The Contributor

ok....where do i begin?....does anyone else think this is total bullshit?...has anyone on here actually bought one of these papers that are ridiculously growing throughout the city?


i dont usually read the regualar news paper but when i do i understand that theres gonna be articles in there that im not gonna like so i skim...now when a guy at work bought two of these papers and gave it to us after he was done with it....on both occations i might add....every article in these things are about homelessness and how we should accomodate them more and how they are mistreated....now i understand the people out the that want to work and provide a service but get a real job...making people feel sorry for not giving you more money for nothing is not a service-asking for donations is not a service...its a guilt trip....its like the schools in antioch here were they get the kids to stand at the intersections trying to ask for donations so they can afford new jerseys or whatever, wash a fucking car or something....now i really dont want to think this way about this but the more i think about it it males me mad...so what does everyone else think....am i wrong? cause i kinda want to be

and they keep the profit for themselves?
if they sold a regular paper i might actually buy it cause i like to read real news

When I was living in South Florida the newspapers gave away a certain amount of actual newspapers to homeless people and you could buy it from them all over town. I've seen these homeless papers being offered too. I have mixed feelings about them. I don't know if I totally agree that it's a matter of just get a job already though. There has to be a different reason for each homeless person out there why they don't have a job or a place to live. My guess is that the two biggest reasons people end up in trouble like that are addiction or mental illness. Now I know that most people can understand that addiction isn't an issue where the person just is too lazy to quit. Mental illness isn't something that people check off on a form and ask for either. I try to give people something, maybe a buck or two if I can. It's not going to fix anything but maybe it'll make them not feel like there's no hope what so ever.
The standing out on the corner for new jerseys and candy selling is bad though. On one hand some of those kids have balls of brass and I instantly hate them when I can see future salesman of the month asking me to give him money which quite honestly I never have enough of. On the other hand I feel like total shit because some one has sent their kid out and ow I have to explain that I don;t want to buy their what ever or just give them money. The cute/child begging factor makes me instantly angry and I'm non receptive.
My main asking for money bitch is with firemen who are of the non-volunteer variety asking for money for their calender drive or something. I feel like if I say no then they are going to take out a piece of chalk and mark my house so that if I call they will sit out front and know that this one didn't give money and let it burn for a while. That said firemen have a better chance than cops fro getting money out of me.

The Sun Sentinel giving South Florida bums those papers to sell was icing on the cake to an already lucrative handout biz.. Those "homeless" folks make more money than most blue collar workers in SoFlo..
And SoFlo firefighters donating their personal time to raise cash for charity is hardly something to get upset about. Dade/Broward/Palm Beach city admins notoriously give the firefighters the short end of the stick by forcing them to do public work jobs all the while cutting away their benefits, pensions and salaries etc. These people put their lives on the line for squat pay/benefits and certainly don't deserve catching shit for donating their time in the hot sun, esp when they are fundraising for Children's Cancer and the like.. and yes, my stepdad is a SoFlo firefighter who almost died on duty multiple times and spent much personal time raising money for charities..

I'm sorry if in some way I offended you with the fire man point of topic. I have a fire fighter in my family as well and I probably could have explained my point a little better.To clarify I wasn't actually referring to Fire Fighters in Florida. I was talking about the Smyrna Fire Dept. They come to my house about 4 times a a year asking us to donate money and we have to explain each time that we don't live in Smyrna. We live in unincorporated Rutherford County. We have a volunteer fire dept. who would help us out if we needed help. I know for a fact that when some one needs an ambulance we have to wait for the volunteer fire dept to come here. They are located about 15 miles away. The Smyrna fire dept is only about 5 miles from here. The Smyrna Fire dept doesn't swoop in because they are closer. I try explaining this to them in nicer words and they get attitude. In principle I agree that Fire Fighters should get respect. MY Brother in Law is a firefighter. I respect his choice in his profession.

I but this paper pretty often .. and at first I would read most of it, but now I just get it to help them out

I agree, they should write about more than just being homeless .. thats probably what most of them know best, but they could try to get out of the box a little and write about more shit going on in the world than just that

but overall I think its a great thing .. at least they are actually putting forth an effort .. I agree with Chris, I dont mind helping out people that try, but just standing in the middle of the street coming up to my window? fuck you! wash some cars, sell me some cookies, write a paper that I can buy, whatever, just dont ask for free handouts .. especially if your not a larger know organization .. you hear tons of stories of small companies lying about what they do with the money and fucking people over .. so I just give to the bigger ones or ones that do something in return for their "donation"

I should at least get a goddamn sticker for my $1

the smyrna fire dept doesn't come to your house? i don't know about rutheford co., but both my mom and stepdad were volunteer firefighters (and EMTs) in bedford co. the way they set it up was there were different districts and the local volunteers were the first on the scene in their district, but the paid FF's were called to all the districts.

I also know of folks that volunteer for the smyrna city FDs. I assume there is a skeleton crew of paid workers with volunteers getting called in from home. the problem with that is the funding is based on the employed workers so they can't afford all of the gear and training needed for everyone who works with the FD.

cops get a bad rep. if your job was to deal with the scummiest pieces of shit, criminals, murders, deaths, and injuries in car accidents day in and day out for a low middle class salary, you'd go into every situation with an attitude to. they can be dicks, but their job is to expect the worst from every situation so they are on top when the worst actually happens. it took me a long time to realize that. give to the FD and PD whenever you can.

fuck the homeless. i've been there and it ain't what most people think. when i go to stop lights where they are selling the contributor, they don't even look in my direction cause they know i got their number. mental illness is an exception, but definatly not the rule.

lastly, you can't be an addict without an enabler.

on a lighter note, when i read the last post about writing what they know about, i pictured a crusty hum bum with a visor that said "scoop" on a tag sticking out of it and a camera around his neck, and a notepad and pencil. "cecil says vent on 6th ave "warmest in city". fuck the homeless except that guy.

oh and zeke from the muse has a nicer house than i've ever lived in. i saw it on the news when his daughter was attacked by that dog.

yeah my set up is where I live in the County. I live closer to Smyrna but have a Murfreesboro address. The Smyrna or Murfreesboro bulls can be sitting at Florence station but a sheriff has to drive all the way over here from bumblefuck if we need help. The same goes for an ambulance or fire truck.

On a funny note last year there was a cow in the middle of the road on Old Nashville Highway at the corner of Florence. I told the cop bullshitting in the gas station and he said that it wasn't his problem, cows get out.

That area is kind of where both Smyrna and Boro cops go to pick their nose and look at nudey magazines. They either sit at the baptist church on Singer, in the drive way of the Murfreesboro mulch place or another church on old nashville.

where do you live, because that's really close to me. i live down florence behind nissan. i lived on alexandria dr (which is between florence station and the m'boro city storage) for ten years. i had the same deal with the boro address.

I live on Old Nashville toward Smyrna off of Florence. We get screwed with water and electric service too. We have to use Consolidated utility and MTEC or what ever it is for electricity. Out of all the utilities here that I hate the most is Atmos.