Tuesday October 2, 2012, 11:33 am
This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means sacrificing, I’m going that way. If it means dying for them, I’m going that way, because I heard a voice saying “DO SOMETHING FOR OTHERS.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
Hubert H. Humphrey Vice President of United States

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Ghandi

"The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government." ~Thomas Jefferson

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 12:59 pm
Thank you so much for posting this, Dandelion. Cornell West is one of the wisest and most righteous men in America.(The only man I respect more is poet and, in my opinion, holy man, John Trudell.).

No matter how we like to pretend that we are the land of the free; there is no freedom for those who work three jobs and still fall behind from just trying to survive. Wage slavery, another example of the lesser evil, is still slavery.

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 1:12 pm
I agree Brian on your assessment of both men and wage to slavery.

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 1:44 pm


We all have thoughts on poverty, what it means, how it affects people, who is affected, I decided it was better to allow those who speak far better than I, to speak to this issue. These are not my words, only my feelings.


The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles.
Plato

Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty.
Lyndon B. Johnson

If all of us acted in unison as I act individually there would be no wars and no poverty. I have made myself personally responsible for the fate of every human being who has come my way.
Anais Nin

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
John F. Kennedy

Modern cynics and skeptics... see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.
John F. Kennedy

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 2:01 pm
Thank you Kit and I'd also like to add.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such." Martin Luther King, Jr.

And we certainly always seem to be in a state of war.

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 5:32 pm
Thanks Dandelion. I have been following Tavis Smiley for some time as well as his associate Cornell West. A little to religious for my liking but they speak the truth about what has happened to this countries poor, the stanrd poor and the newly added. Before I moved from Colorado to FL I was saddened to learn about the growing camp communities enlarging the CO landscape, many of whom were our nations vets. It has been some 50 years since the calculation for the poverty line is based on the work of a clerk and has not yet been adjusted to actually account for true poverty. No politician wants to be responsible to adding more numbers to the poverty lists. It is not as if they will be adding to it. Those people already exist our country is just not yet acknowledging them and because of the criteria, many families that should be considered poor aren't and thus do not qualify for even these meager benefits. We are so effed up in this regard it is beyond sad.

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 5:44 pm
We are getting screwed and not enjoying it

POVERTY SUCKS

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 5:57 pm
noted with thanks

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 6:54 pm
Noted with Gratitude!

Tuesday October 2, 2012, 7:06 pm
noted

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 12:02 am
Who was it who said, in a recent video, and this is a direct quote, "They think they are ENTITLED to food....." ?!

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 1:19 am
Thank you. Noted.

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 2:33 am
I've said it many times: You need to spread your wealth more fairly because this can hardly be the "American Dream",thanks for posting this Sheryl.

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 4:58 am
For those not connected to me on C2, I sent these words around on message:

Doctors at a major Boston hospital report they are seeing more hungry and dangerously thin young children in the emergency room than at any time in more than a decade of surveying families.

Before the economy soured in 2007, 12 percent of youngsters age 3 and under whose families were randomly surveyed in the hospital’s emergency department were significantly underweight. In 2010, that percentage jumped to 18 percent, and the tide does not appear to be abating.

Boston Medical Center has also seen an increase, in the number of severely underweight babies under the age of 1 who were referred by family physicians to its Grow Clinic; where doctors provide intensive nutritional, medical, and other services to boost babies’ growth. Such malnourishment is similar to what is more typically seen in developing countries.

And that is Massachusetts, a State doing better than many other States

Do you know Food Stamps provides enough for only $1.48 per meal, yet according to my County, it costs $2.63 cents a meal to feed a child with proper nutrition. Meaning even with Food Stamps, people are not eating well, they are mearly being kept from starvation.

End...

I know BMutiny, imagine that, people actually feel in America that they should be able to at least "eat"; that those of us who reside in the so called richest Country in the world should either be accorded an opportunity to income to be able to feed ourselves or that the ones who are hoarding all the wealth would at least feel some mercy to fund programs to feed those who can't for whatever reason they can't.

I know Jon Stewart played off of Romney's COLD and HEARTLESS remarks to say, "imagine that, that people would feel that they should have FOOD, SHELTER, and HEALTH CARE.

Like wow......food, shelter and health care.

Romney made it sound like the American people were entitled to diamond rings, boats, and trips around the world. Well I suppose some of us do get the latter, it's called joining the military.

More like the American Nightmare Arild.

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 7:23 am
Cornell West is always AWESOME, and I'm impressed with Tavis Smiley, too - great to see this covered here on C2 !

