It is a well known historical trend that as discontent and dissent spread within a society, the power structure will look to demonize unpopular or weak minorities in order to deflect frustrations away from the true culprit, the power structure itself. Many feared in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 that Muslims would serve as such a scapegoat, and indeed in many ways this occurred, although not to the extent that many feared. In my opinion, it is homeless people that are being increasingly demonized and treated as subhuman. I think that if we want to see how the state and crony corporate status quo will treat everyone in the future, all you have to do is look at the current “war on the homeless.”
If you think about, the homeless actually serve as the perfect scapegoat for a former American middle class slowly being driven into serfdom. Still completely mesmerized by the religion of consumerism, how is a population losing its freedom and financial well-being supposed to feel better about itself. The easy answer is to look at an even more destitute class and treat them like the “elites” treat everyone else. Like a superfluous and unfortunate outgrowth of humanity.
I strongly believe that it is just as important to show compassion for the least fortunate within society as it is to fight against the incredibly corrupt establishment. Failing to do so makes you no better than they are.
From ThinkProgress:
After feeding the hungry in a Daytona Beach park every weekend for more than a year, it’s just as easy to imagine Chico and Debbie Jimenez given a ticker-tape parade as what they actually got: a slew of citations and a permanent ban from the park.Chico and Debbie Jimenez, a husband and wife team, aren’t handing out food in the Florida heat every Wednesday because of a court order or for a paycheck. They do it because they believe helping the poor is their religious duty.
Every Wednesday, the Jimenezes feed more than a hundred people a hearty lunch with dishes of chicken patties, macaroni salad, and fresh vegetables, among others. The meals are entirely funded by private donations and staffed with volunteers.
However, Daytona Beach is one of a handful of cities that enacted ordinances barring individuals from serving food in public. Last week, nearly a half-dozen police officers showed up at Manatee Island Park, where a long line of people had queued to get a meal, and served citations to the Jimenezes and volunteers.
According to the group’s Facebook page, Chico and Debbie, along with four volunteers, were each given multiple 2nd degree misdemeanor citations. The fines totaled $373 per person, $2,238 for the group. The police also permanently banned the group from Manatee Island Park. “We both have made a lot of good friends in the park and are devastated that we are banned the Manatee Park forever,” Debbie wrote. “I am heartbroken.”
Can’t arrest a single banker, but police sure are good at stopping citizens from feeding the hungry. Sick.
Daytona Beach is just the latest city to crack down on groups that feed the poor in city parks. Other recent examples range from Birmingham to St. Louis to Raleigh to Philadelphia to Orlando. A 2010 report from the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty identified more than a dozen other cities with restrictions and found an uptick in the number of new ordinances.
The Jimenezes, who both left jobs more than a year ago to focus on ministry full-time, were upset about the developments, but told the News-Journal that they planned to challenge the citations rather than pay them. “We are ‘ NOT Criminals ‘ and feeding ‘ Hungry folks ‘ is not a crime,” the couple said.
I’ve written several articles on this theme in the past. I suggest checking them out:
The Homeless in NYC Are Now Living in Tiny Spaces in the Frame of the Manhattan Bridge
Illinois Church Told by City Officials it Can No Longer Provide Homeless People Shelter
South Carolina City Implements Law That Requires a $120 Permit to Feed the Homeless
Acting as a decent human being is increasingly becoming criminalized in America.
To update George Orwell’s famous statement for modern times:
In a world of universal narcissism, being a compassionate person is a revolutionary act.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Power and greed. People in public office act like Joseph Stalin.
Sadly, this is a common theme of police action under corrupt states. Everything is about power. Nothing is about principle. Whoever can be bullied will be bullied no matter how specious the legal justification. Whoever has more power will remain untouched no matter how deserving of prosecution.
I bet the SPLC supports the various ordinances whole heartedly even though their name would suggest the opposite.
This could be a real “freedom riders” moment to nullify clearly oppressive laws. It would frost the SPLC…or give them a chance to live up to their name.
Jesus haters are insane – to hate your creator and His creation is just insane – “For as surely as you did NOT do it for the least of these, you did not do it for Me…” It is not what we do which damns us, but what we do not do…and when we do not love we are anti-love and God is Love. But here is where the rubber hits the road – Jesus had compassion for all, even His enemies, so much so that he would die for them, and remember when you too were estranged, at enmity with the self-sacrifice of Jesus, and strangers from the Covenants of Promise…for the Promise was to One, which is Christ. God hates covenant breaking – and those of us who have signed on with Jesus need to remember that the obligation, the COMMAND, is to love and to forgive all, just like Jesus, and not to judge according to the flesh.
Compare these two scriptures, one from the Masonic King James Bible, and the other a direct translation from the Ancient Aramaic scriptures.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
For we are his creation, whereas we are born through Eashoa Msheekha as works of grace, those by which from olden times Allaha favored us.
