Reply #24: Hi, Plant! [View All]

[Hidden Stillness]

All the individual acts of "charity" in the world will never make up for the Republicans slashing to oblivion every organized Federal and State program that might have helped the interrelated problems of poverty, homelessness, lack of nutrition, mental health and drug/alcohol abuse (most mental health deterioration occurs after the person has become homeless, and has lost the ties to society and structured life, not before). The old Republican game of turning the charge around whenever anyone criticizes your merciless cuts to social programs--"You are not solving the whole problem yourself, and 'therefore' you are a hypocrite, and you and the neo-con are 'the same' "--doesn't work the way it used to; people are getting sick of the sound of it. What is needed is for rich people to pay enough taxes, as the people want, that we can have programs, run by professionals, who might help the poor and homeless, with all of their problems. One-fourth of the homeless, 25%, work 40 hours a week, full-time, at minimum wage jobs. The only thing that will help this societal problem is a Government that wants to solve it.