Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries

[preciousjeni]

I'm going to post this story again because it is valuable:

I was just talking with a coworker yesterday about poverty. She started out on welfare and was raising three children on her own. She didn't have enough money or time to get educated and had to make do with a low paying job and little funding from the government. She and those like her who have little education often make poor life decisions because they don't know what is available to them. It becomes oppressive and breeds hopelessness. So many people in poverty are either depressed or angry. The angry ones sometimes resort to criminal activity to take what they need. The depressed ones fall further and further away from any chance of a better life as they settle into what they believe is all the only life they can achieve.

The coworker I was talking with is one of the few from the circle of people she grew up with who now has a decent job and good benefits for her family. She told me that she came to a realization that everything is a choice and she was making bad ones. How did she know this? Because she enrolled in the Welfare-to-Work program when it was still going strong. Through that program she began to realize how she could mold herself into the person she wanted to be, despite the hand that life had dealt her.

This woman still has not been able to go to college. She desperately wants to but she cannot qualify for loans because of her bad credit and other sources of funding are in short supply.

FYI, JWithers, the man who coined the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" did not believe in God's constant involvement in our lives. The Bible tells a very different story - one of humility, compassion and sacrifice even for the most wretched and undeserving of us.

[JWithers]

Originally Posted by preciousjeni

I'm going to post this story again because it is valuable:


This woman still has not been able to go to college. She desperately wants to but she cannot qualify for loans because of her bad credit and other sources of funding are in short supply.

FYI, JWithers, the man who coined the phrase "God helps those who help themselves" did not believe in God's constant involvement in our lives. The Bible tells a very different story - one of humility, compassion and sacrifice even for the most wretched and undeserving of us.

Jeni.

If we all got what we truly deserved we would all be in hell. I thank my God every day for His grace and mercy and for the sarifice of Jesus Christ, that we need not pay the sins of for our evil hearts , but rather are forgiven through Him.

And I am still not going to buy the argument that education is out of reach. I know too many people who have done it despite the roadblocks.

Again, and I am so tired of repeating this. I am not advocating the starvation and annihilation of poor people. I am not suggesting cutting off food stamps. I do not hate poor people, nor do I hold them in contempt. What I do find odious is people who blame others for their problems.

I did not have internet when I applied for my grants and scholarships. I called for forms, filled them out and mailed them in. You can still do that. Lack of internet is not an excuse. Good gravy, people- If you want to help people, you must teach them to be self-sufficient.

You can keep digging for excuses why people won't do for themselves but I'm not buying it. I did it. Every bit of it, With NO, did I say NO, help from anyone. I was smart enough for college, so I was smart enough to go through the drill.

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by JWithers

You can keep digging for excuses why people won't do for themselves but I'm not buying it. I did it. Every bit of it, With NO, did I say NO, help from anyone. I was smart enough for college, so I was smart enough to go through the drill.

Didn't you say in another post that you asked your guidance counselors at high school? Sounds like getting help from someone else to me...

[JWithers]

Originally Posted by centaur532

Didn't you say in another post that you asked your guidance counselors at high school? Sounds like getting help from someone else to me...

Free help. Available to any public HS student. I never asked someone to pay for me or do my work for me. I asked what I needed to do and I did it. Again, an example of getting your info and taking charge.

But probably I am priviledged. I will bet the GC only gave me the addresses b/c I was white. You are right. I am so priviledged and elitist. I am sure if another student had gone and asked "hey, I haven't got money for school, what do I do? ", and they weren't me, they would have told them "gee, I can't help you" What an idiotic thing to say.

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by JWithers

Free help. Available to any public HS student. I never asked someone to pay for me or do my work for me. I asked what I needed to do and I did it. Again, an example of getting your info and taking charge.

But probably I am priviledged. I will bet the GC only gave me the addresses b/c I was white. You are right. I am so priviledged and elitist. I am sure if another student had gone and asked "hey, I haven't got money for school, what do I do? ", and they weren't me, they would have told them "gee, I can't help you" What an idiotic thing to say.

What the christ? dial down the anger issues before you blow a fuse. Jesus...

By the way, it's privileged.

[JWithers]

Originally Posted by centaur532

What the christ? dial down the anger issues before you blow a fuse. Jesus...

By the way, it's privileged.

Not angry. Just tired of repeating myself to a bunch of zealots who read only what they want. Y'all need to get a life. I'm out. Morons.

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by JWithers

Y'all need to get a life. I'm out. Morons.

Says the person who's spent her day making 'not' angry posts in this thread. Mmmmhmmm.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by JWithers

Not angry. Just tired of repeating myself to a bunch of zealots who read only what they want. Y'all need to get a life. I'm out. Morons.

INTERNET FLOUNCE!

They always come back!

[BetteDavisEyes]

Originally Posted by JWithers

If we all got what we truly deserved we would all be in hell.

Wow. I don't know if this is the funniest statement I've read or the most ignorant.

[JWithers]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

Wow. I don't know if this is the funniest statement I've read or the most ignorant.

It means that none of us deserve God's grace or salvation. We can't ever earn such a thing. Salvation is a gift we can never be worthy of, but He has given it to us just the same. (How great is that???) If we got what we really deserved, well, you know the rest!

And it was meant to be sarcastic, and yet so so true.

Now, it is Sunday and I am stepping out of the firing line for the day.

[Drolefille]

Sure.

They always come back.

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

Sure.

They always come back.

They all float down here.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by centaur532

They all float down here.

DAMMIT

Now I'm going to have "IT" flashbacks thank you very much.