Posted on 09/30/2014 3:19:41 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Linda Tirado photographed by Scott Suchman near her home in Washington DC for the Observer New Review.
Why do so many poor people eat junk food, fail to budget properly, show no ambition? Linda Tirado knew exactly why… because she was one of them. Here, in an extract from her book, Hand to Mouth, she tells her story in her own words
•Q&A with Linda Tirado
In the autumn of 2013 I was in my first term of school in a decade. I had two jobs; my husband, Tom, was working full-time; and we were raising our two small girls. It was the first time in years that we felt like maybe things were looking like they’d be OK for a while.
After a gruelling shift at work, I was unwinding online when I saw a question from someone on a forum I frequented: Why do poor people do things that seem so self-destructive? I thought I could at least explain what I’d seen and how I’d reacted to the pressures of being poor. I wrote my answer to the question, hit post, and didn’t think more about it for at least a few days. This is what it said:
Why I make terrible decisions, or, poverty thoughts
There’s no way to structure this coherently. They are random observations that might help explain the mental processes. But often, I think that we look at the academic problems of poverty and have no idea of the why. We know the what and the how, and we can see systemic problems, but it’s rare to have a poor person actually explain it on their own behalf. So this is me doing that, sort of....
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I grew up in a family of five boys raised by a single mother. We were on food stamps back when they were actually stamps. I watched my mom bust her ass to feed, house, and clothe us.
Instead of college I joined the military and went straight to work afterwards. I know earn in excess of 100k per year and I did it by busting my ass. We’re there a lot of sh** jobs in between? You bet your butt there were.
Did the hard work pay off? Damn right it did.
I know the Linda Tirado story has been blogged about a lot over the last few days (most excellently here and here), but the story is so revolting on so may levels, I feel I must add my voice to the din!
If you happen not to know, Linda Tirado is a self-described “Night Cook, Essayist, Activist” and was anointed a blogger over at Huffington Post after they picked up her essay, This is Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense, which is surprisingly still available on HufPo, even though it has been revealed to be a lie. Now, Linda Tirado isn’t exactly rich, but she is not poor either, and she is not a poor person – meaning someone who was born poor and who will always be poor. She may be broke – being broke is not the same thing as being poor, but it’s doubtful she’s even broke, her dental problems notwithstanding..........
.....Oh and by the way, Linda Tirado went to the Cranbrook School, the same elite prep school Mitt Romney attended. She toured Europe after high school.
So that’s total bull#@!! (and as it turns out, her whole story was bull!@#$ – why is it still on Huf Po? Because HufPo is still defending her, claiming HufPo readers and other bloggers simply do not truly understand poverty.).....
........Linda Tirado isn’t horrible because she is poor, she is horrible because she is horrible.
Her grandparents helped her buy a home, and she’s a Democrat operative who has worked on Democrat political campaigns going back to 2004 – and blogged about them too. Her Facebook page doesn’t seem too poverty stricken either. She’s met President Obama as well – natch!....."
She’s a poverty pimp-—and doing quite well for herself.
.
Poor thing. It’s not her fault.
Not for nothing, but does she have stubble?
Re your Henry Ford quote, that’s why I stick to Jesus’ “Greatest Commandment” and leave any damnation to God.
Because all those self-important Christians who teach damnation and rejection risk breaking people’s spirit in the name of teaching about Christ. As a result, their victims come to “think they can’t” - and then they are finished. And these “Christians” think God doesn’t see what they’ve done.
Oh, it’s “only” ideas, and everyone is responsible for their own minds? Yeah, that’s true. But then why do Special Forces spend so much time on positive, supportive mental training? Aren’t they all just responsible for their own minds? And which of us isn’t harmed by negative talk - let alone the extreme of being damned?
Baby. Bathwater.
That’s why even Jesus warned we will be judged as we have judged, and not to harm His “little ones.” But people just love to defend their hardness against others. And then they look with wonder at the rage so many liberals have for Christians, willing to hate America and accept murderous Islam. Well wonder not. Because if you damn someone, or teach them to believe they are damned, and you don’t kill them, then what happens to them? Do they bow to your ego’s interpretation of scripture? Nope, they turn to hate. Why not? After all, they’re already damned. And then? And then they vote Democrat.
