Posted on 12/08/2013 5:18:06 AM PST by yldstrk
I was overwhelmed. Many of the letters — even the ones from kids — asked for groceries and shoes, clothing and shampoo. One child wrote: "Please bring my mommy some food. She's been good this year."
Elf Cleo sat beside me at the table checking in a new batch of letters. She told me 90% of the Santa requests sent to the post office never get answered. Many are written at homeless shelters and city food banks and after-school programs. (I found one letter in which a young teenager asked for gifts for the shelter workers.) Cleo said that every once in a while a family's gift comes back unopened, marked address unknown. She wonders: Have they moved into a shelter? A car? Onto the street?
I read a lot of letters, and I felt worse and worse. I didn't know how to choose. The single dad who needed diapers? The 17-year-old asking for a backpack for her little sister? I believe in holiday magic, but there just didn't seem to be enough of it to go around.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-1208-wagman-christmas-santa-letters-20131208,0,5227666.story#ixzz2mtBPetRU
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Oh thanks
How many different welfare programs are there?
How many ways has the government come-up with to steal the wealth of hard-working Americans who play by the rules and transfer it to indigents?
I smell a rat.
Does anyone really believe this treacle?
you are most likely right, I got taken in
Clearly inadequate. The LAT needs to call for government programs for Christmas holiday gift distribution centers.
If that happens, they’ll be getting dozens of prettily wrapped Bibles from me ;)
Yes, this economy is a train wreck regardless of how many Obama lovers try to say otherwise yet some keep spouting nonsense about how wealthy this nation is. I wonder is they will keep saying that when the destruction of the health care system is complete and only the super wealthy will be able to obtain REAL health care while the rest of us are in the same boat as someone pushing a Moped that won’t crank but claiming to own motorized transportation.
“Of course, some believe they intend on killing the patient in order to gain control of the world.”
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Yep, I sometimes reflect on how the things you had to be crazy to believe such a short time ago are now the things you have to be very stupid NOT to believe.
I have helped the same family for years at Xmas.
Everybody has a story. I don’t care to hear it, I just make sure kids in the age groups that believe in Santa get gifts.
Agreed. Made up sob stories.
The Church my family and I attend does just that. We've been members of this church for the past 16 years. Every year that I can remember the need has grown more and more.
I don't know if that's a sign of the economic times (although that's certainly the case the last five years) or just more families trying to get "their freebies."
Yep, we know one of those kids. Mommy and Daddy spend every penny they get on heroin while the kid goes to school without a coat in the cold weather this week.
Were it not for this young lady's grandmother being in the area to step in and help her, I shudder to think what would happen to this young girl. Absent her not having a coat earlier this week, one would never know she's in the situation she's in. We only found out this past week.
Some of the things I see just break my heart.
Ten years ago I worked as a teacher’s aide (in-school suspension aide) and the only reason a child was hungry was because of neglect from the parent. Today, with so many losing unemployment benefits, it should be worse. My kids hated weekends and vacations.
Not criticizing you—I’m just sick of these guilt-inducing narratives that show up like clockwork every year at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
If anything, American society is too generous. We’ve made it incredibly easy to not be responsible and productive and instead live off the sweat of others.
And woe betide you if you dare to criticize the drones.
I’m not going to click a link to the LA Times but you would think that they could write better fake stories than this.
I whole heartedly agree that this sounds like manufactured BS. I participated in a toy drive for the underprivlidged ONCE in the greater L.A. area, back when my kids were young. When I showed up with a bunch of stuffed animals, socks, and baseballs, I nearly got laughed out of the collection center. One of the kinder folks there pulled me aside, and showed me a few of the ‘wish lists’ that included ipods, video games, and expensive brand name basketball shoes. I wasn’t even buying that stuff for my own kids. I can’t imagine that the entitlement mentality has improved, in the interceding nine years.
Three words: God Bless You. You do all that you can. Concentrate on the good your gifts do, not what you are unable to do.
Three words: God Bless You. You do all that you can. Concentrate on the good your gifts do, not what you are unable to do.
The Obama economy brings us this Utopia
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