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BRIAN MCCONNELL
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Articles Posted: 4; Links Seeded: 5
Member Since: 12/2007Last Seen: 10/20/2009
Member Since: 12/2007Last Seen: 10/20/2009
16 Comments
PrintIn the Belly of the Beast - Report from a Homeless American
News Type: Opinion — Tue Nov 11, 2008 2:36 PM EST
Are we imposing disparaging sentences on the poor and disadvantaged?
Photo by [Flickr User]. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)
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As merely one of approximately 3 1/2 million Americans who have at some point experienced an extended period of homelessness, I'm queried from time to time by family members confessing, "I don't understand why you can't just 'get a job'?" Human nature being what it is I suppose; although the history of our relationship certainly concedes the question's redundancy, it's nonetheless posed again, as an apparent means of testing reality.
Consequently, and recognizing that squabbling is rarely productive, I'm necessarily obliged to reiterate the mundane in facilitating their assessment of a mutually shared interpersonal landscape. However, due to their familiarity with many of the incidents with which I've dealt over just the last three years, my response usually helps direct the nature and extent of any assistance.
In contrast though, I'd assert others in my shoes rarely possess much incentive to even bother recounting or otherwise discussing such matters with others. Gauging from those with whom I chat regularly, I believe this reluctance is attributable to desires to contribute to the overall 'solution' rather than burdening others with the inequity of their own unique predicament. For me, this serves as one of the primary reasons for utilizing the internet to convey personal circumstances which are otherwise, practically incommunicable.
Stoning the Messenger
In the midst of a series of events surrounding the U.S. savings and loan collapse, George H. Bush's September 11th proposal of the Gulf War in advancing a 'New World Order', marital conflict preceding my mother-in-law's succumbing to cancer, and just prior to Ross Perot's 1992 campaign for President, I read Christian author, Larry Burkett's, "The Coming Economic Earthquake". -- excerpt from A Crisis in American Leadership
On reflection and in various ways, these afore mentioned events occurring more than 16 years ago, seem to have had a significant impact on my destiny. Having initiated personal sobriety within a few months of separating from my (now) ex-wife, over the following year I'd originate between 5 to 6 million dollars (USD) in 'government' loans refinancing southern California homes. Regretfully, while this culminated in more than $47k of personal income during 1993, in retrospect, the toll of wreckage exacted primarily against my children, and ultimately measured in terms of broken promises and vanquished dreams, remains virtually insurmountable.
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." Luke 16:13
I guess, since I'm already baring my soul in this regard, examining the issue of 'salvation' would be an appropriate matter for consideration. What does this really mean though? Again, from my current perspective as a social outcast, religious leaders in my local community reiterate on at least a daily basis, the moral ineptitude to which my present conditions attest. Even more pointedly though, I believe their secernment is a scathing testament to perhaps a growing number like me, suffering unmerited, yet government imposed persecution inflicted by the hand of socioeconomic impropriety.
From my reading over the last year, no one has been anymore forthright in issuing admonishment concerning this 'impropriety' involving U.S. trade deficits, fatuous production, 'free trade', the loss of jobs, and banking bailouts than Patrick Buchanan (see "Day of Reckoning"). As for my own role in any of this, I've just read Judith Blau's, Bailing Out a Leaky Boat and am presently watching events surrounding the upcoming G20 Summit on November 15th with guarded anticipation.
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- Brian McConnell's Column, All of Newsvine
- Groups: Homeless Issues, Our Orwellian World, RightsVine
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- Public Discussion (16)
- Homeless Issues
- Our Orwellian World
- RightsVine
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{"commentId":4021553,"authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
Well, I am glad that you are writing.Informing. http://homelessokc.newsvine.com .
We need people such as yourself to experience this matter of "enabled Dysfunction" from the perspective of one who may be trained to come up with viable solutions that are most are not aware of or turn a blind eye to this issue.Imagine how hard it is for a cognizant such as yourself to meander through the facade of "emergency" housing ...there are many out there who don't have the capacity to fend for themselves.they don't have a voice.Maybe your writing will shed some light on the apathy ...ignorance.
{"commentId":4021553,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
- 3 votes
#1 - Tue Nov 11, 2008 4:23 PM EST{"commentId":4030790,"authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
{"commentId":4032915,"authorDomain":"sushicat"}
Well, I am interested in hearing from both of ya'll concerning your present situation. Teo you have ran the course and you ,fortunately, keep bouncing back.