Just look at what is on this woman’s shirt. Her article is very good, a glimpse into the despair and futility that poverty creates in America. But so what? After all, she’s a sinner. Pray for her, but remember the fact of her poverty proves she’s not to be taken seriously on spiritual matters. Or have you ever worked hard, been disciplined and careful, succeeded, and then looked at your success and admitted to yourself that the success was sheer grace? That despite all your proper effort, success is a gift from God and things easily could have turned out bad?
Yes? Then you get what I’m saying about poverty. No? Then you have some hard lessons ahead of you, friend.
Maybe I’ve gone on to much here. But the Democrats don’t think so. They think what I’m talking about is marvelous - the very root dynamic they are counting on Christians never getting past. And looking around, I truly wonder if they’re right. I never would have said that before, but I do now.
Breaking someone’s spirit is soul murder.
And God is not mocked.
That’s why there are places even angels fear to tread.
/rant
“Well gee, Honey, how about not having any kids until you can afford them?”
The day will never come; living here in NJ, I’m watching an aging Anglo population that “can’t afford them” being taxed out the wazoo to afford other peoples’ kids.
Went to the doctor today; he was the only American there, and I was instead seen by a foreign “nurse practicioner”. Took a prescription to the local pharmacy (a big chain), and waited while tow foreign pharmacists/receptionists/whatever got off the phone to take the prescriptions.
Waiting until they can “afford kids” is destroying the American way of life (and population).
“she’s no rocket scientist. “
Yep...Some of the wealthiest people I know have been average or below on the IQ chart. They simply tried every day and tried hard.
There is a difference between what I call transitional poverty, and endemic poverty.
Transitional poverty is almost universal. When you get out of school, when you are just starting out in life. When you are injured and can’t work, the industry changes and you’re out on the street, when you are forced to start a new career later in life. This happens to a lot of people, maybe a majority of people at one time or another in their lives.
This is a normal part of life.
Endemic poverty is another thing. This is generational poverty, with no likelihood of a way out. In a modern, industrial economy, the common markers are broken families and substance abuse.
“This article shows where we will end up. With people who are convinced that the deck is stacked against them and that they need government help to support themselves.”
Corporate America had its hand in that; anyone I know who lost a job and got another makes a lot less money (even if they are doing the same work).
We don’t deserve the communists elected twice by the American people; plenty of employers shouldn;t be shocked by it. What are they going to do, leave? They’re already doing that; anyone who can have their job shipped overseas is already facing that, and anyone who has a job that can’t be sent overseas has foreigners being trafficked here to do it for less.
I was not at all surprised to see that all job gains over the last dozen years or so were by immigrants; I’ve always known why they were being imported...
Why try when the government will just take care of you anyway....
It’s true that poor people don’t plan long-term. All one has to do to see this is drive around SE DC or Anacostia. The locals don’t decide if they’re going to turn or go straight (from any lane) until about 10 seconds before the corner.
Life IS tough if you can’t see more than a few seconds ahead.
How is that quote a “damnation” of anyone?
“They’re already doing that; anyone who can have their job shipped overseas is already facing that, and anyone who has a job that can’t be sent overseas has foreigners being trafficked here to do it for less.”
Man, you hit it on the head.
Nobody is poor in this country.
People in Haiti are poor.
Wow! That is quite a rabbit trail/tirade and strawman hit piece. While a significant portion of any group of humans may be negative, the Gospel of Christ is not.
Christians regularly minister to the every faction and are hardly judgmental on an individual basis. That whole “love the sinner; hate the sin thing.”
Nothing is more liberating it humbling than the gospel-simply put we are sinners in need of a Savior. How is that damning? Seems to me that it puts people on the same footing and allows no pride in one’s own works or righteousness.
As for the liberal rage thing, it’s a reaction to this very principle. Liberals don’t just think they (and mankind) are good, they put themselves (and their works, beliefs and institutions) in the position of man’s savior. Opposing them is heresy and any god beyond or above man is abhorrent.
Accusing Christians as a whole of self righteousness is using just as broad a brush as you condemn.
All poor people have to do is wait until someone else makes them prosperous. Just wait. Keep waiting. That’s it, keep waiting. Be patient, and keep waiting.
I think you misjudge people.
I would bet that many people at this site have been poor at one time or another, and a fair percentage are probably going through tough straits right now.
They could teach a seminar on how you get through tough times with your soul intact. Because they have lived it.
They don’t look down on people who are struggling to make it, in fact I’d say most people here view people who are struggling with great respect.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.