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homeless day 7
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by master_jim2008 | June 11, 2008 at 03:30 pm
368 views | 44 Recommendations | 13 comments
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after i left the motel the hospital paid for, i scored 2 nights at motel 6. my arm was way too sore and swollen to deal with climbing from the front seat to the back to go to sleep, plus vicodin wipes me out to the point of it being dangerous to drive, and i very much needed the pain pills.
i think before i go on, i should explain something. people on another site have criticized me for "claiming to be homeless" yet i have a car, cell phone and computer. i have a cell phone that has no carrier. i use it strictly as a camera. i owned my home and all the furnishings one would expect in home ownership till i was cast out by the courts for not being able to pay my lot rent. it was a double wide mobile home in a park. i got behind on he lot rent because i was laid off at coca cola along with 16 other workers. i own my car, no payments. not having the money to move, and no one showing an interest in buying my home is what caused the court to go ahead and take my home and order me out. i lived in a small town of about 4000 people where jobs are virtually non-existant. the same applies for the next towns north and south of me.east and west of me are just mountains. the whole county of about 44,000 are in the same boat, all hurting for jobs. when i was working, there was not enough pay to cover bills AND put some into savings too. my medical insurance is called CMSP. it is the county's version of medicaid as it is known in most states. it's for low income or no income folks. it's tied to the welfare system. i get food stamps and medical, that's it. no cash aid. it covers my blood pressure meds, pain meds, and doc visits.
i love to work, i love making my own money, and love not having to accept any help, but there are times in everyone's life that they DO need help, and this is one of those times. had i not broken my arm, things would be a lot easier. i had planned to "earn" my way to NC, doing odd jobs for gas money. but now....i don't know what will happen. i know something good will though. it always does.
what i feel someone should do is to establish a national hotline for those who are homeless through mortgage evictions and other economic caused evictions like mine. the hotline would be to bring those people together to organize help from corporations and churches to help provide a place to stay, almost like setting up a kind of "tent city" kind of situation. with an estimated 9 million people forced from their homes due to foreclosure, this is a powerful base (assuming we can organize) that business should not ignore. we will rise again as a spending group, and it would do big business well to help us have spending money again. pipe dream? perhaps, but without those dreams, no one would ever get anywhere in life. granted, many would not be able to give up their jobs to go to this "centralized place" to get help and live, but the ones who do would know better than anyone else what kind of help to deliver to those who can't leave their specific areas.
if any readers of this know of any business execs who would be willing to organize help for those forced from their homes, be sure to have them contact me.
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master_jim2008
Statesville, North Carolina, United States
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (13)
at 15:48 on June 11th, 2008
master_jim2008, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I am glad you got two nights in a motel - and thanks for some background and some of your thoughts on the matter - very illuminating stuff.
at 15:51 on June 11th, 2008
master_jim2008, thanks for continuing to share your story. We wish you all the best. Good stuff.
at 17:05 on June 11th, 2008
You can do like me. The sky is your roof, the ground is your bed. Find a means to leave the USA and you will find home and friendly people to work and support with. The USA is a cut throat lying metropolis. It serves no valid interest to humanity.
at 19:13 on June 11th, 2008
master_jim2008, I like this story. It's good stuff.
In Alameda County, California, we now have a "211" Line, where anyone can call at anytime, 24/7, for any kind of "social service", homelessness included. So, instead of calling 911, a person would dial 211, and would be connected to a Social Worker that will assist that person with whatever service they are seeking: food, housing, medical, you name it. I am sorry you are having such difficulty.
ps: a little known fact. Many major city police departments have what is called "travel funds", wherein they can provide a tank of gas or a bus ticket to where you need to go, if you have hit rock bottom. I was a cop for 10 years, and I passed out many vouchers in my city during my tenure.
Another source is called "Travelers Aid" - they are a nation wide service, you can access them through 411 or the link below. I was able to get a stranded friend back from Arizona when she ran out of money and needed to return to California. They paid for her gas and a motel.
http://www.travelersaid.org/
Good luck!
pss: oh, and by the way, this country is not a cut-throat lying metropolis. maybe Bush has tried to destroy us and led many people to question what has happened to America, but there still are a lot of good, honest, caring people here, and many organizations that try to help, you just have to find the right connection. Do not forget to check with St. Vincent de Paul, Goodwill and The Salvation Army. All three organizations have housing and food services, and employment services here in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I cannot speak for the rest for the rest of the Country. You might also seek assistance through local churches.
at 19:21 on June 11th, 2008
st vincents paid for my night of the surgery in a motel. i'll definitely be in touch with them again. we don't have salvation army or goodwill here. this county is actually pretty bare on help. we don't even have a pawn shop here, or a homeless shelter for men or women.
at 21:26 on June 11th, 2008
Keep on posting. People are reading.
at 22:09 on June 11th, 2008
master_jim2008, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 00:05 on June 12th, 2008
Dear Jim, I would like to help you in some way. Do you have a Pay Pal account?
vkn, feedahungrychild.org
at 00:26 on June 12th, 2008
As difficult as things are right now for you, it is reassuring to see you have a computer and can use it. Today, when one looses their job they can always learn how to do a new job on the Internet. As odd as that may sound... it is very true.
