Food Crisis?

"The food crisis in Milwaukee - and throughout the United States - is worse than many of us have realized,” Hines said in a statement. “We expect long lines for free food in Third World countries; we don’t expect a line of 2,500 people waiting for food vouchers at the Marcia P. Coggs Center.” Alderman Willie Hines - JS Online

Food crisis in Milwaukee.

I love Alderman Hines. I do. If you are a regular reader on this site you know that. That’s why his statement in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is so distressing. “The food crisis in Milwaukee… is worse than many of us have realized.”

Worse than?

In the summer of 1990, I spent six weeks in Sierra Leone, West Africa. My first day in the country, I was followed around town by a very annoying six or seven year old boy who had a swollen belly and red hair. At first I didn’t notice him. He was just some annoying kid who wanted a candy bar or something. It wasn’t until I got back to where we were staying that the stark reality of this kid's situation sung in. (Yes, the kid followed us back to the mission where I was staying.). When the priest saw him, he ran over, scooped the kid up and ran to the infirmary. The child’s pants were ripped and hanging off him. That's when it hit me.  The child who I was trying to shoo away was poor, filthy, and I found out later was dying from malnutrition (that’s why his belly was swollen and his hair was red).

Later that evening, the priest came to see me.  He knew I was in shock. He said, “Welcome to Sierra Leone. You will see poverty and starving people… prepare yourself.”

I’m still prepared.

I’ve been to a number of “third world” countries since Sierra Leone.  There is no food crisis in Milwaukee. What too many Milwaukeeans suffer from is a crisis of integrity. Friends, there is no food crisis anywhere in the United States.  What inner-city Americans of African descent suffer from nationally, is a crisis of dignity.

It's the culture, stupid! THE CULTURE! A culture of rabid dependency, fostered by decades of liberal white guilt.

I'm entitled.

That’s why FEMA set up flood relief in Milwaukee County's main welfare office and to date over 5,000 people have shown up for a handout.

Over 5,000 people!

Not all the people in line were scammers, but most were. This crisis isn’t about flood relief. It's about the poverty of the soul.

Comments

[Diana]

The only people that should have been in that line were people in desparate need. How many would have fit that category? I was once denied state benefits because I made $9,000 a year and drove a used car. You would have never seen me in a line waiting for a handout. I worked like a dog to provide for my family. Its called pride. American pride.

[c'mon]

Hines did NOT say that Milwaukee is like a Third World country. He did not even say that people in the central city are starving. Food prices are way, way up, as everyone knows. (Some of this is the cost of gas and some of it is corn, as Drudge recently pointed out.)

All Hines said was that people should give to the food banks. There is a real need. Second Harvest donations are down 1 million pounds from this time last year.

Crazy how things get twisted.

[c'mon]

He did say that the lines (5,000 people!) are like Third World nations -- that was the analogy.

[TheIdealVoice]

Diana, So guess you would look down on those people waiting in lines during the depression. They were not real Americans I guess.

[Diana]

Ideal,

I do not come in this blog to argue with people. And depression is spelled with a capital D not a lower case d.

[Maddie - Saukville]

I really liked what Mr. Hines wrote about Juneteenth Day, I wish he would have challenged Barrett for mayor, but he's way off here.

We are not living in The Great Depression. We have more than any generation of Americans, of everything, including opportunity. You have to want to take advantage of opportunity though and I think most of these people were just looking to take advantage.

This reminds me of the people who lined up for free gas a couple/few years ago. I think we were under $3/gallon then and if I recall correctly, you could only get five gallons. Same thing happened, people lined up en masse at the wee hours. I earned the value of what was being given away within a couple of hours at my job and I didn't get up before 5am at that, gratefully since I am no morning person.

I'm a mean old conservative though. I like it when old people and children and sickly and poor people die of starvation.

[BipolarNation.com]

Well said, James.