JESUS LOVES YOU!

Fitting Together Pieces of the Journal: JESUS LOVES YOU!

As I go forth with my journal my readers will be forced, unfortunately, to put a jigsaw puzzle of sorts together. I am at the mercy of borrowed computers and the time I have on those computers in order to log my entries in the journal.

I am not at the mercy to have my entire notes which chronicles in any given, logical order the events which have taken place over the past couple of years. So therefore, I need to write from what is on my mind at the time and often to do so quickly.

Eventually, I should be able to gather my notes which I carefully recorded along the way as I experienced homelessness. And of those events which led to my own homelessness.

In the first instance, this journal was never intended to simply be about homelessness. However, I believe God changed that course, and required at least a larger portion of it to be so. At least for the time being.

As my introductory stated, the journal was originally designed to discuss social, economical and political issues with a Christian-based motivation or inspiration. Homelessness is a social issue of course, and it is a serious one, not just in this city of Las Vegas, Nevada or in cities all across America, but worldwide. Thus, the Lord has given me reason to write about homelessness. Utilizing my personal experiences, observations and my problem-solving skills, I believe the Lord has directed me to use this journal as a means of public exposure, or an outlet, or at least as a journal to log my ideas and experiences so I can put them down for safekeeping as well as sharing with those who are concerned with the social ills which we see growing around us.

Last year, during my first tour of homelessness, I communicated with the few friends I had found in Journal Land and told them I was going on a mission. I still feel and believe that is actually what it was and is--a mission. I believe God sent me into the streets, not once, but twice in order to gather the information needed in order to make a change in our society. I believe God sent me into the face of evil so that I could understand just what was wrong with our society’s perception of homelessness so that I could contribute and help repair it. With what I personally experienced, I can then relay those experiences to you. I will do my part, but homelessness is a social problem one alone can not possibly solve. It will take the entire nation coming together to address the severe problem of homelessness in the United States, and for that matter, the world.

What I have found, discovered and observed during my two tours of homelessness will sound shocking to many as I reveal them in the journal entries which follow. Again, the entries not being in any logical order, but as I can get them published. Not everyone will agree with what I present. Not everyone will agree with my solutions or my reasons for thinking the way I do and thus voicing what I say is needed in correcting a social problem which in my personal opinion has grown unnecessarily to epidemic portions.

I do not claim to have all of the answers. I do not claim to have a solution to all of the problems. And it is likely, at times that I may be off base to a minor degree only because I was in the Trenches of Evil and my thoughts were based on proactive reaction rather than logical reasoning based on advanced research. In other words, I often drew conclusions from what I saw and witnessed due to personal experience, (Being a homeless person going through the system) without having the means to investigate the reasons of certain events in further detail such as an investigative reporter or researcher might have done. I saw things as I saw them, without the ability at the time to ask those in charge of social programs, why such things existed or didn’t exist.

There are times I will write fast, unable to spend much time editing as I would if I had more time and computer use in order to present my work. I have a choice, to store and save my work for later public exposure allowing more time to edit and present it in a more organized fashion, or to release much of it now as it is fresh on my mind. The latter is what I have chosen, so therefore I apologize for the jigsaw puzzle effect it will have on you readers.

Before closing this entry, I want to once again thank Aimer, Bea and Indigo and others for their compassionate support during my first tour of homelessness. There were times when I wondered if the evils around me, surrounding me, weren’t going to win the battle. Even with the faith that I have, my faith was tested many times as Satin tugged on my arm trying to pull me away from the Father. That support was strength for me in times of weakness. Unfortunately, the emails I had received during that period were lost due to AOL’s email system, or my ignorance. Often I used public library computers called “Express Computers” where you are only allowed 15 minutes use of the computers. I’d read the emails intending to re-read them later only to discover they were deleted when I returned. I have used Yahoo email for years and they delete when I command them to delete and not automatically. So, that was something out of my control and to my great displeasure as I truly wanted to address those emails when I had more computer time.

I am a long-winded writer. That is my nature. I hope I can make it interesting enough to hold your attention and make it worthwhile for all of us. Perhaps the best way for you to read my journal, JESUS LOVES YOU!, for those interested enough, is as a reference. Rather than to try and cover all of the reading in one entry in one sitting, come back to it when you are free to do so.

I also desire greatly to visit all of your journals and read your writing for that is really the only way we can truly get to know one another.

I am currently homeless by all definitions of homelessness, but I am no longer on the streets. It is called “Couch Surfing” or staying with friends. I am out of harms way and I am among devote Christian friends. I see Joshua every morning as he comes by for prayer and bible study. (He “camps” outdoors at night). I’ll tell you more about this in the entries which follow.

So, I’m about to light the fuse which will blow the explosive charge on one of the most horrible social problems we have in America—Homelessness.

Some are going to hate what they read. They will hate what they read because I speak the truth and the truth may directly affect them. Some will hate me personally for revealing what I reveal. The reason is that their very jobs may depend on it.

The Greed & Skimming of American Creed.

