Posted on 10/18/2006 7:00:57 PM PDT by wbill
GREENSBORO -- Toni Harris won't see President Bush when he jets into our city Wednesday.
She's not a Republican with deep pockets. She's a mother of eight with empty pockets, a thin woman of 32 living with her husband at the city's homeless shelter.
But that's not to say she wouldn't love to wag his ear. If she had the chance, she would tell him plenty.
"I would give him the runaround, just to make him understand that there are people in the world who need help to survive,'' she said Monday. "It shouldn't be like that. The government should say, 'Hey these people need help!' ''
Bush will fly into the Triad Wednesday for a trio of orchestrated visits. He'll stop by an elementary school in Greensboro, visit a camp in Randleman for children with serious illnesses and hobnob with supporters at a $1,000-a-plate dinner in Greensboro's Irving Park neighborhood.
If you had five minutes with Bush, what would you ask?
Says Mary Kate Rodenbough, a fifth-grader at Greensboro's Peeler Open School for the Performing Arts: "I know a lot of people are mad at him right now, and I'd want to know what kind of stress is he going through being president.''
Says her classmate Preston Bessard: "Why aren't you trying to stop the wars?''
Says Cindy Cunningham, a 48-year-old gas station manager: "And what's so horrible about gays getting married? I mean, hello! There's a lot more things to worry about. Hunger. Starving children. Homelessness.''
We live in the world's richest country. Since 1980, the people who make annual incomes of more than $277,000 have seen their salaries increase 135 percent. At the same time, we have 15 million Americans living in what's known as "deep poverty,'' or on an income below $7,800 annually for a family of three.
Kevin Breland sees the faces behind those statistics. He works at Weaver House, the homeless shelter at the Greensboro Urban Ministry, and hears hard-luck stories every day.
Like the 22-year-old who wrapped his car around a tree. Or the 47-year-old woman mad at the world. Or the guy making $600 a week who had to live at the shelter.
They were all ravaged by drugs. That's what Breland would ask Bush about.
"If we can fight over in another country, why can't we fight the war on drugs?'' said Breland, a 46-year-old father of two. "We have a budget for drug services and no budget for the war in Iraq? It's like that old saying, 'You need to clean up your back yard before you go knocking on somebody else's door.' ''
Some of the folks I ran into Monday talked about the war. Some worried about Armageddon, or the end of the world. A few others supported the war and saw Bush as the right man for the job, shouldering the burden of the free world.
Then, I ran into a guy wearing a placard advertising a sandwich shop. He was listening to a local gospel station in his ear buds, standing at the corner of Spring Garden and Aycock streets near UNCG.
He didn't give his name. But he did have one question for Bush: "Is he thinking about his life eternal? Because his actions are questionable.''
Meanwhile, back at Weaver House, with CNN droning about Iraq on the dayroom TV, Toni Harris sat in a wheelchair. She needs to stay off her feet because she's nine months pregnant with her ninth child.
She needs the help. She uses the $30 to $40 her husband brings home every day as a laborer to wash clothes and pay for a cab to see a doctor.
Still, ask her about her worries, and she mentions an elderly man she saw this weekend in front of the Salvation Army thrift store on West Lee Street.
He was sleeping on a thin piece of cardboard.
"My heart about tore all to pieces,'' she said. "Old, young, people with kids. They're sleeping under bridges and sidewalks and abandoned cars because there is nowhere to go. It shouldn't be like that.''
It's worth mentioning, since Mr. Rowe barely touched on it, that one of the places visited was Kyle Petty's "Victory Junction Camp" - it's a make-a-wish type place for terminally ill children. A great charity, IMHO. The Pettys do an awful lot of good in the community.
"Why do you make everything bad? Mr badman.". My mommies tell me I'm a democrat.
"How do you manage to keep from b***hslapping some of those reporters?"
Hey, B*****, tell us what you know about Vince Foster; what's it feel like to kill somebody you used to sleep with?
Sometimes, I'm just not sure where to start when it comes to commentary like this.
600 a week? In a shelter?
I love how these morons act as if the "government" is some kind of separate entity with unlimited purchasing power. It is your neighbors' money you selfish jerks.
"She's not a Republican with deep pockets. She's a mother of eight with empty pockets, a thin woman of 32 living with her husband at the city's homeless shelter."
32 and a mother of 8 with no income, a bit of advise that will go further than any charity can give, don't have children you can't take care of or give them to someone that can.
I would ask him what mistakes he regretted most and whether he would take responsibility for them. /liberal
I suspect that it's a whole lot easier to find a poor Republican, than the aforementioned parent. :-)
"She's not a Republican with deep pockets. She's a mother of EIGHT with empty pockets, a thin woman of 32 living with her husband at the city's homeless shelter."
EIGHT babies and thin? meth-head. That woman and man were too high and too busy bumpin' uglies to look for a JOB!
LLS
?????????????? $40@day...$5.00 per hr.???????????? What is minimum wage? Something isn't right with her story
Dear Preston; We stop the wars by winning them and not by obstructing President Bush at every turn.
Probably spending 800 a week on drugs.
And why is that? This statistical group has either:
a) chronically unemployed
b) fathered or mothered multiple bastard children
c) not graduated high school
If a person can't do these three basic things, then I have no sympathy.
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