Too many of us are beggars and scroungers (#2189)

Unfortunately there is a lack of opportunity among our poorer citizens to climb out of their obvious desperation. I see too many people scrounging in trash cans for recyclables and anything else that is being discarded with some value or nutrition left. I see too many who are on street corners with their cardboard signs asking for help in some form or another. Now I know that some of these street beggars are not as bad off as they try to imply, however, they are still relying on begging as a means for income. Too many of our citizens rely every month on what near expiration date food they can get from food banks and other forms of charity outlets. I know too many of our homeless are being pushed out of the cities and counties because they are seen as a blight on "proper" community standards. I see too many men at the large home improvement stores begging for day jobs of any kind. It is so troubling to me that instead of finding solutions to these inherent problems our political leaders are more inclined to punish these folks than to help them. Think about that for a moment, Punishing the disadvantaged for being disadvantaged. It is as if some dark world mindset has taken over our democracy and replaced it with a repressive non caring ideology. Well that is more truthful than is being reported. We do have those in office of power who think that everyone should be made to fend for themselves regardless of the difficulty most citizens face in a system that favors privilege and advantage. So if the majority of Americans are living below or just above the poverty level, these survival of the fittest ideologists, think that it is not their duty to help but to allow it to continue. They think that what we do for ourselves is enough of a stake in life. So for all of us who are in an income inequality vacuum, it is our responsibility alone to pull ourselves out of the suction that is concentrating us deeper and deeper into debt and closer to unsustainable impoverishment. This is not what our America should stand for and it is high time that we changed that awful way of thinking in order to help all our citizens achieve success through helping and not punishing.