–will be in their mighty hands! (*)
Free soup, bread and a bit of pampering were in order downtown yesterday as the London Homeless Coalition and a core-area yoga studio reached out with massage, foot care and meditation … A Salvation Army truck was on hand to provide donated bread and soup.
…
While she acknowledged few homeless people took part in being pampered, Peckham said it was a first-year outreach she hopes will grow in coming years.
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Those who were not homeless — including a group of first-year nursing students from the University of Western Ontario – could choose to donate the value of their treatments to the homeless coalition.
Nursing student Cheryl Georgeneau said, “it’s definitely an interesting idea,” and for a worthwhile purpose.
Reflexologist Mary Benson said the event gave her some hands-on experience in London. “Everyone says how much better it makes them feel . . . I’m glad I can get my hands on people who would otherwise not be able to afford it.”
Jenny Finch, who expressed an interest in meditation and participated in a session on personal praise, was intrigued. “I just think this is cool,” she said.
There were also draws for a free haircut, yoga, Nia dance, therapeutic touch and psychic reading.
How could we have missed this? The clear and obvious answer to the age-old problems of poverty and hunger? Why, Nia dance and psychic readings, of course!
And rest assured that the only reason no homeless person’s opinion was sought to confirm the obvious success of this scheme was that those Sally Ann types kept on slinging soup down their gullets every time they opened their mouths. Just jealous, obviously.
Certain grumpy parties, however, suspect that there might be a snag:
While I’m sure all the granola eaters are gently patting themselves on the back for being so nice to the homeless for one day, let’s see how Moonbeam and Rainbow Chakra react when the urine people start camping out on their stoop for the next three years.
If the socialists get their way, all these generous volunteering people will be getting government paychecks and be members of a public sector union attached to health and wellness.
(Barring the Muslim takeover of the UK of course)
How do I get me some of that “therapeutic touching”?
It was no doubt a vegetarian soup — lentils and
carrots perhaps, or something equally ghastly?
Oz, I agree with you, but FYI this gathering wasn’t in London, England.
Thomas L asks, “How do I get me some of that “therapeutic touching”?
Just take a stroll around Church and Dundas after dark. Careful though, a lot of undercovers on the job.
wasn’t there some scandal about prison inmates getting this royal treatment a ways back?
the propensity to massage is strong in these here parts.
why not!! give money to poor for live and do not strike and do made peace in aboard and let rich to made money and mid class and worker label to work and socialist goverment do what they want and busiens captalist do what they want and let customer to have rich and poor ende products to produced for two different customer and we live happy after together and thik to live in MOON soon
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this is government to seperate each layers and allow them to go top of lader and not interupt business of each others by good laws and regulation by understand small and big picture
I’m with Kathy on this: there aren’t “homeless” people, but there are “broke” people (as in they spend their money on dope and tats and piercings, etc instead of shelter and food).
Miss.Mat; that’s a gross oversimplification of the problems. The %age of homeless with mental illness is huge. If they’re also alcoholic and/or drug addicted simply compounds their personal hell.
None of which explains the ‘let them eat cake’ approach of the facial-for-a-day nutjobs.
“How about a pedicure while you finish off that rice wine?”
Just guessing, but the good Samaritans likely needed a little therapy themselves, afterwards…
Peckham said it was a first-year outreach she hopes will grow in coming years.
She said some of the intended recipients might have been daunted by the unfamiliar environment. “For most of them, having the bread and soup is what they came for.”
“A day of caring” geez! Just what every homeless person needs, a good old fashion back rub. What a bunch of self aggridizing horses asses…. Oh and to our surprise says Peckam,”having the bread and soup is what they came for.”
Peckham said it was a first-year outreach she hopes will grow in coming years.
She said some of the intended recipients might have been daunted by the unfamiliar environment. “For most of them, having the bread and soup is what they came for.”
“A day of caring” geez! Just what every homeless person needs, a good old fashion back rub. What a bunch of self aggridizing horses asses…. Oh and to our surprise says Peckam,”having the bread and soup is what they came for.”
I do a lot of work with the ‘homeless’ and I would tend to put them into three broad categories.
1. Is the mentally ill. Apart from the drug induced dementia this is a serious but relatively small group.
2. Is those who lack impulse control and/or have an innate ability to fail to grasp the consequences. Most drug addicts and alcoholics fit in this category along with a surprising number of otherwise sane individuals.
3. Is those who chose this lifestyle. This is the fastest growing group made up largely of young adults who simply refuse to grow up.
The third group is the most dangerous because of their over inflated belief in entitlement. They feel entitled to your money or smokes or beer and will beat you up should you refuse them.
BEWARE: Do-gooders ahead
I might be inclined to be believe these well-intentioned people, assuming they can withstand the stench of the homeless (let’s be honest here), mean well but surely one would agree that finding homes for these people would be a more worthwhile effort. Band-aid solutions feel good for one hour but permanent ones make one feel better longer.
Berton wasn’t there with an air compressor selling old scuba tanks filled with the freshly collected super organic sanctimonious smugness enveloping the gathering?
The real heroes of charity are not those who make a big public sacrifice one day per year, nor even those who donate, but the charity workers who slave away day-after-day, year-after-year, making sure the homeless get at least one decent meal a day and can get a bed indoors when the nights turn cold.
These people continue working long after the bright lights have dimmed. The above grotesque display is an insult to real charity.
