Do DUers care about the poor?

[question everything]

Last week I posted the following

A modest proposal
Posted by question everything in General Discussion: Politics
Mon Jul 16th 2007, 07:48 PM
Look at the amount you have contributed to your candidate and use the same amount to donate to your local food bank or homeless shelter. And keep doing this each time you send your candidate more money.

This is really embarrassing. The candidates have raised - what - $300 million this year? Do we know how many people we can feed and shelter and provide medical care for that amount of money?

How many jobs we can provide - fixing the infrastructure of this country?

Yes, I know. Most came from fat donors at a $2,300 a pop, and perhaps there are some DUers who contributed that much.

But even if your contribution has been $15 or $20 - do match it with a donation to the poor.

Please.

========

Not a single comment, not a single response.

I have to wonder whether DUers really do not care about the poor, the hungry, the homeless. Come Christmas they fall over themselves pushing a charity. But people are hungry and sick year around.

As for myself - last year I decided not to contribute to the Red Cross after reading that it was fined $2 million.

However there has been a series of fires in the areas and the local chapter of the Red Cross is running out of funds. So I used the opportunity to send them money.

[philosophie_en_rose]

1. Surely not. After all, not paying attention to you means that DUers hate poor people.

[PDJane]

2. I am one of those poor folks, thank you...........

I don't donate because I can't.

[iamjoy]

3. That's A Good Idea

Interestingly enough, while John Edwards has not asked this directly, his campaign has a program called "One Corps." He asked his supporters to do community service. Many groups have done canned food drives and the like.

so, to answer your question...

[Midlodemocrat]

4. I am so sick of this.

Just because people don't respond to a thread means DUers don't care about the poor?

Disgusting.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. The local food kitchen/shelter is run by fundamentalists

So no, I won't be donating to them. I don't like the idea of having to "pay" for a meal via listening to a sermon. But I will continue to donate directly to poor people who need my help. To my mind, that is a better way of doing things because you know the folks and know exactly what they need. And sometimes it is a helping hand doing something, or a service rendered for free, rather than a cash donation.

[theredpen]

7. Have you checked with Catholic Charities?

I don't know if you have any Catholic presence in your area, but if there are only faith-based relief organizations, Catholic charities is pretty non-proselytizing (or at least it is supposed to be).

I don't mean to say that Catholic Charities is better than your direct approach. For other people who have some extra money, but not extra time, it can be hard to find a good organization to support. I just thought I'd toss this suggestion out.

[bobbolink]

6. To directly answer your question: NO, poverty issues aren't a priority on DU.

Yours isn't the first poverty issue post to sink like a rock, and won't be the last. There simply isn't the interest.

DU can rack up hundreds of responses for a "DU this poll" thread, but "Call/Write About This Poverty Issue" will sink.

Many have tried various means to get attention to poverty.

It simply isn't sexy enough.

Where's the outrage?

[theredpen]

8. Edwards is talking about poverty

And that's getting some play in the main forums.

[bobbolink]

9. "Some play" By the few who care.

Try requesting action on a bill. drops like a stone.

Poll after poll about the most important issues. Funny--rarely see poverty there.

It's a lot of fun being invisible.

[theredpen]

10. I wish I could say something inspiring

...but there are some other pressing issues.

There's a war in Iraq that is destroying this country in a variety of ways, and economically is one of them. You think poverty is bad now? Wait until the dollar craters.

What I'm saying is that I hope there is more inherent concern for poverty in the DU community -- or "the left" in general -- but that attention is being drawn to some rather dire situations that may even make poverty worse.

For me, poverty has become like a "treat." For four years, I've seen no progress on ending the war, but I can always go to my parish hall food pantry and see some actual good being done. My wife and I are going on a vacation to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. We've saved up to have a good time, but for every dollar we spend on food there, we have decided to give .50 to the food pantry. It will probably take us 6 months to meet that commitment, but it's going to do some real good.

[bobbolink]

11. You worded the attitude exactly. Thank you. People in poverty are invisible and dying for it.

Never mind that MORE PEOPLE ARE DYING OF POVERTY IN THE US than in the war.

It's not "pressing".

[theredpen]

12. I don't think that comparison is fair

People are dying from the conditions of poverty, right here in the "richest country in the world." (Are we still?). That's tragic, but they're not dying because someone took a power drill to their body for a couple of hours before slicing their head off. That's a leading cause of death in Iraq, thanks to our war. Starvation and other effects of poverty are also killing people in Iraq, thanks to our war.

Thanks to the situation we created, all of this will get worse before it gets better, but our involvement there is prolonging and intensifying it. We need to leave.

With the money we've spent on the war, we could have built everyone in New Orleans a brand new five bedroom mansion. Veterans are coming home and creating a new source of homeless. Thousands of military families are on food stamps. These are consequences of the war.

I'm with you on poverty as a critical issue, but it's really unfair to insinuate that people who are focusing their attention on the war are heartless or don't care about poverty.

