Jackson Jambalaya

No problem.. I have plenty of both sizes. The PROBLEM IS they are work jeans. The jeans will work, the homeless won’t. For the record, I have 3 former employees that are panhandling daily at the intersection on Lakeland by St Dominic’s. Those 3 employees have more skill in their trade than you could ever imagine yet they chose drugs and alcohol over a very good living. I’ve tried everything to convince them to change but $35 /hour I guess is not enough. Sad to see talent and skill waste away like that but that’s life. By the way, you can’t change the spots on a dog.

KF, I didn't know that you are a bleeding heart for vagrants, bums, "homeless," etc. There are at least 5 definitions for "homeless," a buzzword embraced by progressives. Giving them free shit is the same as feeding feral cats - the problem gets worse.

Why work and be a responsible and contributing member of society when people will give you everything for free?

They get double points if they claim that they are a veteran, almost always a lie, easily proven if one asks them some questions about their service.

Except for one time, when I offer to buy a meal for these "homeless" types, they always respond with "fuck you," as they just want money for drugs.

How sad that 12:50 and 1:00 have allowed their hearts to be hardened. None of us ever truly know the stories or histories of the people who might be helped by a ministry to others.

And remember Matthew 25:31-46:

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The recipients of kind acts might not always be deserving -- but those who offer the kindness will always be blessed by doing so.

Cynicism with respect to homeless/winos/vagrants is often deserved, but if a derelict has drunk or drugged away half his mind, usually by 40 to 50 years old, is harmless and can't be reformed, they are human waste, just feral hominids waiting to die.

In that hopeless case, I don't mind buying/giving them a pair of jeans. But it's difficult for us to distinguish between a threatening mental cases who should be confined and a harmless but vegetating beggar or for that matter, a vet with some gruesome battle syndrome.

All this to say that I'd rather give a small donation to getting all these people, worthy and worthless, off the streets and into a healthy agricultural work and rehab facility, out of town, rather than equip them to continue to harass, and even threaten us.

It is apparent that 12:50pm and 1:00pm have no idea what Shower Power is about. I highly recommend that you read about it - started by someone who was actually homeless and is now a successful member of our society with a great family. It is not a hand out - it is a hand up. It gives those with nothing just a little bit of dignity and lets them know that someone out there cares. It started as just a shower - no hand outs, no money changing hands, etc. Just a shower. It was through the power of the shower that other community members have gotten involved and volunteer to help those that show up. Homelessness has more faces than the ones we see pan handling on street corners. Yes, mental illness and drug use is pervasive throughout the homeless community, but that is not the whole story. My question to you - if you have extra jeans that you won't ever wear again, why stockpile them in your closet? It costs you nothing to be nice and caring toward another human and your mere donation could mean everything to them. God Bless you, Kingfish and the incredible volunteers at Shower Power.

Nowhere in any Bible are we admonished to 'hand out, feed or provide for those who will not work'. Just the opposite.

Maybe this one will be published - doubt it.

I’m the 12:50 poster. I use to employ the 3 that I speak of and work the intersection. I have offered work to them countless times and even housed one for a short period of time in a hotel at my expense while he made very very good paychecks. I suggest you become an employer and try to Work some of these people. It was a total Waste of my time and a complete waste of good oxygen. You could give most of these people the world and if you actually knew their mentality you would be shocked. These are the type that need to be in Whitfield. Drugs have totally burdened their brains to a frazzle.

The jackasses posting on here will be the same ones crying that we are a Christian nation next time somebody does something they don’t like. Can’t you be miserable quietly?

Many of our homeless are mentally ill, mostly not of their own doing. Many are veterans. But to say some are deserving of a hand and others are not is like saying you earned your way into heaven and f the rest of us. Hope these homeless souls are hanging out at heavens gate when you arrive. It would be awkward would it not?

The solution is simple. Get a job.

"For the record, I have 3 former employees that are panhandling daily at the intersection on Lakeland by St Dominic’s. Those 3 employees have more skill in their trade than you could ever imagine yet they chose drugs and alcohol over a very good living. I’ve tried everything to convince them to change but
$35 /hour I guess is not enough."

I say I'll be there first thing in the morning with a sign that reads:
"I don't want food or money, I just want my crappy job back!"

So what you say Boss, around 10 good for you?

I donate used clothing to a local thrift store. Maybe the Shower Power people can buy clothes on the cheap there & give them to the homeless, or better yet, the homeless can spend their donations on clothes at thrift stores ... if that's really what they want donations for.

I applaud Shower Power and I do still donate and help the downtrodden when I can.

And I know there are some deserving people mixed in among the thousands of lazy liars, but after having my own charitable offerings wasted on a couple of beggars/scammers in my younger days I only contribute to a few select organizations that I still moderately trust.

Its a shame that so many abuse the kindness of others and prevent the few that really want a hand up from being seen.

To the person posting the Whitfield comment....Whitfield stays full, which is why you have a lot of mentally ill people roaming the streets. Mentally ill people are still human beings. Yall suck.

Thanks KF for posting

@9:28 AM - so you are a shrink and have made a diagnosis of all of these folks? You probably believe that they are all "veterans" because they say so, right?

Please keep giving them free shit, and maybe even let them sleep in a spare bedroom or two, right?

Thank you KF. I certainly get everyone’s disdain for the vagrants and the litter and the panhandling. Someone told me many years ago when I had the exact same thoughts and opinions that, “you have to go through greed to get to the need.” And that made sense to me. We see the hustlers hustling people that have even less than they do. It’s terrible.

Do we see scammers? Yes. Do we meet liars? Every day. Do we meet schizophrenics that have minimal access to healthcare that have developed many of these attributes as a means of survival—who are NOT employable but most definitely worthy of love and acknowledgement? All the time.

Had we looked the other way every time we could have, we would have missed a lot of opportunities to help. Can they all be helped? Definitely not. But we continue to search for that “one.” And now we’re up to 12. We’ve gotten 12 people off the street and into sustainable housing. And it started with a shower.

Is it easy? No. Have we had some fail? For sure. But we are careful about mis-characterizing them as worthless. That’s simply not the case. They’re human beings. And plenty of them have experienced a level of trauma that no one here can fathom.

Thank you to those that continue to support our mission. And if you have any jeans, we’d love to have them, too. ♥️

Mary Ann — Shower Power MS

I’m glad that I stated the first comment. I still cannot see how these people are employable. So how are we to treat them? Give them money to fuel their addictions? Hey, I tried to change a few but it didn’t work. You can only waste so much money and time. Any employers out there will tell you that it’s a losing game. So if any of you think $35 an hour is chump change, well, you probably aren’t making that and you’re jealous that for a short brief time some vagrants DID make that kind of money but they weren’t cut out for the long haul to keep escalating their pay rate.

The truly needy souls know where to get an honest hot meal and a decent bed for the night.
Along with real help ... (if they want it).

The imposters in front of St.D need to at least return to Hollywood once per year.

So they can accept best supporting actor awards.

Back in the day, you bleeding hearts would head straight from Calvary Baptist to Primos on State or Dennery's for Sunday's finest. What happened to all those places and churches?....Wait! They were consumed and destroyed by the slovenly and those who perpetuate that trait. And for what? A larger bait-net to cast upon the waters.