It distresses me that the USA spends more money on its war machine than on helping its poor... its a disgrace to civilised values...
Josh, Habitat is a great organization as well. I helped on three houses a couple of years back. One of the nice things about Habitat is that the people who end up owning the house have to put in time helping to build it. Plus they assume a low or no interest loan on the property, so there is a sense of ownership. On the negative side, every jobsite I was on had to deal with both vandalism and theft. Tools and lumber were favorite targets. It is really too bad, in one area Habitat built two houses and the neighbors stole. The other area was a complete Habitat Community, 10+ houses and at times I really wanted to just say screw it. So no matter what you do to "help", there is a real negative that goes with the positive.
man, you guys hit it right on the head... there are a million good reasons to help children - it's not usually their fault that their parents are deadbeats...and children under 14 hardly ever use whores, booze, or drugs, so you can be confident that most of the $$$ you give them will not be spent on such distractions... it's unfair to the children that have to pay for their parents' irresponsibilities... as for that war machine, OUR VERY ECONOMY DEPENDS ON IT. i'm not proud of it, but the little things that you and i are used to - cheap gasoline, terrorists, dick cheney - are all critical to our way of life. we have taken the easy road that even a guy like dick cheney - a man so pasty, so dainty, that he would be totally unable to survive in a third world nation - could go down. not that i want to be living outdoors or anything like some afghani rebel, but i think that our disposable attitude towards everything, whether it be styrofoam, energy, people - starts us down a nasty road with dick cheney behind the wheel, takin' us to mcdonald's and then out for custard. if we all ate mcdonald's and custard every day, we'd be fat and get heart attacks like dick cheney. our whole plastic-wrapped, disposable culture has to change. we need to be more submissive to the fact that people are supposed to be able to live on the earth indefinitely, not for like 1,000 years following the industrial revolution... think about where the money that runs the war machine and gets politicians elected comes from. it sure as hell doesn't come from farmers or the humane society. you want these things - you gotta have war. war war war. WAR!
Is that your example of typical "hunger" in America?? I am originally from (former) Czechoslovakia where general level of income was (is) much lower,yet, there were no hungry people. Starving population in the U.S. is non-sense.
For me that does not have to be a typical example. A sample size of 1 is large enough of a problem for me to be involved. But actually, that type of abuse and exploitation of children is very typical. Not just here but worldwide. If you feel better not believing it that is fine, people deceive themselves all the time. In fact, if the US was not so heavily involved in donations of food not only to its own citizens, but people all over the world things would be much worse than they are now. http://www.stopthehunger.com/hunger/ But what is really non-sense is not knowing your own history. We all drink from wells that we didn't dig. Where would you be now if everyone shared your attitude? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 1938, Poland participated in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Smigly-Rudz marched his troops into the disputed enclave of Teschen. In March of 1939, Hitler forced President Emil Hacha to surrender CzechoSlovakia to German control and made Bohemia and Moravia into a German "protectorate." Slovakia gained nominal independence as a satellite state. Ruthenia was awarded to Hungary. After the outbreak of World War II, Bene set up a provisional government in London, and Czech units fought with the Allied forces. Except for the brutalities of the German occupation, Czechoslovakia suffered relatively little from the war. In April of 1944, Soviet forces, accompanied by a Czech coalition government headed by Bene, and American troops entered Czechoslovakia. The fall (May 12, 1945) of Prague marked the end of military operations in Europe. Soviet and American troops were withdrawn later in the year
I got a PM from 42 members interesting in doing something in their communities. That's a lie, it was one but every bit helps. Here is a link that offers up all sorts of volunteer opportunities by zip code and topic. http://www.volunteermatch.org/
I actually watched TV this evening ( rare occasion now) and i saw a segment on 60 minutes concerning hunger in america. it focused on these poor working people in ohio who can't feed their families. it really made me think--- some of these people earn way less than i spend on my cars, let alone all the other luxuries. for the first time in my life, i actually feel bad and realize that i ( we ) have it really really good. It probably took them a long time to find the worst case scenario. Of course hungry individuals are everywhere in the world and there is nothing wrong with help. I just don't create a picture of the world (so to speak) from what media or politicans serve me on TV. How you figured out my level of knowledge of history is beyond my understanding. Regarding kids they are the only ones worth of help. When I was a kid I was beat up by my violin teacher regularly. Unfortunately I didn't have a size back then(LOL). (My mom thought I deserved it. )