On Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:53:21 -0500, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

Dave LaCourse wrote:
Ken Fortenberry wrote:
http://www.massresources.org/massach...service_d.html

Get your friend under the bridge some real help, that's what
government is for you know. I'm sure the state of Massachusetts
can come up with something better than poop baggies. But, you're
a real sweetheart for giving him poop baggies, really you are.

He's been that route, Ken. He's received very little help from the
"government". All the help he is now getting is from charitable
giving. Period.

Something doesn't smell right with that story. I think you've
been had, Louie. If I were you I wouldn't give that deadbeat
any more poop baggies until he started to look for a job.

Nope. There is a whole set of "campers" on the north shore of the
Merrimack River in Lowell. They've been there for a couple of years.
Mark and his wife are new arrivals - about six weeks now. People come
and go as their luck changes. Some are just professional bums, but
many, like Mark and his wife, are homeless and get little care from
the government. He *does* work when he can find it. He is a
sheetrock guy... installs sheet rock in new construction, upgrades,
etc. And, from what I understand, he is very good at it.

Right now, however, he depends on the generousity of others. The
government (FDA) presently supplies a can of green beans, fruit
cocktail, pineapple juice (big can), can of chicken noodle soup, and a
small can of tuna fish per person per month. That is not a helluva
lot of food from FDA *for a month*. We give them more than enough
food for one week/person. A family of five will walk out of there
with three banana boxes filled with canned food, cereal, fresh
veggies, fresh fruit, starches (rice/macaroni), toilet paper, hygenic
needs, and one pound of meat per person. They can visit our facility
once. However, there are three more facilities in the city that they
can, and do, visit. And of this is provided by the generousity of
others. Without it, people would go hungry.

The government was never meant to be the solution to every problem in
our society. Some solutions must come from the people themselves.

Dave