I like how instead of lamenting on the lack of additional social services, you propose a private solution to helping people in your situation. This is inline with the operating of a free market.
Good luck.
at 04:11 on June 12th, 2008
Funny Pixie I lived in the USA for 43 years, and I never was able to have my own home. I had so many jobs while in the US it makes my headspin now when thinking about it. People lay you off work, when you buy a house, and then you can't find a job to meet the expense of the mortgage and forced to sell, and end up losing money in the process is not cut-throat? Or you work at a job and you see people getting promoted ahead of you, because they are selling drugs for the managers at a major bluechip Corporation. So why do I want to work there? I just got sick and tired of being tossed around, in such a wacked society. After seeing a student gunned at Weber State University in Utah, I just didn't realize how much worse it could get. It did get worse, with 911 plowing into my homestate in NY, then seeing War escalate makes one wonder where the hell do I work where I don't support this maniac in Washington DC? People who work in America pay taxes to the War Machine period. There is no stopping that. I have no freedom of religion in the USA. My religion is against War but I see most Americans live in hypocrisy. They will say they are against War, but they gingerly go along with paying for it. What me compromise my principals? Not on your life. And then we witness Enron and WorldCom and numerous other Corporate fraudsters bilk the people from their hard earned life, and really nothing is given to the victims from their fraud. And who gives the lives back to students gunned down at Virginia Tech, and else where when school shootings seem to be a normal everyday occurance in the USA. You can't live in America without your sidepiece. Cut-throat America, you bet it is. If it wasn't we wouldn't have a trillion in deficits going to fight war and terrorism, that Americans refuse to admit they are the cause of it all.
Social Services in America is a joke, making us believe they are there to help people. They have no real resources to solve the real problems in America. Cops would rather throw you in a cot in their jail than give a poor guy help is my experience. And most of the St Vincent and Salvation Army help is for people who are addicts or alcoholics, who never seem to get better. You can keep telling the world the lies of good hearted people, but I sure can not say I found it when I lived in the US for 43 years.
at 06:42 on June 12th, 2008
master_jim2008, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 11:01 on June 12th, 2008
Haha... you type as if you are projecting your bad experiences and unfair shakes unto the U.S. as a whole -- as if failing in the U.S. is the norm not the exception.
This is obvious: private interests are around to make a profit not _care_ about the quality of a person's life... even if that person works for them. Instead, they care about employee productivity which probably reflects quality of life.
The large corporations you cite would have been a lot less likely to harm so many people if it were not for all the power pooled in the Government. Those corporations were able to play upon the Gov power to pervert the marketplace so that they had an unfair advantage. Sure it sucks for this generation, yet we should all be amazed that over time the free market corrects itself... and the time it takes to do so is in inverse proportion to the freedom in the marketplace. The U.S. Government has and continues to pervert our free market to the point that you may just be right in the far future... but for now, you fail to see the reality of the U.S.A. in world history.
We must compare the real with the real... in doing so you will see that the U.S. has done more for more people than any other group in history. Are there problems that cause a loss of our freedoms? Hell yea... but it does no good to go around beating the effects and not the true causes.
We need passion like yours fighting for the side of personal and economic freedoms.
at 16:18 on June 12th, 2008
It is the norm in America Mr. Future Progress. Only 1% of the population controls the massive wealth that is in America. The rest of the population are so called bungling stooges. Let's here your story of success. How many millions do you have socked away in the bank? You are the product of their brainwashing, as they use people like you to support their wealth. Ha ha....I .pity you are not smart enough to see that. I have seen America do more harm than good to the people in history. They are the only country to have used the Atomic bomb and killed thousands of innocent civilians, and then go off invading other countries accusing them of acquiring the bomb because they are considered terrorists for wanting to protect themselves from the madmen in Washington Politics. Then they kill thousands of more innocent people and hang a guy who never attacked the WTC. Come on man REAL compared to Real? You mean real to meal? You mean bomb them and they forget about and HEAL?
They are a perversion of society a broken record that people continually listen too, unable to change the channel, and find truth. They are sensationalists of who can commit the biggest crime, who can make the headlines, who can do the craziest thing. That is America. Its an insane asylum where all the people are prisoners, the difference is they lock up and kill the more dangerous or innocent people they use as patsy's for their crimes. It's one crime scene after another, one more war after another, and who pays for it? The stooges who believe the BS they tell you.
Economic Freedom means to destroy the planet, pollute it beyond repair, do nothing to support the care of the environment, kill for Oil and energy resources, and blame it on the lack of more Democracy in the world. Spread Freedom, means the freedom to kill and conquer, at the pleasure of the corrupt unbalanced powers in politics.Personal freedoms means to have a gun to do your bidding, use the law to break the law, and make excuses to why breaking it is a good thing. Target Americans and blame the outside world is the motto of hit and run politics. Only support Politicians who support the corruption such as Obama, who supports the War in Iraq, while lying he is against it. He does not support impeachment nor talk about the corrupt 911 incident. You are a facade, a smoke a screen society. Nothing but rats lurking and dashing from hole to hole in search of your so called freedoms. It's a travesty.