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 7:36 am
They say 12-21-12 is the end of the world---this may be true but it will be the end of the world as we know it. Those with the money are going to find out that their money is not food and will do nothing for them. It is when we 'the people' will be the ones with the wealth--the wealth of knowing how to survive without money---hence guess who they will be asking for help to-- we 'the people'. What goes around comes around----we 'the people' are there for each other through good times and bad---we care about each other. One of life's lessons---the Lord wants them to experience what they have put 'the people' through. It is the only way they will learn that "You can't eat money." Blessings to all who love Mother Earth and her inhabitants.

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 11:08 am
Thanks Dandelion.. noted with appreciation

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 11:41 am
The money being spent on this Presidential Campaign is a Crime> $30,000 a plate ($855m to date Dem & Rep)
One less F-22 @ $147,000,000

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 1:20 pm
Great website Dandelion. Thanks so much for posting it. And thansk to everyone for all the great quotes.

I have been thinking too Russel that the amount of money spent on our political campaigns could feed a great number of people or provide better paying jobs if any CEO would give up a bonus to hire.

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 2:53 pm
You cannot currently send a star to Dandelion because you have done so within the last week.

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 3:32 pm
Thanks Dandelion. Great post; better comments!

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 3:59 pm
Neither convention hardly mentioned the poor. The debates probably wouldn't mention the poor either. Once you fall from middle class by losing your job, then your home, you are essentially poor. Most those who are on social security with an average Soc. Serc. of $1,000, a dwindling pension, and little savings are also poor. What left is the %1 and political party functionaries who work for the government. The conventions are made up of the later groups.

The poor and those near poor have been locked out by both parties. Thank Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton for getting this egregious class system started. All the parties want most of us to do is send in our donations, knock on doors, register people to vote, vote to keep them in office, and then shut the f*#k up after Democrat or Republican get in office they are going to do what they want regardless.

Even the debates have been prescriped with only certain questions allowed to ask, the candidates know the questions already, third party candidates are kept out, and a corporate commission controls the whole debate process. It was taken away from the league of women voters by both parties.http://www.democracynow.org/2012/10/3/ahead_of_first_obama_romney_debate

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 4:16 pm
Well said Terrance and I hope everyone will at least watch the debates on Democracy Now that you mention. In fact I posted a story to the link to exactly what you stated.
Democracy Now will have ALL viable Candidates Debate

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 5:36 pm
Yes!
And in poverty is just where the GOP leaders want the poor to remain!!!! If they can widen the gap between themselves and the 99% they will believe they have done a good day's work.THAT IS THEIR AGENDA! PERIOD!

Wednesday October 3, 2012, 5:44 pm
Despite the great quote of Jefferson, by Dandelion, about the care of human life and happiness being the object of government, we have moved over to the point of view that "The business of government is business," stated by that great, special president H.Hoover, I believe. How sad!

Thursday October 4, 2012, 3:37 am
Unfortunately, this is not just in Amercia here in Portugal so many people are suffering but not the rich. Our government askes for us to make sacrifices and more sacrifices but the rich are treated differently. It is an outrage in this day and age that so many people are suffering. Poverty the new slavery? I think poverty is a form of slavery that has never fully gone away.

Thursday October 4, 2012, 5:00 pm
Thanks Dandelion & SuSanne for fwd

Thursday October 4, 2012, 6:21 pm
Noted. Thank you, Dandelion. Two very admirable men!

Thursday October 4, 2012, 9:40 pm
Great post, Dandelion! Thanks for submitting it! These are two highly accomplished and incredibly intelligent men who walk the talk and set a fine example for everyone!

BMutiny: As Dandelion mentioned in response to your comment, it was Mitt Romney who made that incredibly cold and thoughtless remark. Here's a link to an article that provides further information:

Mitt Romney Sabotages His Race By Saying Americans Think They’re Entitled To Food

Friday October 5, 2012, 7:58 am
Thank you Susanne. I am always grateful for men and women with the integrity of these men that live in this Nation they give me the "true" hope I need.

Friday October 5, 2012, 8:40 pm
The test of our progress is not whether we add more abundance of those who have enough, It is whether enough for those who have to little.Franklin D Roosevelt, We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist one third rich two thirds hungry. Jimmy Carter, When I give food to the poor, They call me a saint, When I ask why the poor have no food, They call me a communist. Thanks Dandelion.

Friday October 5, 2012, 9:42 pm
Well said Mary, excellent quotes.