http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4535203Oh my.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 06:36 PM
Original message
Women staying in unproductive relationships from lack of choices!
I just came from visiting with a young friend... 20 years old. She's working fast food, and had short hours for a few weeks, and was barely scraping through. Her father had said he would help her go to beauty school, so she could make more money, and do something she liked better, and save for going back to college. Now he has dropped that, and she is stuck.
She summed it up quite well... she has two choices... to stay where she is and work a crap job and live with her boyfriend who doesn't pay the bills, or to go back home and live with her parents, who make her feel like the black sheep of the family. Her father has really destroyed her self-confidence.
This makes me soooo angry, and I know there are so many young women living with boyfriends because they have no choice.
WHEN are we going to take it seriously that we need to DEMAND low-income housing so that young women don't have to live like this?
WHEN are we going to demand adequate low-income housing so that disabled people are able to live in a decent place instead of in their cars?
WHEN are we going to demand adequate low-income housing so that elderly people don't have to live with abuse?
WHEN??
Are you willing to start writing and calling and demanding that we change this ugly picture?
Rep. Barney Frank, in his introduction to his National Housing Trust Fund Bill, said that there are 9 million of us who need low-income housing, and 6 million available units. I think that figure is low, but even if it's accurate, a first-grader can do that math---at any given time there are at least 3 million people without a decent place to live!
Are we willing to accept that?
Can we start to consider this as important as stopping the war, as important as gay marriage, as important as closing Guantanamo, etc?
Can we decide to Take Action on this?!
uh-oh. The bobbling primitive's on thin ice, the penultimate paragraph.
Some primitives gently twit the bobbling primitive, after which:
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 06:53 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. You're the first one on this thread who *does* understand.
And we call ourselves "progressive".
The responses so far are NO DIFFERENT from the RW.
Warren Stupidity (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 07:00 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. perhaps because your post makes not a lot of sense?
Several people have pointed out where your narrative falls apart, and yet you have made no attempt at an explanation. Your conclusion is that we just aren't progressive, apparently it seems because despite agreeing that there should be low income housing available to all in need, we don't quite understand your story.
LiberalEsto (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 07:00 PM
Response to Original message
10. Her employers need to pay a living wage
That's the real heart of the matter.
If people working these jobs were paid enough to pay rent, buy food and get by, it would solve a lot of these problems.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 07:01 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. So, we can wait for that..... or start getting low-income housing for ALL now??
As I said, there are many more of us... not just those who work.
Are we worth anything at all?
Nah, probably not; it's a form of social abortion.
That should be fine with the primitives, who like abortion.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 09:09 PM
Response to Reply #60
61. I included people like me in the OP.... but you've made it clear you're not available to push for Low-income Housing.
It's OK... I really enjoy living in my car.
As much as she enjoys living with a boyfriend who isn't good for her, or a father who is abusive.
I'm glad you are above it all. It must be sooooo nice.
The bobbling primitive isn't getting a whole lot of support from her fellow primitives.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 07:26 PM
Response to Reply #19
22. "The lack of affordable housing in America is a social evil that desperately needs to be remedied."
You said it all!!
But, you can see from this thread that it just doesn't have any importance to "progressives".
Thank you for taking the time.... this is really, really sad!
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 07:47 PM
Response to Reply #24
28. So, what are we going to do about it? Accept it?
"Of course it sucks. "
YEs.
Now, what do we do about it?
Just continue to let it suck to be woman?
To be aged?
To be disabled?
To be a soon-to-be-aborted infant?
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 09:11 PM
Response to Reply #48
63. Unlike many here, I don't dictate to people.
Which is precisely why they trust me, and disclose things to me they don't disclose to others.
But, you're right. I'm just a lousy friend. Thank you for reminding me of that.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 08:12 PM
Response to Reply #38
39. And how do you know that?? Do you know her?
What is scary is that this is the same attitude from the RW, and look where that's brought us.
You don't know this area, and you don't know what she's done and how she's tried, yet you are so ready to pronounce the prescription.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #41
46. It must be great to be so certain.
So, that is why you are not supportive of low-income housing?
Because you don't have to know people to know what they need, and what mistakes they're making?
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 09:13 PM
Response to Reply #53
65. thanks for reminding me that you consider me illogical.
I haven't called you names, but it's soooo "progressive" and enlightened to call other people names.
Then you wonder why the tag "elitist" gets applied to "progressives".
I'm done. You can judge me and others all you like.... you're no different from the RWers who judge.
bye-bye-- have the last judgmental word.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 08:43 PM
Response to Reply #43
49. Especially the know-it-alls who've never been there... just like the RWers who are so CERTAIN that they have the answers!
Any of us who've tried the "roommate" answer KNOW the problems! Druggies. Women who bring in strange men from bars at 3am, exposing the roommate to risk without consent. Roomies who have no consideration for others, when they're trying to study.
I know a young man, also 20, who is working full time and going to school full-time. Just last night he told me that he wouldn't be able to be in school if it weren't for the subsidized apartment he has.
Yet, to hear the people here speak about it, he could find a way without relying on the goverment (such AWARE RWer talking points!) if only he would "try".
I'm just very sad to see the ignorance in these replies.
The heartlessness.
The Oprah "I did it so can you" rah-rah.
As a nation, we've lost our soul.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 09:14 PM
Response to Reply #55
66. Yes, it's all bullshit to you, because you don't see any need for compassion.
The judgement here is unbelievable.
It must be nice to be soooo superior.
bye-bye to you, too... have your last superior word now.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 08:49 PM
Response to Original message
52. For all of you "progressives"
You have made me see the light.
To hell with low-income housing... it just isn't worth your time.
Let the working poor work harder, and let the homeless elderly and disabled people fly off a cliff.
You've shown me that homelessness is great in this country, and will remain so.
bobbolink (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-25-08 09:16 PM
Response to Reply #62
67. "first she kicks out the deadbeat boyfriend" GREAT IDEA!! WHY DIDNT SHE THINK OF THAT???
Mainly becauase it's HIS apartment, and she wouldn't have the first and last and deposit??
Wow.. too bad she isn't as smart as you are.
It looks as if many primitives are finding the bobbling primitive a bit tedious, boring.
The bobbling primitive needs to take lessons in "getting along with other people" from El Stupido Supremo or something, so as to rehabilitate her image on Skins's island.