My
wife and I frequent a local food store for our weekly groceries. As we
have done often in the past, last week we were in the check-out line to pay
for our food and there we once again had Michael bagging our groceries. Michael always
yells a little over enthusiastically "hello sir" whenever he sees me. It's
not that I know Michael from anywhere, nor are we friends, but since my
wife and I started shopping at this grocery store this past July, I have
seen Michael and have built a little friendly relationship with him. I have noticed since getting to know him, that he is mentally a little slow, dresses poorly and sometimes not shaven. Was Michael in an accident at some point. and had suffered a
brain injury of some type and no longer has the ability to take care for himself? I'm not sure, all I know is that Michael
does not have the level of intelligence to communicate properly and take very good care of himself.
During
other visits to that same grocery store and waiting in the cashier's
line, I have also watched how many other customers treat Michael. Most just
ignore Michael even if he says hello to them. Perhaps those folks ignore
Michael because they have things on their mind. Perhaps they are just
in a hurry, or more than likely, the reason that they don't really pay much attention to him is because they do not wish to
get into a conversation, or to be bothered by a man with an obviously low IQ Score. And
sadly to say, that to often reflects how most Americans hold their attitude towards the poor.
There are literally millions of other "Michael's" here in America that face being ignored and feeling rejected. In America, it is not unusual to see the poor, especially the homeless being bullied, and or being abused and taken advantage of. You may not be one of those Americans who do that sort of thing towards poor folks, but there are plenty Americans that do treat the poor just horribly. In today's world, it seems that If it's not fellow Americans treating the poor with contempt, it's our very own Government who is. With how our economy is today under the Obama and RINO Regime, as I am sharing in the article about how the poor in this nation are being maltreated, perhaps it is your situation of being poor that I am describing here. If you are not poor, then perhaps to the surprise of some of you, I will be quite candid and openly admit that I am one of the poor in our nation. Truthfully, I know what it is to be poor and we that have been in the past, and or are poor yet today, can tell you that we are often abused, misunderstood and treated with contempt. We are also often looked down upon as being useless, and lazy when in fact, many poor Americans could be, and wish to be productive and very useful had we been given the opportunity, or had been given our rightful justice within a corrupted Government Justice System that took advantage of our less than meager situation, then proceeded to take advantage of our financial status and robbed us of our Natural Rights along with our due process when we were wrongfully accused of crime, and or civil complaints. So often, the poor in America are made poorer due to a Government System that purposely keeps them(us) poor.
And I
can also tell you from personal experience that being poor sucks. I don't
state that to try to make you feel sorry for me, and or anyone else who is poor. Again, I
speak from personal experience and also having had lived overseas in a
3rd world country where people regularly die on a daily basis from being
poor(no access to health care, food, money). I have helped the poor overseas and have been financially poor myself most of my life. I have experienced being financially Poor for so long that in fact, that I remember my parents telling me that when they were
first married, they could only afford cheap food such as white bread and
onions so they ate a lot of onion sandwiches(really). In fact my mother
told me that when I was a newborn baby, she would often cry because
they could not afford the coal to heat their apartment and she could see
the steam coming from my breath because it was so cold in the apartment that we family lived in. As my parents will tell you themselves along with many other Americans,
being poor does indeed suck. In the same breath though, they may also very well tell you that the vast majority of poor here in America do not
choose to be poor. Like many poor, my father has always been a hard worker and so have
I. Unfortunately, it has always been those who hold corrupted power, control and finances over us, who purposely attempt to keep us poor. I'm not sure how many jobs Michael, who I
mentioned earlier in the article, holds. But I can remember at times during my life holding down
two or three jobs to make ends-meat. Even with that, I was barely able
to pay my bills and get me and my family nutritious food to eat. Most poor don't work at staying poor, but our Government and greedy people often do their best to keep people poor.
