Chapter 16
HOMELESS
What Would Jesus Do?
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Born along time ago
In a hole outside the inn
Strung up on the cross
You know, we didn't give a damn
Now he lives out in the city
On the lower east side
Sleeps in the park an' alley
Any place, he can hide
He's cold, his stomach's empty
And his teeth are rottin' out
His face is full'a sorrow
Ya know, his heart is full'a doubt
His clothes are old and torn
And his eyes are dull with pain
But he's not half as dirty
As your hearts of blind insane
Sunday mornin' you carry bibles
Fill your pews with well-fed souls
Dress your windows up in stain-glass
An' drop bread in your silver bowls
You sing "peace on earth"
But you support men of war
Vote for those who help the rich
And screw the sick and poor
Oh beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
Your poor and wretched millions
Have become an open shame
Beneath your gilded steeple
Where they beg for crusts of bread
Cry old women and helpless children
With no place to lay their head
Listen up America
Better listen up real good
Try an' understand the reason why
The nails went in the wood
Reach out a hand to help the poor
Reach out a hand to help the sick
Some father's lookin' on an' they say
He carries a mighty stick
Pretend to care about the unborn
Hold up your self-righteous fist
But guess who's comin' soon an'
Great God ! Man, is he pissed !
Born along time ago
In a hole outside the inn
Strung up on the cross
Ya know, we didn't give a damn
Now he lives out in the city
On the lower east side
Sleeps in the park and alley
Any place, he can hide
Ya know, Sodom learned the hard way
Ain't no place we can hide
Listen up America. . .
Better listen up America. . .
Umm ummmm, better listen up America. . . * ** *** ****
National Coalition For The Homeless
National Law Center On Homelessness and Poverty
DEDICATED TO: The Homeless Population of modern-day America. What manner of nation would use half of the world's resources, harbor much of the world's wealth, contain a large percentageof the world's educated elite, continue to build some of the world's most expensive (and entirely worthless) religious edifices, provide unwarranted tax breaks for the extremely wealthy top 1% of the population and an entertainment industry which routinely spends over one hundred million dollars to create meaningless motion picture drivel, claim to have the preferred form of government for the entire planet and to stand for truth and justice. . . and yet look the other way as impoverished homeless war veterans, senior citizen's and children are forced to sleep in cardboard boxes, in back alleyways, under bridges, in city parks and on city sidewalks? Will the country which Samuel Clemens referred to as the "land of bibles" go down in history as the one nation, beyond all others, that devolved into an utter profane insult to the Creator of the universe?
*FootNote: Inspired by "Tramp On The Street" by Grady & Hazel Cole and "Greenwood" by Peter Yarrow, as performed by King David's beloved friends, Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey & Mary Travers.
**FootNote II: "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." --Ezekiel 16:49
***FootNote: Many modern intellectuals and liberal activists do not believe that the Creator will come down hard on a nation that does not make a concerted effort to help the sick and poor. People who vainly imagine that there is no Creator in control who does to nations as they do unto their own are even more insane than the current Bush Junior administration and the Christian Coalition combined (good luck).
****AMERICAN HOMELESS STATISTICS: According to official U.S. government statistics issued in November of 2007, more than 1 in 10 people in the United States go hungry. More than 35 million people went hungry in 2006 according to the same report; almost 13 million of them were children and many of the rest were impoverished senior citizens. In response, David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World said: "The U.S. is the only industrialised nation that still allows hunger within its borders."
While it is literally impossible to obtain entirely accurate statistics regarding poverty in America, several valid estimates can be made based on a variety of agency, government and other sources. On August 1st, 2003, several million Americans were entirely homeless and millions more lived in vehicles, garages and similar makeshift accommodations. The number of Americans in 2001 who were hungry or near hunger was 33.6 million according to the USDA. According to virtually all, if not all American poverty outreaches, the homeless population in America has increased significantly in the past five years, by some estimates as much as 35%. Almost all homeless outreaches are reporting large increases in the number of individuals they assist and large percentages of impoverished people are being turned away for lack of funding. Over 30% of Americans are at border-line poverty level or worse while at least 6 million children are extremely impoverished (meaning combined parental support is less than $9,000 per year for a family of four). America's Second Harvest reports that one in every four individuals in food lines are children and they assist over 9 million children annually. The US Conference of Mayors reported a 19% increase in shelter requests due to homelessness in 25 cities surveyed in the year 2002. Click Here for Homeless Statistics.
According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, over 60 American cities (including large cities) have essentially made it criminal to be poor, introducing measures to make it illegal to beg or sleep on the street, to sit in bus shelters for more than an hour, to stand on the corner soliciting work and, etc. Meanwhile, neither the Republican or Democratic Party has any plan whatsoever directly addressing America's growing homeless population, nor are the homeless, including homeless war veterans, even mentioned as a priority in their party platform agendas. It is estimated by veterans groups that as of January, 2005, there are approximately 230,000 homeless war veterans in America and, due to the current conflict in Iraq, the problem is expected to grow dramatically in the next 1-3 years (see Operation Stand Down's Homeless Veteran Statistics). If 5% of the current American military budget were diverted to end growing hunger in our population, there would be virtually no hunger in the United States. An additional 10% diverted annually, if managed correctly, could probably eventually wipe out starvation on the entire continent of Africa.
Before the Creator of the universe, there is no excuse whatsoever for a nation as wealthy as the United States to have one person within our borders who does not have adequate food, shelter and health care. And it is beyond the iniquity of ancient Babylon, Egypt, Sodom and Rome combined that our leaders of all party affiliation, who hold the supreme advantage of historical perspective, do not make alleviation and elimination of poverty and disease America's number one priority issue. Historically, it is beyond all argument that if a nation does not address its own sick and poor, that nation will not long survive, as major plagues and other diseases spread throughout the least on up to the highest rungs of a society without partiality. Historically, large populations living in poverty without forseeable hope of improvement, either violently revolt and/or, lose all form of country loyalty and welcome a conquering enemy to come in and improve their meager lives of disease, hunger and misery. According to both Ezekiel and Jesus, God without partiality, judges all nations by whether or not they help their sick and poor. The historical bottom-line agreed upon by even the most atheistic of scholars is that nations in the long run, will truly reap what they sow; nations that do not help their sick and poor will not likely be around very long to reap much of anything. See Fleeing Sodom for more information. HOMELESS STATISTICS
Other Books by Richard Aberdeen Click Here to eMail the Author Copyright © by Richard Aberdeen Copyright © by Freedom Tracks Music No part of this material may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author: Inquires click here. Appendix Revolution and Revolution/Side B are open copyright and may be reproduced or utilized as desired. |