I know the homeless are increasing in this day and age. So, what can be done? Please keep me posted.
{"commentId":4032915,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"sushicat"}
- 4 votes
#2 - Wed Nov 12, 2008 12:21 PM EST{"commentId":4034163,"authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
{"commentId":4041649,"authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
Well very well written Brian.And thanks for the kindness and compliments.
reach out with courage.I've missed you Sushi Cat. Should send me a pic of yourself to my email...interested about the specter behind the beautiful words...Because I know that fish in the bowl is not you.lol.In both senses. Love and Forgiveness.Wisdom.TL3.
{"commentId":4041649,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":4045479,"authorDomain":"wallemalemon"}
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
So, there it is...and, has always been for so many of us, who've been exposed to the Christian faith know this, yet try with all their being to somehow bring the two into harmony. I'm one of them, without the wit or insight, or constitution to balance them both, while walking the tightrope of what fate throws into the mix...all of that we're expected to overcome 'somewhere else besides the work place'.
{"commentId":4045479,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"wallemalemon"}
- 2 votes
#3 - Thu Nov 13, 2008 7:54 AM EST{"commentId":4048970,"authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
{"commentId":4060115,"authorDomain":"wallemalemon"}
Brian, from your comment;
If what is unfolding is actually occurring at a scale of magnitude I believe it is--does this mean the world is on the brink of birthing a 'new’ (universal) religion?
I guess we'll just have to stay tuned . . .
I'm thinking the big wigs will have a universal bank, like the fed has for the US... We, as people, are still divided by our languages, political borders, let alone our religions to come together in much of an organized, unified way, though I reach out, knowing of such need...the corporate entities have become 'deified'...their minions preach 'growth' as the mantra for salvation (profit)... those who whistle-blow have less protections now than 8 years ago...We definitely need the business community to adjust their philosophy, because the 'growth' IS unsustainable and wasteful and unnecessary.
{"commentId":4060115,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"wallemalemon"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":4064242,"authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
The framework of what over the last half century has been a dominant Western system of economics and whose formation dates back to the end of World War II, goes on trial today at the G20 Summit. Otherwise known as the Bretton Woods System, it came into existence at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in 1944. These sessions served to establish IBRD, GATT, and the IMF under the auspices of a Keynesian 'debt-based' theory, but as a foundational component of what H.G. Wells had previously proposed in 1940 as The New World Order.
As I've already hinted in a prior posting to this thread, the historical backdrop for this system began taking shape towards the end of the 17th Century in conjunction with John Locke and the prescription of popular, 'middle-class' ideals involving 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. Ironically, the prospect of a collapse of this system (Western civilization), according to Toynbee, could set the stage for a universal religion to rise in its place.
Because Toynbee suggested that Democracy's greatest contribution to human development was 'social justice', it's especially ironic that the West's deviation from the first commandment should stand in such stark contrast to comparable principles of Sharia Law which forbids the subjection to usury in paying riba.
{"commentId":4064242,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
- 3 votes
#4 - Fri Nov 14, 2008 11:43 AM EST{"commentId":4135953,"authorDomain":"energynet"}
I spent 10 years out there. Was on the dean's list in college.
We've all been Locked out!
The flowery prose goes about year 4 or so after.
Everybody in the rat race is carrying around a hefty dose of PTSD. How many people did you have to step on, ignore or mess with to keep the status quo.
This is about a lot more than sparing a dime. Everybody got really really bloody rich and forgot what its like living on a couple dollars a day.
Just tell me fifty ways to leave your moral compass behind. "I worked for that money fair and square!!" Keep your hands off my stash!
Its all one big pot of boiled frogs out there. TV is the biggest self-medication machine on the planet.
"You deserve a Break today"
Just don't do it in public!
{"commentId":4135953,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"energynet"}
- 4 votes
#5 - Thu Nov 20, 2008 5:21 AM EST{"commentId":4136747,"authorDomain":"wallemalemon"}
energynet, from your comment;
Everybody in the rat race is carrying around a hefty dose of PTSD. How many people did you have to step on, ignore or mess with to keep the status quo.