For the unknowing, the poor in this nation costs US Tax payers Billions of Dollars every year. If only Americans really knew what their tax dollars were really doing to, and not for, the poor. I say that because if you have ever been to a " local food bank" or a
"church food pantry" during your lifetime, you would already be aware that most of the foods our Government donates and gives to the poor are filled
with sugar and starches. These foods usually consist of unhealthy items such
as cereals, pasta, white bread, white rice, maybe some sort of processed meat
in a can or jar. Also, frozen hot dogs containing some sort of mystery meat is
another favorite that is handed out to the poor via these Government and other organizations
that "help" the poor. Rarely are the poor here in the U.S. ever given fruits, vegetables and foods
that are healthy for them, and if you ever tell the poor to supplement the food
you give them with "more healthy foods", you will most likely will only be
looked at by them as you having two heads. That is because if they could
afford healthy food to begin with, they wouldn't be in line waiting for
you to dish out that unhealthy food you are giving them in the first place.
Because of that unhealthy food given, the poor often cannot afford the healthy food so they eat the unhealthy or whatever they can find at the lowest cost. That is why you see so many poor Americans with health issues such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Gout, and other health related issues. Now you may not believe a poor person's health status impacts on you personally, but it does. Often the poor cannot financially afford not only healthy food, they also cannot financially afford good medical care either. They often utilize emergency room visits in hospitals to take care of their health issues. They of course often do not pay for these emergency room visits because, well, they are poor and have little to no finances to pay for the services, thus the US Tax Payers are left stuck paying the emergency room visit bill. You may not like the fact that you are stuck with someone else's emergency room visit bill, but the mere fact that you are paying for these preventable medical bills, should give you a clearer idea of the necessity of you needing to help the poor before they get sick. Save some of those Billions of your Tax Dollars from being unnecessarily spent, give the poor nutritious foods, not food that makes the poor (more)sick and you can lower your the amount of taxes you pay. You know the old saying, "an once of prevention..."
Because of that unhealthy food given, the poor often cannot afford the healthy food so they eat the unhealthy or whatever they can find at the lowest cost. That is why you see so many poor Americans with health issues such as Diabetes, Hypertension, Gout, and other health related issues. Now you may not believe a poor person's health status impacts on you personally, but it does. Often the poor cannot financially afford not only healthy food, they also cannot financially afford good medical care either. They often utilize emergency room visits in hospitals to take care of their health issues. They of course often do not pay for these emergency room visits because, well, they are poor and have little to no finances to pay for the services, thus the US Tax Payers are left stuck paying the emergency room visit bill. You may not like the fact that you are stuck with someone else's emergency room visit bill, but the mere fact that you are paying for these preventable medical bills, should give you a clearer idea of the necessity of you needing to help the poor before they get sick. Save some of those Billions of your Tax Dollars from being unnecessarily spent, give the poor nutritious foods, not food that makes the poor (more)sick and you can lower your the amount of taxes you pay. You know the old saying, "an once of prevention..."
Most
poor Americans are not ungrateful for any help that you give them. Most(not
all) are looking for a hand up, not simply a life time of hand outs. It
may be difficult for you to understand that being poor, whether it being
poor financially, emotionally, mentally and or physically is more than
just a challenge for most folks to "get over." Being poor can be down right depressing, and even down right
difficult to overcome. I know personally of this challenge, and as I
shared previously in this article, I have been, and am yet today considered very (financially)poor. I've been
unemployed now for over seven years due to some corrupt individuals in
our own (U.S & N.Y. State)Governments who believed it best to illegally aide an Illegal Alien in Batavia, NY rather than me, an American Citizen. I have had to
live out of cold damp basements, sleep on wet concrete floors, lived
out of a car, I have had as well in order to eat food, need to dig through other people's garbage. I can tell you, like many other poor Americans, I have had to endure some very difficult things in my life just to survive.
If you believe there is a lot of help for poor Americans, you better think twice. Help is most often not available to the poor as you might assume. In fact, many that I have asked for help, even from "Christian" Churches, all but one refused to help. Even though I have had in the past helped feed thousands overseas and helped literally thousands more around the world in the past, when I needed help myself, very few came to help me and I have lost many "friends" because of me being poor and needing to publicly ask them for help. The only reason I am yet alive today and not still homeless, is because of my hard working wife. If it wasn't for her, we would both still be living out of that car. Today, we live in a tiny one bedroom HUD subsidized apartment, don't always eat properly and have many bills to pay, but we are thankfully to be alive.
