Nov 25, 2019, 4:49 AM
Are people actively searching for the family? Can they be housed with any church members in the meantime or do you have any partner churches where they can get sanctuary?
RL Anger
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OK.
I just sort of shook off the car thing but now I do wanna mope.Had a last minute meeting come up at work; one I had to be at. But it was scheduled right over top my therapy appointment. So I had to cancel it.
Cancellation fee for cancelling with less than 24 hours notice? $60. $60 I honestly don't have (I was gonna scrape it together for the therapy appt cause it's important but y'know). I mean I GET it but I'm just gonna grouch and sulk and mutter about it because ugh.
I think I need to put therapy on hold until this whole crunch time at work is done because this was the third time I'd rescheduled due to meetings ANYWAY (the others at least with enough warning not to get a fee).
Saying the quiet parts out loud since 1996.
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He/Him
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flask was moved and is still full of whiskey.
Laws in Texas (I think that is where you said you are now, right?) are surly more lax than they are in So Cal. I would get busted for open container laws if I had a flask full of whiskey in the car...lol
Sorry people went through your shit. =(
Yeah, open containers of alcohol in your car are super, super illegal in Pennsylvania, even if you're stone-cold sober.
....Which is why it's called a road soda and you don't keep it in a flask. Duh.
(I say this for passengers. Not drivers. I have a college friend that still owes $300K in medical bills for his reconstructed arm after being the only dude to survive a drunk driving accident in which he was very much not the driver. Driving drunk? Don't... don't do that.)
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Last night an ICE agent posing as a homeless person tried to infiltrate the emergency family shelter that I volunteer at (it's in the basement of the church, we serve a warm meal to the families, and then two social workers from catholic community services stay up in shifts to make sure everyone is safe). The family in question (who I know and am in tears and distressed over) sensed something was up when she first started asking questions of the staff members (about a family that "looked white but wasn't") and fled out a side door literally leaving their dinner plates and everything but one backpack behind. They have two children under the age of 6 who are NOW FUCKING ON THE STREET god knows where. The staffers told the woman that she could not stay because you can only stay in this emergency shelter if you have a child under the age of 18 but she was invited to stay and have a meal at least. While the social workers were distracted checking in and setting up a brand new family with their paperwork, the ICE agent started asking invasive and harassing questions of the families. It was then that she was asked to leave. When one of the social workers went out for a break at 12:45 AM this morning (while the families were sleeping) she saw the undercover agent talking to two others beside an ICE marked van across the street.
I feel sick. There are not many family shelters in my area that will take people in on a walk in basis. Most of our families do not stay too long maybe a month or two until transitional housing or a real shelter beds open up. They can only stay from 8:30 pm till 7:00 am. They sleep on mattresses on the floor. It's not swank. Its emergency situations. These are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. I volunteer on a recurring day of the week and when I was there last week I held a 3 month old baby so her momma could have a break and eat. Theres always kids running around and it's pretty fun for that. People are only here because the families do not want to be separated or the family housing is full.
I am shaking with anger right now. There's a special place in hell for people trying to make quota preying on families with children because they think they are easy targets. I feel sick. I guess I'm going to be making a lot of angry phone calls on Monday. And wondering how many more families wont come for help when they need it when word gets out.
If this makes you happy, then go fuck yourself.
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@mietze Make sure at least one of those phone calls is to a news agency. And if your senator or representative is a Democrat, let them know too.
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@TNP yes we are on it. The church is handling the media, the rest of us are converging on state and local representatives including city officials.
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I also recommend getting the ACLU involved, as well as Tweeting at everyone from MSNBC to NPR to the Guardian to goddamn presidential candidates. Immigration attorneys.
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@mietze I would also recommend finding a local celebrity (or a famous person originally from your area, if possible) and get them to pay attention. Famous people kicking up a stink is how things get less broken.
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Are people actively searching for the family? Can they be housed with any church members in the meantime or do you have any partner churches where they can get sanctuary?
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@hedgehog yep ACLU both national and local chapter have been contacted. We also have a great network of immigration activists who will also be getting involved. Word spreading rapidly locally (I misread my email, it happened friday evening/sat am not last night, I didnt check my email until this evening so was reading it raw). Will also be contacting city and county law enforcement (neither is supposed to be working with ICE and they should have a heads up this happened and to be aware). I'm just prepping for a lot of phone work tomorrow, I hate that but numbers speak loud. But I think I've done all the emails I can so tonight and there are lots of us doing that.
