behold,
And be holden for all that you’ve done.

And Spell, cast a spell,
Cast a spell on the country you run.

And risk, you will risk,
You will risk all their lives and their souls.

And burn, you will burn,
You will burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell.
You’ll burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell for your sins.

And our freedom's consuming itself,
What we've become is contrary to what we want
Take a bow.

Death, you bring death and destruction to all that you touch.

Pay, you must pay
You must pay for your crimes against the earth.

Hex, feed the hex
Feed the hex on the country you love

And Beg, you will beg
You will beg for their lives and their souls.

Yeah,
Burn, you will burn,
You will burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell,
You’ll burn in hell, yeah you’ll burn in hell,
Burn in hell, yeah you'll burn in hell for your sins.

-Muse, Take a Bow

[bobbolink]

1. I like you posts very much, but I have come to a divide.

When all people can talk about is people who are working, I WON'T recommend, and I WON'T take them seriously.

I am in a terrible snowstorm today, and don't know how in the world I am going to make it through another 36 hours of this. I doubt this will have a very good outcome for me. I know it doesn't matter to others one bit, and that hurts me deeply.

YET, no matter how much I speak up about it, "progressives" insist on repeating the popular meme, "working poor". As I keep saying, what the hell are those of us supposed to do who are too old, too sick or too injured to work? Conveniently and quietly fall off a cliff, so we won't disturb the rest of you?

I am going through a living hell that most don't want to even hear about. Yet, right here in this town where I am, there is finally a move by the local clergy to get a low-income housing unit established.

GET THIS.... HOMELESS PEOPLE WILL BE EXCLUDED. IT IS ONLY FOR "THE WORKING POOR".

NOW can you understand myy frustration and anger?

What does it take?

Do you only just want me and thousands like me to disappear?

[caseycoon]

2. What I truly wish

is that everyone could try to live under the conditions you are living for just a month.
In the winter.
Perhaps then & only then they would understand what you, and so many other homeless people go through every day & every freezing night.
For me, I think it would be hell.

[Hannah Bell]

3. +100.

[Desertrose]

5. I don't know how you do it, bobbolink.....

I honestly don't.I can't imagine how it would feel.....

No one has a clue unless they can walk in your shoes.*sigh*



God I wish I could do something for all those suffering...so needlessly...and I wish to hell I could wake all those up who don't care......

:hug::grouphug:

[Political Heretic]

6. I'm not currently employed either.

So don't die on this hill.

You don't have to be currently employed to be part of a working class family or working class yourself.

You "work" just to survive. Struggling to keep shelter, to have adequate food and provisions, to take care of family and loved ones - that's work.

You work for every step you take. Working is about more than employment.

If I happen to run into a local agency that is excluding homeless people and labeling itself as only for the "working poor" I promise you I will rage on them.

[dajoki]

28. HOMELESS PEOPLE WILL BE EXCLUDED. IT IS ONLY FOR "THE WORKING POOR"

That is just unbelieveably bigoted. I can't pretend to know what you are going through although I hope you know that I wish you the best, but I do know what its like to be left out. I fall into that too sick to work category and my wife just lost her job so there is no way we can be considered "working poor". We still don't know how this will affect us but I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

[Cerridwen]

4. "Working families" = the "worthy" poor. All others in poverty...

not so much?

PH, I don't honestly think you believe that, do you? Only those in poverty who've "proven" their "worthiness" are the ones to be helped and supported?

It's a "blind spot" I see on DU and within my community all the time. The "middle class" are becoming "poor" but they've "always worked hard" so it's not their fault they're becoming "poor" so we must do what we can to save the "worthy" former middle class. The implication in that is that those who are poor now or who have been poor for some time have "never proven" their "worthiness" for our attention, time, and resources.

If someone is in poverty, but hasn't "proven" their "worthiness" we can point at them and note that the poor sucker doesn't have "God's Grace" therefore, well, ya know, they aren't "worthy."

It also appears, that only those in poverty with their families are the "truly worthy" of all the poor. Of course, that "worthy family" notion can be adjusted based on skin color. *sigh*

Did you see the video of the teabaggers harassing the gentleman with Parkinson's? Pretty ugly. According to his harassers, he's one of those "unworthy souls" who've been thrown in our face and held up to contempt. Fortunately for him, he has a Ph.D. from Cornell. All's right with the world. He's one of the "worthy" poor and afflicted.

It's an ugly double-standard. I hope, PH, it was but an oversight on your part.

I also hope, that some day we'll leave behind the hierarchy or "worthiness" and move closer to an ideal in which poverty is not equated with character flaw/sin and can be addressed as the result of systemic punishment of some ("unworthy") in the name of the many ("worthy").

I so hope I explained this well. *sigh*

[leftstreet]

7. +1

What you (so very politely) said

:applause:

[Cerridwen]

12. Thanks, leftstreet.

I apparently wasn't quite polite enough. *sigh* Damn, it is so difficult to discuss things in text only. :( Well, text with the occasional smiley. :)

[caseycoon]

8. You are SO right!

This 'worthy' 'unworthy' attitude is so cruel. I cannot understand it at all! Do they think that all people over 65 who are poor and/or homeless didn't work & pay taxes all their lives? Or the severly disabled are not 'worthy' of assistance. I wonder how they treat their older relatives?
Thank you for this post!

