Every year around this time hundreds of low and no margin individuals and families begin to rethink their lives and deaths in the City of Angels. They review the ending year through their heads and realize that they haven't joined the ranks of the homeless through luck, perseverance and daily struggle or maybe they have. The children and parents alike cry out from hunger. Some of them get out the weights and inside their stucco covered cement block cubicles they begin the daily routine of lifting them, reshaping their bodies like prisoners behind bars with no ability to control anything except their own desperation. The weights make that distinctive metal clang each time they are raised. Metal on metal. Clang. Clang. Santa's bells sound very different in this part of America.
Next year will be the same or worse and next year is upon them. They are the forgotten margin, the unwashed masses, not yet street people but never being able to obtain anything beyond what they already have. Each day is a struggle for survival. They are the people we are one paycheck away from joining. They can't go back to the nothingness they came from if they were part of the lucky ones who arrived from somewhere else or if they were born here, in this city, in this skid row adjacent neighborhood they have climbed their own social ladder as far as it rungs will take them. It is so much easier just to let go, stop struggling, and slip back down into the cesspool of poverty and hopelessness. When it comes to education their children only learn the pangs of hunger and see the faces of death. The bloat of death is colorful. Children remember color.
These families aren't going away, at least not until dead or the authorities take the adults away. It all seems so hopeless until a hand is reached out of the darkness. A helping hand offering some form of stabilization or food or clothing or shelter or jobs or a chance at sobriety.
Every year services such as Los Angeles Food Bank, Action Against Hunger, LA+Acumen, 1in6.Org, 9 Dots, A Better LA, A Place Called Home, The Advancement Project, ARC, Baby2Baby, Bet Tzedek, The Child Abuse Program at Palomar Health, Children's Institute Inc., Chrysalis, Cast, Craft In America, Crossroads Inc., Downtown Women's Center, Fallen Fruit, Flintridge Center, Food Forward, The Foundation for Second Chancess, GiveLove, Gladeo, Grameen America, The Gumball Foundation, Heart of Los Angeles, Here to Serve, Homeboy, I.am.angel Foundation, Imagine Foundation, Inner City Arts, InsideOUTWriters, Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Libros Schmibros, Los Angeles Alliance for New Economy, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, LA Regional Food Bank, Mothers2Mothers, The NOMAD Foundation, The Nonprofit Finance Fund, Operation USA, PATH, Project Ropa, Public Counsel, Reading Partners, REDF, School on Wheels, Shoes That Fit, Skid Row Housing Trust, The Art of Elysium, Dreambuilders, Manna Room, The People Concern, The Ron Finley Project, The Trevor Project, U.S. Vets, Uncommon Good, The Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, Vision to Learn, The Westside Food Bank, Working Wardrobes and hundreds of other local and national organizations lend that hand. But they can't do it without you.
You are the key that unlocks the door, makes people and places better and creates the greater country that the government is trying to stifle. Pick one of these or any other helping hand groups. Call them and find out what they need. Do you thing to help build the dream of America.
Happy Holidays. You own the power of change.
Next year will be the same or worse and next year is upon them. They are the forgotten margin, the unwashed masses, not yet street people but never being able to obtain anything beyond what they already have. Each day is a struggle for survival. They are the people we are one paycheck away from joining. They can't go back to the nothingness they came from if they were part of the lucky ones who arrived from somewhere else or if they were born here, in this city, in this skid row adjacent neighborhood they have climbed their own social ladder as far as it rungs will take them. It is so much easier just to let go, stop struggling, and slip back down into the cesspool of poverty and hopelessness. When it comes to education their children only learn the pangs of hunger and see the faces of death. The bloat of death is colorful. Children remember color.
These families aren't going away, at least not until dead or the authorities take the adults away. It all seems so hopeless until a hand is reached out of the darkness. A helping hand offering some form of stabilization or food or clothing or shelter or jobs or a chance at sobriety.
Every year services such as Los Angeles Food Bank, Action Against Hunger, LA+Acumen, 1in6.Org, 9 Dots, A Better LA, A Place Called Home, The Advancement Project, ARC, Baby2Baby, Bet Tzedek, The Child Abuse Program at Palomar Health, Children's Institute Inc., Chrysalis, Cast, Craft In America, Crossroads Inc., Downtown Women's Center, Fallen Fruit, Flintridge Center, Food Forward, The Foundation for Second Chancess, GiveLove, Gladeo, Grameen America, The Gumball Foundation, Heart of Los Angeles, Here to Serve, Homeboy, I.am.angel Foundation, Imagine Foundation, Inner City Arts, InsideOUTWriters, Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Libros Schmibros, Los Angeles Alliance for New Economy, Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, LA Regional Food Bank, Mothers2Mothers, The NOMAD Foundation, The Nonprofit Finance Fund, Operation USA, PATH, Project Ropa, Public Counsel, Reading Partners, REDF, School on Wheels, Shoes That Fit, Skid Row Housing Trust, The Art of Elysium, Dreambuilders, Manna Room, The People Concern, The Ron Finley Project, The Trevor Project, U.S. Vets, Uncommon Good, The Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, Vision to Learn, The Westside Food Bank, Working Wardrobes and hundreds of other local and national organizations lend that hand. But they can't do it without you.
You are the key that unlocks the door, makes people and places better and creates the greater country that the government is trying to stifle. Pick one of these or any other helping hand groups. Call them and find out what they need. Do you thing to help build the dream of America.
Happy Holidays. You own the power of change.
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