I am formulating a diabolical plan.

[Doc]

Yeah, the poor need to get something from this. Somehow. As of right now, I am so pissed off that I am honestly not thinking of their needs at the moment... I am feeling incredibly pissy and vindictive today after going over some estimate reports. Food banks are damn near empty. T-Day is coming. The food is actually leaving the food banks faster than it is going in, which is a REAL problem. Just about every community ministry I know of is having some difficulty, even the Catholic charities are experiencing some shortages, and they are brutally effective at squeezing their flock for donations using the dual scourge of guilt and duty. (Not a bash at Catholics at all. I may not agree with their theology much, but they are, by and far, some of the most charitable people around and they are well organised for distrobution) Part of it is the terrible economy, part of it is that poverty is overwhelming everyone and everything in sight, and from what I hear part of it (From the Catholic side at least) is that a lot of the charitable workers are getting old and retiring. Nuns and such. And there are not enough of the younger generation replacing them. There is a lot of problems right now. Oh, and the whole war thing, where so many of our locals (And everybody elses) are off in the sandbox and their wives and children are straining our resources to the point of something critical breaking. There are a lot of factors this year. Going to be even more problems in the coming years. Wal Mart is using all of this to their advantage, building more and more stores in this area, while local business owners are away in the sandbox. When those guys come home, they are not going to have a business to return home to. Which means in a few years, there is going to be even more strain. No end in sight. Total economic collapse is happening right now this minute around here. Parts of this area are rapidly turning in to ghost towns... Mass evictions of people who can no longer make ends meet. Mill workers who had mill housing... Well, with what few mill jobs that are left, which aint many, but a lot of those guys joined the National Guard to make ends meet and get benefits, etc, and they are all gone now, and their wives and children are losing thier homes because it is impossible to make ends meet with the husband gone. It is downright scary seeing an entire neighborhood die. Nothing but empty houses in some areas. God, it is awful here. The ripple effect is destroying everything around me. Wages are actually going DOWN around here. So many people looking for work that employers are dropping wages lower knowing that people will take the job. Wal Mart is bottomed out at min wage for most of its workers... About a year ago it was a dollar or two over min. Quick stores and gas station clerks, which used to pay about 8 to 10 and hour, maybe more on high risk shifts, has gone down to barely a buck over min. A lot of the fast food places have dropped full timers from their rosters, staffing themselves entirely with part timers, all of which are working at a flat min wage. It is crazy watching all this happen and get worse.

And the people that could be helping the most, they are doing the least. What good is money if you don't do anything with it? I am feeling powerless and angry, two feelings that make me prone to being irrational and dangerous.

I have been wracking my brain trying to come up with some long term solutions to combat everything that has been happening, and all I have come up with is blanks. Nada. I aint got nothing.