This is where a lot of the “problem” arises – are we born AS works of grace, or TO good works? The Books were written to set you free, then tinkered with to enslave you to a 2 dimensional relationship with God, bound in skin…and it is the Roman Catholic Circe which has largely been behind this sullying of the Truth, and the promulgation of the hell deception, its trump card. This move toward Police State is simply part and parcel of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire setting up its fourth Reich – the fourth Empire of Daniel coming to fulfillment. Living in Germerica is not going to be fun. But in the end, no one gets away with anything, and no good work will go unpunished…
BTW – here is what you do with such fines – you bless them and call them an offering and say something like, “Father, this person is your creation just as I am, therefore they are your responsibility so I give them into your hands to do with as you will and I declare that your will be done in their lives and also in mine.” Now the thing is, if you bless those who take from you, it becomes as a hot coal to them – by releasing them you release yourself from the consequences of their sin and involve the Father – and it is a fearful thing to be in the Hands of the living God. You can be a soldier for Christ (which is a mistranslation) or a co-worker who does the greater works…and do yourselves a favour…ask the Holy Spirit to show you all the doctrines of devils and traditions of men you have been leavened with by the Pharisees…it is an eye-opener…or read “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom…
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There is no reason for a charity to feed a homeless person.
We do not need Churches, Temples, Mosques, or others like
that involved.
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It is far better to hire Federal and State union employees with pension and benefits to feed the homeless.
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. This way we raise employment. The employment rate goes up.
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The homeless do not need free help, they need Federal and State
employees.
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Good point!
So, you could PAY a bunch of federal employees to give food to the homeless (thus it costs the tax payer more: food + wages) or you can let community charity volunteers take care of the homeless. Which is better? A paid federal employee just there to fill in the hours, or a person who cares enough to do this of her or his own free will? It was always God’s intention that we individuals look after the less fortunate in society, rather than delegating that responsibility to government employees. Not only would the homeless be more blessed by the more personal service of volunteers, but the volunteers themselves will be blessed through the opportunity to serve their fellow man.
The employment rate might go up if you use federal employees to feed the homeless, but since feeding the homeless is a non-productive non-profit activity, it won’t actually help the employment situation. It’s better to use the money to fund private entrepreneurs to create business opportunities and employment.
You are right in-so-much as we do not need churches, temples or mosques, but neither and more so do we need Federal Governance of “Charity” (which is an old word for acts of love) by what is in effect a National Socialist Government. What we do need is for each and every person to love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind and strength, and also, just like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. If you serve mammon, then God help you…
Until the whole world awakens up to the Truth there will always be some neo-Darwinian dunce who thinks survival of the fittest and selection is “natural”, therefore let the Government take care of it, which is like saying, “Let ME get on with my life while someone else is paid to take care of the problem – now, let’s see what’s on reality TV!” Oh,. there’s a coffee colored man with winning words and someone just Biden his time next to him…
People who want the State to take care of everything are like Ben Franklin’s folk who choose security over liberty – the big joke of course is that he was a 33rd degree Jewish Mason and helped put the CON in the CONstitution – he was not warning, he was prophesying…so delight in your comforts and desires for now, for soon you too will lose your liberty and your comfort and your security – Ben said so, and he would know…and what is more, as far as he was concerned, you deserve neither…
The sad part is that these are they who say that they are Jews, and are not, and do lie, but are a synagogue of satan, the adversary. They are the same mob who killed their own God and who portray him as being prophet instead of the only begotten Son of God. Their leavening is in the Vatican and in every Church in the world, but when Babylon falls baby, you had better have some charity going on, or it will be outer darkness and gnashing of teeth for thee…selfish goats…
Question: Why have you chosen to express your ignorant, hateful, psychotic ramblings on the website of someone who has a Jewish father? Haven’t you felt the presence of Satan while reading my words?
You are a sad creature and this site would be better served without your insane commentary. Take your nonsense elsewhere.
Best,
Michael Krieger
Duh? Hateful? We all have a “Jewish” Father”, He’s called “God” aka YHWH, aka Allaha, Elohim, yada, yada. I have a Jewish wife and my mother was of Jewish stock but that too is irrelevant as in Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free and we all descend from Adam though Noah. Besides, is not Krieger a Kraut name?
The Book says not to know anyone after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and I am confident that all Israel shall be saved, just as all of God;’s creation shall be renewed from the Head, which is Christ. I also know that the whole world will soon turn against Israel and I think you misapprehend my “psychotic ramblings” filtering them through your victim mentality.
People think Truth brings reconciliation, it actually brings division, and a sword, as in “Think not that I have come to bring peace upon the world, but a SWORD!” There is only one God, and He is the original Jew if you want to put it that way, and He came to His own, and His own rejected Him…
Seems like a lot of you are missing the point here, my guess is you don’t live in a major city. There are services and places for homeless to go to get three hot meals a day, and have a place to sleep. Laws like this exist to get them to go there, not sit around loitering constantly harassing people for spare change and food. These fines are helpful but should be supported with an overnight stay in jail, panhandling should be just as illegal.