If you believe there is a lot of help for poor Americans, you better think twice. Help is most often not available to the poor as you might assume. In fact, many that I have asked for help, even from "Christian" Churches, all but one refused to help. Even though I have had in the past helped feed thousands overseas and helped literally thousands more around the world in the past, when I needed help myself, very few came to help me and I have lost many "friends" because of me being poor and needing to publicly ask them for help. The only reason I am yet alive today and not still homeless, is because of my hard working wife. If it wasn't for her, we would both still be living out of that car. Today, we live in a tiny one bedroom HUD subsidized apartment, don't always eat properly and have many bills to pay, but we are thankfully to be alive.
When I see the poor like "Michael" in the grocery store, I understand
about being poor. I see the stigma of being poor carries for not only myself, but poor like Michael and others as well. I have "walked a mile in their shoes", and am walking right
along side with them. Regarding how I treat the poor like Michael, I always make sure I
greet Michael with a big smile and with an equally exuberant hello back to
him as he always greets me. Along with that smile and hello, I make sure that I have a pleasant conversation with him including
lot's of thank you's for his hard work bagging my groceries. You might be asking, "Paul, what is your reward
for taking the time to speak with someone who may never ever return to you any tangible benefit?"(other than bagging my groceries)
Well, last week he gave me a big hug, not once, but twice on the same day. For me,
knowing that he feels loved and appreciated may be what Michael needs to get through his week after enduring lot's of customers who ignore him and treat him as if he doesn't exist. Me purposely having a conversation with Michael when I see him also gives me an opportunity to see how I
can be a blessing, and possible help to him. So as you may have figured out by now, helping the poor like Michael is not at all about me, and my needs. Helping the poor is all about the Michael's of the world and that they make it through another day. In fact, that is the perspective that I have been trying to convey throughout this entire article. Helping the poor is not about getting something in return. Helping the poor is simply all about giving and blessing those in need.
May I suggest that we should all allow our satisfaction of helping others come not from having an expectation of getting something in return for helping the poor, but let our satisfaction simply come from having the knowledge that we cared for someone, especially when others refused to care for them in the first place.
May I suggest that we should all allow our satisfaction of helping others come not from having an expectation of getting something in return for helping the poor, but let our satisfaction simply come from having the knowledge that we cared for someone, especially when others refused to care for them in the first place.
Folks
like Michael know when they are being genuinely cared about, and loved
on. The poor are everywhere.They deserve love, not to be spit on, or
treated with disdain as they are so very often are here. Now I know there are what I
term as "professional poor" out there that are scamming folks, and tax
payers too, but those are the minority, not the majority of the poor
within the United States. Jesus stated in Luke 3:11, "...Whoever has two
tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do
likewise.'" Like Jesus, I believe we should treat the poor with love,
empathy and above all, eagerness to help them simply because Jesus commanded us
to do so. Loving others may not be your "thing", but it is what the Lord
commanded us to do. Please, find both the time and the courage to treat others as you
would want to be treated. A little practical compassion goes a long way. You never know, you may someday become poor
yourself, and when you want help, you will want to be loved on as
Michael also wants and desires to be loved on as well.
Proverbs 14:21 "Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor"
Rev.
Paul P. Waldmiller~Black Robe Regiment Pastor
Please Help Feed And Bless Poor
Children Here.... http://beaheronow.net/donate.html
Please Help Me In My Legal Defense
Fund... http://www.gofundme.com/dqrbjg
(Every article, words, phrases that
are signed by, and or used by "Black Robe Regiment Pastor"
and or "Paul P. Waldmiller" herein are explicitly owned by
this the writer, unless quoted or link's attached that identify
differently. No use of this blog and or articles are allowed to be
copied or used without the writers explicit and written consent).
No comments:
Post a Comment