PB~another totally insightful article dude! And I love your quote. For me, I have experienced what I like to think of as small miracles on this site. I have literally chatted with more conservatives (I only know five conservative ones in real life) here than I ever did before in my entire life. I have become quite fond of around ten bloggers~folks I chat with regular-like. I have become friendly with a blogger I used to think of as a reactionary (I see her a bit differently now). I have been inspired to actually go out into the world, and DO a little something about homelessness~instead of merely just writing about it. I mean, I consider several folks here my friends. So no sadness or regrets. At least~not at the moment, huh? . Thanks for writing this one! I think you are an important voice here!

~MadPoet

PB~I'm sorry more folks are not reading this one. Like Sally and I said before~it is a most insightful article. Well, don't lose hope, huh? Your heart was in the right place, and that's what always matters most (IMO). This is a very generous article. And most of yours are. I remember how you said you like to stir up the pot a little bit sometimes? When I first came here~I purposely did not tell my entire story because I sensed it would not be all that welcome, or even understood here. When certain folks have a winners and losers kind of mentality~and the homeless, folks on welfare/SSI, and most liberals  are all considered to be the whiny little losers of the world~what is the true point of honestly telling your story then? Your honesty will only be turned into something quite negative in the end. But if Silence = Death (as you have so wisely stated before), is it not better to share your story with other JU bloggers~even if it means that many will resent, and even openly ridicule you in for it the end? (Have you taken a peek at My Horrible Life yet? Very funny stuff! .) Is it not possible that a few might actually begin to see the situation a bit more clearly? And appreciate your story accordingly?

Well, actually~have you noticed all the whiny little articles (written mostly by conservatives) my own whiny little liberal one inspired big time! . I stopped counting after five (I think a brand new 6th one was just posted today?). So many insinuations about me are floating around JU right now. I'm a fraud. A liar. A parasite. Schizophrenic? (That's a new one, huh? Then I guess that generous spirit was actually saying that I truly am disabled then, huh? .) Blah, blah, blah.

Folks are complaining that I have accused them of lacking compassion and being quite indifferent to the plight of the homeless and poor in this country. That it is not appreciated at all. And in the meantime, more and more articles about evil and opportunistic homeless folks (and folks on welfare and SSI~especially myself)  are being posted daily. And just like you~it makes me mad. It makes me sad. It makes me want to cry. Because I have worked with the homeless big time. And most of what is being written here about them is so grossly distorted as to border on caricature, huh? And that is what it means to be truly indifferent.

I mean, I was a volunteer at a homeless newspaper office for close to a year. (I have made several attempts over the years to work and do volunteer stuff. But the stress of it all always causes me to become even sicker than before. But I keep on trying~even though my doctors say I am unable to work ever again.) I edited the homeless paper. Organized and taught a creative writing class. Helped sign up homeless folks to sell newspapers, and eventually know the joy of watching them get enough money together to finally rent a room for themselves, and get off the street. (Which they earned big time by selling the homeless newspaper for up to 10 hours each day. In the hot sun. Lazy?)

So I know their hearts and minds. And they are nothing like they are being described in so many of these bitter and indifferent threads. Parasites? Criminals (scamming innocent folks out of spare change)? Lazy? Filled with self-pity? Oh, I think not. They are very good people who just like LittleWhip~had a terrible run of bad luck, and suddenly found themselves on the streets without more than a few bucks in their pockets. And many of them worked their asses off selling the paper~till they had enough money together to rent themselves a room, and get off the street at last. Some were Christian. Some were agnostic. Some were old. Some were young. Some were straight. Some were gay. Some were fat. Some were skinny. But most were very good folks. I never met one that came even close to being as bad as some of these articles will attempt to make you believe. I mean, it is a little bit sad then, huh?

This is the last time I will be talking about my disability on here in any in depth sort of way. I simply refuse to be so open and honest about it anymore~when it is quite clear that I will only be judged harshly for it in the end. I will write about other disabled folks (I am now becoming friends with a homeless schizophrenic I recently befriended in the park~and would like to share some of his amazing story soon), but as far as my own situation is concerned. I will leave that one alone big time. It simply causes certain folks to stick to the personal, and avoid the political big time. And that is not helping the situation at all. So no more sad and heartbreaking tales of my horrible poverty and  laughable mental illness for you to enjoy, huh? . Just my observations and day to day life stuff (Lisa, going back to school, helping out the homeless directly and indirectly as best I can, maybe even a poem or two, etc.). I am actually feeling rather liberated by my decision. Because much was learned from this experience. The homeless and folks on government assistance are not only nearly invisible to the more fotunate among us~but as one astute (and very generous) blogger put it~they are barely even human (or alive) anymore. Now that is what G.B. Shaw was trying to say in his quote:

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them~but to be indifferent to them. That is the essense of inhumanity"

~G.B. Shaw

PB~I am very grateful to you for writing this one here. I doubt that many will read it though (or even leave a comment). Yet I would love it if I am proved wrong about that. Big time! . However, I think your words here are a bit too close to the truth for comfort (IMO). And only caricature will do, huh?  Thanks for all your special insight. And don't ever lose your great spirit. I think you are one of the most beautiful folks I have ever known.

~MadPoet

It has had the same effect on me.  I have learned a lot about people and life in general.  I have learned that we all have issues, and that a lot of the time whilst the corcumstances might be different, the issues are the same. 

You gave me a new perspective on things last night...I went back and re-read a lot of articles this morning, and I can see a disintegration.  I still stand by my original opinion, though.