You can't help everyone, but we help where we can. Family of three, Venezuelan mum & two kids who've been out begging on the highway all day in a muggy heat.
Took them to the discount store. $15 Canadian stocked their household for at least a week.
It is staggering how little can help so many. I'll be in ayunos most of May (for writing clarity; it helps with focus), but it's super hard to watch kids go without. (The older brother was such a sweetheart with his little sister the whole while.)
@MLClark This is #Wholesome
Go You.
@MrGoat 👌🏻 Thanks MrGoat. I don't doubt you spread the good where you can. (Even if the username allows for a little gruffness where the world requires it instead! 😅)
This is why I love ya, ML. Beautiful heart, beautiful soul, beautiful friend. CoSo is proud to call you one of us ❤️
@MLClark You're a more trusting person than I am; I see panhandlers around here all the time claiming to be homeless, no job, etc.. There may be one or two that may actually need the help, but I'm positive that all the others are just scamming people.
@ProjectShadow I live in Colombia, a country that has handled with considerable dignity the millions of Venezuelans who have fled a country that as of this year has a monthly minimum salary of $6 US. The need is real.
That said, the US saw huge upticks in people driven from their homes in pandemic; precarity runs deep around the world. I understand the urge to assume the worst when the need is *constant*. I hope there are foundations you trust enough to support instead of offering direct aid.
@MLClark I do occasionally, yes. I understand that in some cases the need is very real, and I honestly feel for those people, but it's the scammers that ruin it because I can't tell the difference between who actually needs the help and who is just lying to try and make easy money through sympathy from others.
We do what we can, where we feel it's safest. That's what matters.
I'm sure others might argue over specifics, but I know that feeling safe is super important to long term readiness to help.
There's a false attribution bias all humans fall prey to; when we first see someone suffering, we feel awful for them - but when the suffering continues, we start to blame them for it. It's a coping mechanism & trauma response. It's normal.
So thank you for helping where you feel is safe.
@MLClark
Thank you. Anyone, but kids, elderly, animals, always break my heart. They are vulnerable population.
Yay you ❤️
@CinnamonGirlE If we are measured as a species by how we treat our most vulnerable... what a wretched story our history tells. Thank you for doing what you can, too. 💙
@MLClark
You are so sadly correct. 💔
@MLClark That kindness will be with them forever. You helped when no one else would. Thank you for being the one to reach out. 🧡
Good for you. Thank you for taking the time to lift them up. It raises us all up just a little bit more.
@MLClark
Thank you for your kindness toward them in their time of need. You have a beautiful heart. 💜
Yes we need a more nuanced reaction to poverty and harm. The language of transaction is doing too much work here. You need > I help > You feel some relief > I receive praise. Is far to prevalent. And the language we use, we embody.
Love, care, and mutual aid, are all never transactional.
Interdependence, refutes transactualism.
@corlin You've hit the nail squarely on the head, Corlin. Thank you. Trying to envision value outside capitalism from within it is folly. I don't even attempt it outside of CoSo anymore.
The last time I tried to mention elsewhere that it's a privilege to be able to do creative labour in our deeply hurting world, I was ACTUALLY-d by someone who gets defensive about their view of creative labour as activism.
It... can be.
But it's an activism only available to a few of us, & that matters a lot.
I just want to add that I don't post these things to receive praise.
It's really uncomfortable, making such posts, because of the praise they yield.
It's just that we don't *really* talk much about poverty, & we don't have many ways to normalize discussing #MutualAid without citing our own need, or how we met someone else's.
So I do hope that this & similar posts are taken in the light intended.
The *hurt* of so much need is what I'm sharing.
I know you do what you can where you can too. 💙