Sunday, August 13, 2006
Welcome
Welcome to Faith, Hope and Charity Ministries blog. We created this blog to inform everyone of where we are and what we are up to. We would first like to thank God, all our supporters, and all the people already involved. We believe the cycle of poverty can be broken and with God on our side we can direct the changes that are necessary to effect these changes. God bless America and God bless each and everyone of you!
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2 comments:
Hi.
This comment is directed at the "Public Service Ad by Google" that first appeared at the top of this blog.
It says: "Help Rebuild Lives and Communities in Hurricane Affected States".
That just irritates me.
[open vent]
Excuse me, but until a few months ago I lived in a relatively small community of Central Texas that exists in an artificial economy bubble on the fringe of a military base. (But that is a subject for a different vent!) A couple of years ago, I met a young man in his early 20's who became a victim of the 89 day layoff policy of a temporary agency and ineligible for unemployment benefits (the utter lack of worker protection in this state, is also a subject for a different vent).
He was also ineligible for public assistance while he was between jobs basically, because he was not a single mother. Because he had been living paycheck to paycheck, he knew he was going to get evicted from his apartment before he got his next paycheck, assuming he got another job right away. He had to go to the emergency room to get insulin for his diabetes because there were no public assistance programs in place to help him.
This young man is just one example. There are literally thousands of people in this young man's shoes, right here in Texas.
I did a lot of research in an effort to try to find this young man some kind of help.
In the course of my research, I learned that basically, unless one is a single mother, there is no public assistance available to you. Forget about it, especially if you are a single white male. (Which I am NOT, by the way.) Just don't get hurt or sick or become down and out, and if you are, dig your own way out of it.
At the time of my research, there were over 300 perfectly good vacant homes, "VA Repos" abandoned by deployed or discharged military personnel in the community where I lived. Yet the list for housing assistance was over three years long.
There were people in the community ON the housing list and living on the streets waiting for assistance at the time Hurricane Katrina hit.
All of the people ALREADY on the housing waiting lists and ALREADY IN NEED were told "Sorry, no room in the inn", but the hurricane victims were given those homes for $1.00 ONE DOLLAR PER MONTH. AND HIRING PRIORITY FOR JOBS...
And the people already in need in the community were bumped further down on the lists.
Now, I don't want it to seem like I don't have any compassion for the needs of hurricane victims, because I do...but I just think it is wrong that the Hurricane victims were given priority placement among the already homeless and jobless of certain communities.
Not only did they receive an incredibly generous outpouring of favors but the Hurricane victims were already getting special financial assistance from FEMA! Each and every one of them was handed a $2000.00 check if they came from the right ZIP CODE. They got their temporary housing paid for AND they got their homes and businesses repaired or replaced courtesy of the FEDERAL government.
If you are working and lose your job due to layoff or illness or injury...if you get burned out of your house...if your car breaks down and you can't afford the repairs and lose your job... who is going to hand YOU a check for $2000.00??? Unless you have short and long term disability insurance, homeowner's or renter's insurance, health insurance (can you afford all of that??) NOBODY. If you are living paycheck to paycheck with no savings, basically, you're screwed.
Oh what's more, in the course of my research I found out that in 2004 there was $6,000,000 in Federal Block Grant money sitting in the Texas treasury chest ear marked specifically for homelessness and disability relief programs that was about to get reabsorbed into the general coffer because it had been sitting there for 2 years and NOBODY HAD WRITTEN TO REQUEST THE GRANT MONEY. HELLO? Shouldn't that have been somebody's JOB at the Department of Health and Human Services?
[close vent]
Thank you for your comment tigergem.
I too share your frustrations, it is one of the reasons I started FHC Ministries.
The American econmomy can and has raised billions of dollars from private, corporate and government level donations in the blink of an eye when it comes to disaster relief. It is something we should be very proud of.
However, we should be ashamed that our greatest natural disaster goes on with no disaster relief.
This disaster is a daily way of life here in America. The disaster you mentioned and the disaster I am talking about is one and the same that you mentioned in your comment about the google ad. This disaster can only be called poverty and the plight of the American Blue Collar Worker.
52% of all American's are effected in some way by poverty every day in their life, these are the same American's who step to the plate when America calls them to help in disaster aid such as the victims of the hurricane Katrina.
I am calling on all American's to step up to the plate and rescue America from the devastating effects of poverty.
Thank you for doing more than playing lip service to the plight of the American worker, and thank for the time you spent with us today in this world wide web. Reverend Thomas
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