The compliancy and the tacit complicity in the omission of the American people to follow their own conscience and their own hearts can be blamed as the primary cause of the enormous homeless problem we have in America today. In other words, we have believed in our leaders and trusted that our leaders were taking care of a dark social problem that we, the majority of Americans, feel needing to be eradicated. When our own conscience and our own hearts tell us something is wrong, gravely wrong, we do not yield to those inner warning signs and our society suffers from it. Our leaders betray us.

A total misconception of what causes homelessness and why homelessness still exists in America today offers us a delusion of monumental portions. After spending billions of dollars to eradicate homelessness over the past few decades, why do we still have homelessness?

Lighting that fuse I referred to a moment ago, if I were to choose one word which causes homelessness to remain in America today, that one word is salaries. The salaries and benefits of those working in the system of social services homeless programs are outrageously out of proportion to the funds reaching those targeted for relief in such social service programs. In consideration of the misappropriation of taxpayers’ dollars by government agencies and donations of American dollars to charity, greedy, self-servicing employment positions have skimmed the funds targeted to eradicate homelessness.

If every church, every non-profit organization chartered with homelessness as their agenda, every government agency, federal, state and local, chartered with social services programs did their jobs there would not be a single homeless person in America today.

The funds are there, folks. More than enough money is there in our system in order to eradicate homelessness. And there always has been. But that money, we the taxpayers have spent and that money we the donors have donated to charity and to our churches is being skimmed and being skimmed in great proportions by those employed in and charged with eradicating homelessness.

Homelessness is a big business for these groups who are in the business of homelessness. Their livelihood depends upon there being homeless people. Without homeless people they would not have a job or cause. It sounds shocking, but it is true. It sounds like a wacky, outrageous accusation, but it is not. It is the shocking truth.

Therefore, there is not a will or desire to eradicate homelessness among these governement agencies and non-profit groups. Doing so would mean committing career suicide. Thus, the homeless problem grows and as the problem grows more people are needed to fill lower positions and higher salaries are made to those on top because now they "manage" more people below them. Are you getting the point?

There is more to the story. And the rest of that story I hope to get out as quickly as I can. Along with other personal experiences I’ve seen on the streets and the process of going through the “system” during my two tours of homelessness, I hope to share with you so that we may somehow work together in order to find a solution.

As you read of the situations, please keep in mind, not all people working in the numerous nonprofit organizations and the government offices are evil. There are many good, truly caring people out their trying to help. And you must know that as I disclose some of the problems more closely, I am not saying that every agency, or every person involved is 100% wrong or evil. What I am saying however; is that as a system, the overwhelming majority are, unfortunately. The system is broken. The system is broken bad and it needs to be fixed, and soon.

It is my hopes that in time you will be able to put the pieces of this puzzle together and see how everything fits… or does not fit. In that way, we may begin to repair a very broken system. But before we can create a repair order for this broken system, we must first know what is broken and what needs to be repaired. In that sense, I hope that I am useful.

Thank you for joining me. God Bless You.

And always remember, JESUS LOVES YOU!

River

Las Vegas, Nevada

Tuesday, 29 April 2008 3:00PM

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• #2 Comment from aimer 
  4/30/08 10:09 AM | Permalink

  I agree with you that the system is broken and in need of repair; I'm just not certain where to begin and how to repair the system. I'm not convinved that the salaries paid to most of the in the trenches workers are too high. Most government agencies are understaffed and the employees that they do have are overworked. Perhaps you are referring to those in the top positions. I think that there is a great deal of mismanagement of funds; money is being spent unwisely, without a clear plan to ensure that the spending actually benefits the targeted group.  I can't help but think that this country has the resources to provide decent, affordable housing for everyone, job training, and access to health care for everyone. What I think is lacking is the willl to do so. I think that capitalism is like a pyramid. At its base are the poor, the homeless. higher up the pyramid are the working class poor, still higher are the solid middle class, then the wealthy, and finally at the top, the super wealthy, who hold the majority of the wealth. In order for the upper layers to thrive, they need to maintain the braod base at the lower levels of the pyramid. I think that this system has survived so long because the people who are at each level have mostly bought into the notion that they can work hard and claw their way to the top. We engage in meaningless, and impossible individual dreams of enormous wealth, instead of focusing on how we can improve the lives of everyone. I look forward to reading more of your experiences and thughts, perhaps in them there is the start of a solution to how we can create a more equitable distribution of wealth and resources.--Sheria
• #1 Comment from trogan 
  4/30/08 8:54 AM | Permalink

  The writer of this journal certainly has a strong faith and the willingness to to put his beliefs to the test of personal experience.  What is missing, however, is evidence to support his point of view.  How high a salary is "too high".  If the budgets of all social agencies were redirected into direct service, who would manage this?
  
  I am a professional social worker who has worked with the homeless for over 20 years and find many dedicated co-workers willing to work at a lower salary than if they used their skills with other populations.  So, let's have some facts, some verifiable numbers and a reasoned plan to reduce homelessness within the current resources.  I doubt that I'll see this.