....too many....if I saw one that I'd have to step on, ignore, or mess with, I felt it my moral obligation to refuse such deeds...needless to say, I've worked a lot of labor jobs and service area jobs...I still got PTSD, but I've had that since the 60s....what a mess.. hang in there...as I will...
Brian, you're a distinguished author....It's hard to believe you are homeless....
{"commentId":4136747,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"wallemalemon"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":4139520,"authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
I am too,lovetrust...due to illness and theft of my wealth...though it has allowed me many gifts...enabled me to do things since April 24 of this year that I would not done otherwise .
That I needed to do. I had embedded myself at the City rescue Mission,OKC from time to time to understand the enabled dysfunction that allowed many of my friends and acquaintance's to succumb to extreme drug and alcohol addiction and enable hundreds of people to live dysfunctional for years at the Mission.Literally,hundreds of the same people for years. I found the disease and it is called Mammon and it deceives many people to defile their humanity and that of their fellow humans. Both "rich" and poor.
Educated and ignorant.Humbled and arrogant.
This is only one medium I use to educate and heal.
www.homelessokc.blogspot.com is another that will provide links to all the others.
Sanctify everything and everyone.Forgive your greatest enemy, as "we" have all been greatly deceived,by design and agenda. Peace be with you. Wisdom through the resource of the Holy Spirit which is an integral part of our make up that many of us don't realize.Self -awareness and self-realization. Made in the direct image of the creator. Understand what that entails and what great power and responsibility comes with it. Be healed. You are healed. Take up your mat and walk.
Now go get your brother and sister and bring them to be healed.By you.As you are a child of God.This is not about religion or a dictate or doctrine of man. This is the Truth.
Breathe in...yes...now breathe out.That is you!The breath of Life.
{"commentId":4139520,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":4142366,"authorDomain":"energynet"}
I think it was John Steinbeck's "Winter of Our Discontent" that suggested the kind of economic wheels that play on so many. Your partner deserves every TV advert entisement and it is your job to fulfill that duty or be perceived as a failure in her and society's eyes.
So why not go rob the bank, one way or the other.
Its a miracle that there are any women at all that can see through the materialist perfume being sprayed in their face.
{"commentId":4142366,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"energynet"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":7238718,"authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
A new book written by a leading globalist luminary provides a blueprint for how 6,000 elitists plan to completely end national sovereignty, impose a system of global governance, and how they will deal with an international network of people that resist their agenda.
Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making is a manifesto for how the elite plan to shape the course of the planet and impose a new world order while combating the inevitable "global network of antiglobalists" who will rise up against it.
{"commentId":7238718,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"homelessokc"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":4159341,"authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
Though I haven't actually read The Winter of Our Discontent, I'm a huge Steinbeck fan nonetheless and can well understand why he'd set his story of moral subversion within a contemporary setting of the 60's in which the book was published. Having centered several of his previous works in the Depression era, Steinbeck possessed an adroit grasp of both the nature and depth of human suffering.
As an example of just how far this societal decadence has run amuck, I blogged the following excerpt two days ago to an article published here at Newsvine entitled, "Myth-Busting Homeless Statistics":
I read an article published at The Huffington Post a few days ago suggesting the prospect of "demolishing houses" by eminent domain to curb the over-supply of housing (see Hale Stewart's - 'How to Fix the Economy').
When this sort of thinking reflects the epitome of societal knowledge, how is one to distinguish between the mental incompetent struggling to survive the street and those wielding the power to put him there?
I also came across an interesting video earlier today produced by PBS in February of 2007 entitled, Home at Last?
{"commentId":4159341,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"gospelnous"}
- 3 votes
#6 - Fri Nov 21, 2008 4:56 PM EST{"commentId":4164028,"authorDomain":"energynet"}
The The Winter... was clearly an example of the kind of pressures we all face. What happens when those pressures go beyond what somebody can deal with by themselves?
Home at last! Wow... What a simple solutions. Housing solves homelessness!
Once somebody is stuck out there, the layers of problems can be so complex, not to mention that the longer out there, the more complicated things become.
The idea of building small places for certain people who have yet to fall into the bigger traps out there has never been dealt with. The sooner they are found the more likely they will stay stable.
This is such a complex issue, yet if we only tried to be proactive and start looking for folks before they end up on the street....
{"commentId":4164028,"threadId":"416282","contentId":"2059918","authorDomain":"energynet"}
- 4 votes
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