Other issues that are getting a lot of attention include single-payer health care. A single-payer system would benefit the poor enormously. Probably the #2 hot topic right now is the Constitutional crisis being forced by the Bush administration. If we let the rule of law slip into oblivion and become the country the Banana Republicans want us to be, then the poor are going to become de facto slave labor force; there won't be any helping them then.

Keep the torch lit, bobbolink because when these issues get resolved, the crowd will be back in the anti-poverty camp. I'm confident of that.

[bobbolink]

13. You're right.... our deaths just can't compare.

How very silly of me to think it should matter.

This hurts tooo much to continue this conversation, so the rest of you can talk about how our deaths just don't matter.

Have at it.

bye

[theredpen]

14. All deaths matter. All life matters.

What do you want bobbolink? What are you dying of? You keep talking about "the poor" but this seems to be about you.

[Midlodemocrat]

15. It is.

All about her. And nothing you say will be enough for her. These threads sicken me. There are constant complaints about how DUers don't care about the poor because threads sink.

Never mind that those posting such garbage have no idea what posters do IRL to help the poor.

It's nauseating and tiresome.

[AngryOldDem]

16. I'm watching a thread of mine slowly sink into the GD morass....

RE: Remembering the homeless during the heat wave. I first raised it in the Lounge, thinking it would be better received, then someone there suggested cross-posting it to GD.

Kinda sad when a post on a story linking oral sex to throat cancer gets more response than something that calls attention very real and serious problem for the vulunerable population, but I take encouragement from the fact that at least 102 people have read it and may do something, yet not post a comment.

That is my hope, anyway.

EDIT: Grammar

[bobbolink]

17. I think you answered the OP's question...

Most DUers aren't that concerned about poverty.

Boil, froggie!

[cutlassmama]

18. there are a lot of political donations because they come from

lobbyists, big corporations, big pharma, etc. that want return favors if the candidate is elected in office. Most contributions do not come from "average Joe".

Like someone else said, just because someone does not reply to a thread does not mean they don't read it and think about it.

Just today, I've read over 100 threads and made only 2 posts.

[dropkickpa]

19. Nope

In fact, there is still a lot of disdain for the poor here. I see it again and again, such as people telling me that everyone they know has substantial savings, and the fact that NO one I know does means people in Pittsburgh just aren't as conscious about the need for conservation or frugality as the people in SoCal are. To me, that type of thinking boils down to the same old "They're poor because they're stupid/lazy/ignorant" shit.

I usually give money to a local soup kitchen 2x per year, once when I get my income tax refund and once when I get my yearly salary increase retropay, though unfortunately that isn't happening this year (just got it, but it's all going towards increased expenses here at home). I NEVER have extra money around xmas, what with the holiday and Dropkids b-day falling in the same month, not to mention that first winter gas bill doozy.

I rarely contribute money to political candidates, I just can't afford to and can't justify it to myself when my meager contribution goes so much farther at the soup kitchen than it would in some already wealthy persons "war chest".

[NMMNG]

20. Don't you realize?

If you just stopped giving the kid birthday and Christmas gifts (you're only spoiling him/her anyway), went without heat (put on another sweater, or two or three), and learned to eat less (privation is good for the soul) you could have one of those "substantial savings accounts" everyone talks about. :sarcasm:

[Naturyl]

25. Yep, poverty is an issue the right-wing has successfully ruined.

Mission accomplished - even Democrats now subconsciously repeat Republican talking points about poverty being the fault of the poor, and "welfare" has become a dirty word on both side of the aisle.

It's over for poverty issues in America - it can't be talked about productively any more. Even Edwards is being hurt big-time by his principled commitment to raise the issue - it just motivates people to make fun of his expensive haircut and call him a hypocrite.

[Cleita]

21. Many say they do but when it come to

actually helping out in a crisis for a poor person, they back off.

[MedleyMisty]

22. According to GD lately

poor people are just jealous and bitter and should shut up. Plus some really extreme stuff.

I know, it's true that not everyone in the path of fires is rich, and I know some people are sincerely angry about generalizations saying that they are. And I know that some really bad stuff has been said on both sides.

But when there's thread after thread basically saying "I can't help it if I'm rich. Let them eat cake." with lists of all the good stuff that rich people have done one does begin to wonder.

[Naturyl]

26. One does more than just wonder.

In some cases, one begins to think. And when one does that, they realize things like this:

http://naturyl.humanists.net/work.html

That's my own modest introduction to the subject of how we're continually duped and indoctrinated about everything having to do with economics, up to and including our lives in the workplace.

[ellisonz]

23. Yes.

[Naturyl]

24. Some do, but many don't.

Economically, DU is a cross-section of America. Some here are entirely too comfortable to say much about poverty with a straight face. And I never cease to be surprised at the sort of blatant right-wing talking points that are spouted here by some people when poverty issues come up.

I lurked a long time before first posting.