Did you hear about the twenty-something overnight technology millionaire named Peter Shih? The one that thumbed his nose at everyone in San Francisco, with special animus toward the poor in his midst.
San Francisco has some of the craziest homeless people I have ever seen in my life. Stop giving them money, you know they just buy alcohol and drugs with it right? Next time just hand them a handle of vodka and a pack of cigarettes, it’ll save everyone some trouble. I’m seriously tempted to start fucking with people and pay for homeless guys to ride the Powell street cable cars in the middle of the day, that ought to get the city’s attention.I liked the editorial comment by the Uptown Almanac:
Peter has been crushing it lately. Peter's start-up is seeing exponential growth. Peter is raising money. Peter is raising hell. Peter is about to hire a growth hacker. Peter is king.
But San Francisco is bringing Peter down. San Francisco is allowing mentally ill, drug-addicted homeless people abandoned by society to be in the same 49 square miles as Peter. Peter does not approve. Peter just wants to make apps for other Peters, call out some women for being bitches, and put the world's issues out of Peter's mind. But Peter is a visionary. Peter is an innovator. Peter is going to disrupt the city's blindness to Peter's problem with homeless people by paying the homeless to hang out with tourists. Peter will solve homelessness for Peter.Sounds like an Ayn Rand devotee. Those arrogant twits think themselves gods.
Not to be outdone by a rich slacker, cities in Florida and South Carolina have made it a crime to be homeless. Yes, make sure the people already deprived of every dignity face losing their freedom.
City council members in Columbia, S.C., recently voted unanimously to criminalize homelessness.
Concerned that Columbia has become a “magnet for homeless people,” and that businesses and the area’s safety are suffering as a result, council members agreed on Aug. 14 to give people on the streets the option to either relocate, or get arrested, according to the city’s “Emergency Homeless Response” report.
Cooperative homeless people will be given the option to go to a remote 240-person bed emergency shelter, which will be open from September to March. The shelter will also be used as a drop-off for people recently released from prison and jail, too.Let me walk you through the math. There are more than 1600 homeless people in the Columbia, South Carolina. The city is a building a 240-person minimum security prison for the lucky homeless. The police will supervise all coming to going away from this newfangled "shelter." The even less fortunate will be carted off to city jails. Nothing opens up job opportunities like a criminal record.
I take it there are few followers of Christ in South Carolina. How could there be a real presence of Jesus in a place where so many affluent people blame their business and personal insecurity on the poor? It is not possible. You cannot claim to love an unseen God and mistreat people you see in need. Jesus made it abundantly clear that we are responsible to care for the people crying out for help.
“As small business owners on Main Street we see first hand how the homeless crisis is affecting the city,” Jessica and Joe Kastner, owners of Paradise Ice, said according to the report. “Unfortunately it seems the people who make their living off of caring for the homeless are the ones making all the noise at these meetings. They've had 20 years to fix the problem and it has only gotten worse thus ensuring their paychecks stay safe. Please think about the everyday citizens, the revitalization of Columbia and the safety of everyone.”The Christ-less business people accuse organizations serving the poor of not solving economic disparities that leave some homeless. Although there are few economic opportunities for the poor, mentally ill, disabled, or suffering with an addiction, business owners are demanding more tough love for the less fortunate.
Here is a member of Congress from the great state of Oklahoma by the name of Markwayne Mullin. Mind you, he said this during a town hall meeting with his constituents:
In a video of the event posted by ThinkProgress, the freshman Republican said he was in Crystal City, Va., buying groceries in a nice but crowded store when he noticed something strange.
"Every lane was open and it was backed up and I noticed everybody was giving that card," Mullin said, apparently referring to the electronic benefit transfer cards most states use to distribute food stamps. "They had these huge baskets, and I realized it was the first of the month."Wait, it gets better.
"But then I’m looking over, and there’s a couple beside me," Mullin continued. "This guy was built like a brick house. I mean he had muscles all over him. He was in a little tank top and pair of shorts and really nice Nike shoes. And she was standing there, and she was all in shape and she looked like she had just come from a fitness program. She was in the spandex, and you know, they were both physically fit. And they go up in front of me and they pay with that card."
Mullin knew what he'd witnessed. "Fraud," he said. "Absolute 100 percent, all of it is fraud. There's fraud all through that."So this privileged politician claims that anyone who is not physically or mentally incapacitated should not be not be fed. Ironically, this man also claims to be Pentecostal Christian. He seems to think the spirit of God only moves among the economically secure. It does make you wonder where this man got the idea that what Jesus taught is less important than believing Christ will give you eternal life.
This is also the America that enslaves young people in crushing debt and economic despair.
Researchers from Northwestern University found that adults ages 24 to 32 with high financial debt are more likely to have poorer self-reported health (both mental and physical), as well as higher diastolic blood pressure. (Diastolic blood pressure is thebottom number on a blood-pressure reading; WebMD defines it as indicative of "the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats").
"You wouldn't necessarily expect to see associations between debt and physical healthin people who are so young," study researcher Elizabeth Sweet, assistant professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said in a statement. "We need to be aware of this association and understand it better. Our study is just a first peek at how debt may impact physical health."The young are being robbed of their economic and health security. Christ would be so impressed.
We are repaying the gift of God's bounty by allowing the affluent to increase the suffering of the poor. America has become vicious in the 21st century. Fear the rapture, folks. The Lord is coming and He will not be smiling.
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