“Riots always begin typically the same way”: Food stamp shutdown looms Friday
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/28/riots_always_begin_typically_the_same_way_food_stamp_shutdown_looms_friday/<...>
“The fact that they’re going to lose what’s basically an entire week’s worth food” each month, said Purvis, “it’s pretty daunting.” She told Salon that while policymakers “are attempting to punish people for being poor,” and “people are comforted by believing that they know that a person has to have done something wrong in order to be poor,” in reality, “I can tell you that more and more folks have more than one job and are still needing help.” (As I reported last week, audio recorded by a McDonald’s worker-activist showed a counselor on an employee hotline encouraging her to sign up for food stamps because it “takes a lot of the pressure off how much money you spend on groceries.”) Purvis added that cutting food stamps was “not even good business sense,” because each dollar of food stamps infuses over $1.70 of spending into the economy.
Some prominent conservatives have questioned the significance of public assistance cuts for the poor. Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kistol contended during the government shutdown that “it’s not going to be the end of the world, honestly, even if you’re on nutritional assistance from the federal government. The state of Arkansas can help out, localities can help out, churches can help out, I believe no one is going to starve in Arkansas because of the shutdown.” Asked about such claims, Purvis said that citing the efforts of groups like hers as a reason not to worry about public assistance cuts was “one of the most ill-informed arguments on the planet.” She told Salon, “the first line of defense against hunger is a food stamp.” While some “have had this way of romanticizing charity,” she said, “charity is also a system that is based on capacity and resources.” Purvis added that politicians “didn’t make any additional resources available to these magical charities that they expect to step in for this devastation that’s geared at the poorest of Americans.”
Purvis said she and her colleagues are “begging” Congress to pass legislation by December to restore the expired funds. Rather than “trying to raise a dollar” to avert disaster privately, she said, a solution will require Americans to “raise their voices,” because “the avenue has to be activism.” In the meantime, she predicted “a very tough Thanksgiving.”
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I don't consider rioting a necessarily evil or destructive thing.
In this case, when Congress is so elite that they can't fathom the needs of the poor and working class and their actions continue to denigrate and punish the poor and working class, then rioting for change is perfectly sane and reasonable. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and, while the media elite and the politicians have been attempting to ignore this squeaky wheel for some time, now, rioting will ensure that they can no longer be ignored.
That said, bless you for your hard work. I can't imagine the poverty you have to see. 
Middle class people always assume they have options the impoverished don't have. A good cul-de-sac liberal would simply call his/her Congressperson before starving 
The problem in this article is the quote was made by the CEO of the NY Food Bank. That's creepy. She should use her position to advance awareness of food insecurity, instead of throwing out a scare-mongering soundbite painting her clients as rabble to get some attention