Yep, I had a couple of ex-buddies that are kindof homeless, or a better description would be Drifters, or yea yea, Grifters is more like it. I finally bought some land out in the country to get away from the city, built a house with a 1/2 mile whiterock driveway, got me some junkyard dogs then stopped trimming the driveway, so it looks like sleepy hollow, Man, even the Jehovah’s Witnesses will not ride their bikes down it, and everytime Claiborne Elec puts in a new street light up at the road I take my trusty Daisy Red Rider and take care of that. 😉
Well, I got me a farm
And I got me a fiddle
The Sun’s coming up
Got cakes on the griddle
Life sure is a funny funny riddle.
Thank God I’m a country boy.
,
Free massage, but happy ending is extra.
Honestly, I don’t see what’s so awful about this scenario. Some people are donating their time and effort to enrich the lives of other folks. Yeah, it’s a bit fru-fru and all, but I hardly see the harm in it. Everyone donated of their own free will — there was no coercion involved. The people who gave and those who received came away feeling better.
Or is it true what the left says: that conservatives hate the poor? Responses like this give conservatives a bad name.
“Or is it true what the left says: that conservatives hate the poor?”
Surely you’re not serious.
Conservatives generally take a more practical (and successful) approach to dealing with poverty and the problems that it causes. Contrast this to the left who are quite content to indulge themselves in “feel good” activities that yield short term (if any) benefits. Scoffing at such sanctimonious stupidity generally results in being accused, by the left, of hating the poor.
A prototypical representative of the bleating left will spryly step over a down-and-outer on the sidewalk en route to a self-aggrandizing finger-point at “the rich,” typically from one g-funded podium or other. Their argument is that the royal “we” – i.e. those others who pay a lot of taxes” – should *do* something. At the other end of the spectrum, in my view, are the Sally Ann types who volunteer their time to administer comfort and ease to those who find themselves, er, face-down.
To the extent that there are any remedies at all, I strongly favour the second group, which in this case would – it pains me a bit to say it – include the yoga people.
It’s difficult to separate the two groups sometimes, because those who insist on framing the issue entirely in political terms have not only succeeded in putting the onus on the taxpayers who are not ultimately responsible for the life choices of others but have also practically obviated public consideration/expression of the larger issue of individual responsibility for one’s own life. In contrast, the (often faith-based) soldiers who are NOT sucking on the g-tit, or pimping for more bureaucracy, who see the problem as a real-world spiritual and social problem, are – in effect – putting institutional/bureaucratic/partisan politics aside, to a certain, and helpful, degree.
It’s virtually impossible to get the bad taste of leftist politics out of one’s mouth when the subject of the poor is being discussed, so it’s difficult at times to see private volunteerism and faith-based charity as anything other than just one more manifestation of leftist politics and the culture of dependence it foments. But bloated government and the culture of dependence it foments should not be conflated with hands-on community volunteerism, which is, in comparison, a good thing.
So massage away, I say. Just don’t touch me afterwards.
I jest. Sort of.
Btw, it wasn’t until I made my regular visit to edwardmichaelgeorge.blogspot.com today that I realized the EMG who’s been posting here is one and the same. What a great addition!
Welcome! Help yourself to the toast!
Urine people? That’s downright nasty.
A couple of kids that grew up with my kids were homeless for a little while. One had drug problems, but the other just wanted to try something different. I think both are back in society now.
Joe is right about the “homeless by choice” group. They can be very aggresive. I’d classify their behaviour as criminal. They have the mindset that regular working people are a resource to be exploited.
I wouldn’t get my hopes up that the situation is going to get better. In case you haven’t noticed, employment isn’t keeping up with population growth, and no government in the western world seems to be capable of saying no to countries that can’t sustain themselves. I hope my kids can carve out a decent life, but they might be the last generation to have any control of their lives.
Btw, here’s a comment/personal anecdote from SDA regular Jema54 that nicely exemplifies — embodies — the enormous difference between community spirit and bureaucratic unionista-ism.
Let’s not start being kind to people, surely we are better than that.
I agree wholeheartedly with Joe. I volunteer in a soup kitchen on a regular basis. What he describes is right on. Most of the “clients” are very grateful for the lunch and offer thanks in their own, sometimes strange, way.
Category 3 are not nice at all.
For a interesting parady on how the left thinks.Try this blog, it.s hilarious.
“Several of us decided to spend Thanksgiving in peaceful protest against military recruitment in schools. We chose to picket the local army recruitment center located several blocks from my house.
Our plan was to alternate between singing protest songs, lying around like we were dead, praying and chanting, exposing our breasts and genitals for peace, and harassing appealing to those going in.”
http://peacemoonbeam.typepad.com/the_peace_moonbeam_chroni/2005/11/index.html
Thanks EBD.
And I basically agree with you. I’m just struck by how hilariously impractical the whole event seems. You get more the impression a soup kitchen was being operated near a fundraiser and somebody for some reason imagined them to be the same function.
I often get a chuckle out of many of the people I rub elbows with. They will routinely tell me of the next free dinner. It is not unusual to hear them lay out their entire month by the turkey supper at this church, the beef dinner at that church the spaghetti supper at the other church. I often get invited to eat with them. I haven’t taken them up on their generous offerings.
Some years back, out here on the west coast one radio commentator went all gooey telling us about a woman who went to the local Anglican hooker drop-in and massaged the girls feet. Isn’t that nice? Has no one ever heard of a lesbian with a foot-fetish?
BTW Alan…peacemoonbeam is NOT leftist,by highly satirical. lampoons anything lefturd-wise thah moves!