I have heard through the grapevine that the family has not been seen since (theres a day shelter elsewhere that many of the families move back and forth from). I know CCC keeps some records so I am hoping they'll be able to get in touch with them somehow. It's been really cold at night this weekend. I hope they found somewhere safe. I guess this is the reason why theres a list of all the small shelters in the local network.
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@mietze I'm not big time but I can sometimes get some good traction on Twitter. If you point me to the story, I'll retweet the shit out of it.
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Man, even begging has gone high tech. On my way in to work this morning, I was approached by a homeless guy asking for money. When i gave him my usual "Sorry mate, I don't carry cash" (which is true enough), he whips out an iPhone 11 with a Square reader, at which point I laughed and walked off. This is worse than the woman that told me she took PayPal, and the other woman who 'helpfully' pointed me towards the closest ATM.
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@Darren Why is this "worse" or "bad" at all?
Fair warning, I'm about to pull out my soapbox on this.
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I make things via patronage.
The Long Dig -
@Darren Why is this "worse" or "bad" at all?
Fair warning, I'm about to pull out my soapbox on this.
For the same reason that you don't generally get to file for bankruptcy and then fly away in your private jet. You have items of value that you can liquidate or downgrade, but you're asking strangers for money in this ultra high-tech way? At best, it suggests that you don't actually need the help. At worst, it feels like someone running a con.
Might not be a popular opinion, but there we go. Soapbox away.
Racism isn't Tinkerbell. It doesn't need you to believe in it for it to exist.
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I know the hoops I would have to jump through to get a square. We have to use my mother's for our business. We still have medical debt/etc. and while that persists we don't qualify, and I fully understand why that's the case even if it bites me in the ass.
That person may be borrowing someone else's also, so I'm not going to jump to conclusions here.
If not? Their bank account and financials are in better standing than ours, which we've been working steadily for years to fix at this point so we can do this for our business.
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It's a terrible opinion and not rooted in fact at all.
That cell phone is likely the ONLY computer that person has access to. Which means it is how he or she applies for jobs. Which means it is how he or she can hope to elevate him or herself out of poverty.
Begrudging people asking for money that assistance because you don't like that they've adjusted to accommodate our increasing reliance on non-cash transactions is reprehensible. It's disgusting.
@surreality -- I admittedly don't know the square hoops, so "fair enough", perhaps, to that. But still: it's not our job to police people when they ask for help. If we can help, great, do that. The end. What they use it on and how they choose to spend the assistance given is not our business.
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I make things via patronage.
The Long Dig -
You do get to declare bankruptcy and exempt items of personal property. Private jet? Probably not. A smartphone? Absolutely.
Like ... are there scammers in the world obviously there are but also what.
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It's a terrible opinion and not rooted in fact at all.
That cell phone is likely the ONLY computer that person has access to. Which means it is how he or she applies for jobs. Which means it is how he or she can hope to elevate him or herself out of poverty.
Begrudging people asking for money that assistance because you don't like that they've adjusted to accommodate our increasing reliance on non-cash transactions is reprehensible. It's disgusting.
@surreality -- I admittedly don't know the square hoops, so "fair enough", perhaps, to that. But still: it's not our job to police people when they ask for help. If we can help, great, do that. The end. What they use it on and how they choose to spend the assistance given is not our business.
Bull. Shit.
Look, I actually get to speak on this one, because I was homeless for over a year. While doing so, I went to fucking college. I took advantage of every program available to me. And I sure as fuck didn't harass yon passerby for money, because that's ridiculous. If I needed something specific, I would ask for it, and I knew who and where to ask for it, as can just about everyone else.
Most of the "homeless" that you see, out there on the street and looking oh so unkempt, are doing so on purpose, because they know that's the most effective way to get you to give them money. They can easily make a grand a month doing so. It's a pretty lucrative gig, if you don't care about personal hygiene at all.
Public libraries can be used to access computers, and most 'help me find work' programs run by state agencies provide the exact same thing.
This problem is so well known that multiple studies have been done on it, and it even had its own goddamn article in The Atlantic.
So don't come at me with 'disgusting worldview not at all based in fact' when it is, in fact, based in fact, and the only reprehensible thing here is how completely these people have beguiled you into thinking that their harassing behaviors and lack of personal motivation are the product of institutional barriers, when all manner of institutional assistance exists.
They know this. They don't want that.
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@Derp Jesus fucking christ, you're abominable.
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I make things via patronage.
The Long Dig