[Cerridwen]

13. Thanks, I *do* try.

"Try" is I think the operative word. :(

[Political Heretic]

9. I'm not going to stop talking about working class families.

Because I don't accept that doing so is necessarily exclusionary.

Furthermore, I am unemployed and technically homeless right now - so I feel like I've earned the right to talk about working class families if I want to.

I frequently refer to the poor as the poor, I sometime refer to poor and working class Americans, and I've written more than my fair share about homelessness and joblessness in America.

Talking about working class americans isn't about excluding anyone struggling without adequate resources.

[Cerridwen]

11. My post was not intended as an attack nor was it intended to say

"stop talking about that." It was, quite simply what I stated it was; a request to remember the worthiness of all those in poverty so that we don't *make invisible* those who don't fit certain "norms" and/or "standards."

I'm truly sorry if you read it as "stop saying that" or as an attack.

Neither of those were my intention.

[Political Heretic]

25. Fair enough, and I agree with you.

[bobbolink]

14. Pretty much the same response given when people ask others not to use the "R" word.

I guess sensitivity is too much to ask.

I'm saying that you are hurting me and thousands of others.

Your reply is "Tough."

I don't get what it costs you to be more sensitive and more inclusionary.

[Political Heretic]

24. See post #6

[bobbolink]

26. Saw it. Pretty much the same as any defensive reaction

I repeat..... there was nothing in what I said, or the way I said it, to receive that much defensiveness.

I was reasonable, as was my request.

That you can't honor is the same as people who defend their use of other discriminatory words.

I hope that someday you will be able to see that when someone says your words hurt them, that it doesn't cost you anything to adjust your approach.

That's what makes for PEACE.

I have said all that is needed, and it only gets more defensiveness and justification, so peace to you.

[Political Heretic]

27. well, I'm sorry you feel that way :(

[Odin2005]

10. Yep. I have had assholes call me a lazy slacker because I have trouble holding a job...

...because of my Asperger's Syndrome. I am one of the "unworthy".

[Cerridwen]

15. Hey, Odin. Oh, yep, the "assholes."

Reminds me of an experience I had. I'll try to keep it short.

I was working a job which didn't pay enough to cover my bills; not outrageous bills, just the usual, insurance, gas, food, etc. A "friend" and I were talking and she asked how things were going with the job. I explained the job was going well but it didn't pay enough to cover my bills. Her response? "Yeah, but at least you have a job." Whhhhaaaaa?

All that mattered to said "friend" was that I was now "worthy" of her concern because at least I had a job and was "proving" myself.

[Odin2005]

18. It's the Calvinist mindset.

Those who work hard are the "Elect" who will be saved and everyone else deserve their misery because God has damned them.

[bobbolink]

19. Sadly, "progressives" have adopted so much of this, and fail to see it.

So often, what we condem in the RW, we then do ourselves.

We dirtyhippiecommiepinkobums knew this, and always looked for our own complicity.

That is now passe.

:cry:

[Odin2005]

22. Yep.

When I suggested once that technology increasing productivity should be letting us work less for the same amount of income even supposedly "liberal" people were dumbfounded.

[Cerridwen]

21. Exactly!

I hate to post that because it comes off as an attack against Religion rather than as a statement about "religion" and its influence on our "collective values."

"Those who work hard are the "Elect" who will be saved and everyone else deserve their misery because God has damned them."

Followed by, therefore the "Elect" are so "successful" because of "God's Grace." Sounds suspiciously like the "Divine Right of Kings" and/or "God's Chosen Few."

[Odin2005]

23. Social Darwinism is just Calvinism without God.

[conscious evolution]

29. Its meant to sound like that

Dog whistle bullshit.
Its a 'secret code' used by riechwing politicians to speak to the 'faithful'.To you and me it sounds like sunday school soundbites but to the 'faithful' such codewords pack a lot of punch.

[bobbolink]

16. I'm sorry. It must be a difficult struggle.

I am really saddened that people who believe so strongly in "peace" cannot understand and honor the power of words to hurt.

I hope there is soon more understanding for all of us. :pals:

[Odin2005]

17. Thanks!

:hug:

[sam sarrha]

20. worse than most think, the bottom 80% americans only hold 7% of Americas Financial wealth, th Health

Care and Petroleum corporations are now fighting over the scraps that ar left over..

this is criminal
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html


GOP is a Psychotic Cargo Cult of OCD Wealth Hoarders, they believe that wealth is the Measure of God’s favor of a man, therefore it is a sin to tax a Rich Man/Corporation. the poor are being punished by God, therefore it is a sin to help them. and they use Mafia tactics to enforce their ideology to keep the money/power coming.

Psychotic Oligarchs think anything they do to horde more wealth is ordained by God, anyone they hurt deserves it..

the GOP is a Psychotic Cult.. their ideology Kills People, men women children in their quest to Horde more and more needless Wealth/Power... they are mentally ill. they should be identified, isolated and prevented from breeding. we cant take much more of this.

every wall street win-fall transaction should be taxed like us winning the lottery.. take it out before they get it, a minimum tax for over a million income, no loopholes. use the money to pay tuition for college for the poor and a Manhattan style program to free us from foreign oil and fossil fuels in a generation.

[That Is Quite Enough]

30. Love the song and the band. And I agree.