Earned Income Tax Credit Can Put Money in Your Pocket
http://www.labordawgs.com/articles/article/7394046/151329.htm
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Prince William: “Street newspapers inspire me”
Prince William: “Street newspapers inspire me”
http://www.forgottenvoice.org/archive/Prince_William_12_2010.pdf
http://www.forgottenvoice.org/archive/Prince_William_12_2010.pdf
Monday, January 03, 2011
Feeding the Hungry for Only 55¢
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Tomorrow $55 will Feed 100 Homeless People
For Only 55¢ Per Hungry Person
By Cliff Harrison
If my health allows me, tomorrow I will service (the Lord) from 40 to 100 homeless people. My mission that is scheduled for tomorrow is not one of my normal feeding missions. Normally I carry a trunk full of fresh fruits, not the rotten stuff local “charities” and “homeless shelters” and soup kitchen push off on to the homeless where some businesses instead of throwing it in the garbage where it belongs donated it to a food bank or "charity" and then wrote off on their taxes the donation to charity.
No, my fruits are not rotten. They are fresh from the store and purchased right off the shelves and delivered within moments of my leaving the store. I pay a premium price but for a premium product—but I bargain shop—for the best possible price.
I don't give my people the garbage—long expired foods—local charities serve them. I refuse to, for I ate that garbage th
ey dump onto the homeless for years while I was homeless myself.When I make normal food runs that include fruits, I generally have an assortment of fresh apples, pears, oranges, Sweet Clementine’s, bananas and sometimes grapes, sometimes plums and other fruits I find on sale. Sometimes I carry sunflower seeds, peanuts and other food items I find on sale around town. I most generally feed from 40 to 100 hungry homeless persons at a time. I can get this sam
e delivery that I'm doing tomorrow for $55 in food as low as $41 or 41 cents per person.A Trunk Load of Fresh Fruits Only $50
I often have a trunk load of fresh, assorted fruits purchased for as little as $50 simply by smart shopping and bargain hunting. Buy on sale and save a
b
unch! Many of my friends that I have taught and encouraged have joined
the cause and independently service the Lord while servicing the homeless. They too deliver used clothes, blankets, socks, knit hats, gloves, personal care products, sandwiches, bottled water and most of all—prayers. The Direct-to-the-Streets needs list is here at Christian River: Direct-to-the-Streets NeedsWe do all that on a regular basis. Some of us are out there once a week, others several times a week.
But tomorrow I’m really making my delivery to deliver new boxer shorts, maybe new T-shirts and socks, if I don't feel like making several trips this week, and bottled water, apples, and snack chips. Many homeless folks either have no teeth or bad teeth, so I usually purchase fresh cut fruit when marked down one or two days before expiration, and bananas, oranges, grapes and softer fruits that they can eat.
When the homeless see my car sometimes they are hungry and think I’m bringing food. The last time I delivered complete personal care products, razors, shaving creme, shampoo, lotion, chap lipstick, toenail clippers, bath soap but a few were disappointed that I didn’t have food that trip. It wasn’t that they were rude. They were hungry and when they saw my car coming their bellies growled.
Food Banks Are Robbing the Poor
The big food banks in Las Vegas with quarter-of-a-million dollar salaried staff and the big charities never reach these people, the most needy because they sit behind their desks in a locked room with a fortress of security protecting them and scribble and doodle on paper all day long what they are going to do with their zillions of dollars. They might chat on their cell phones or play on their computers, but they never go out to see what is going on in their "charity".
The frontline servants are the forced labor, the slaves that were homeless yesterday and just recruited from the streets "rescued" and entered the "rehabilitation" programs and part of their earning their own keep is doing the labor the supervisor behind closed door should be doing.
The parking lots are not full of cheap Kias, and $400 motor scooters and bicycles and ten-year-old used clunkers like real volunteers doing real charity work drive, but the parking lots are lined with highline vehicles like Land Rovers, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes, Hummers and Escalades.
But that's them at the charities that the people of the communities think are doing such a good and colorful deed. The fruits of their labor are the velvet linings of their wallets.
Direct-to-the-Streets, The Only Way To Go!
Me? I drive around like all the other Direct-to-the-Street's volunteers, in a 13-year-old 120,000 mile car that I love. The windows don't work. The heater doesn't work. The air conditioner doesn't work. The "change oil soon" light comes on when I just changed the oil yesterday, and lots of things don't work or work too much on the old clunker that gets me around—but it sure beats taking Oscar Goodman's and Larry Brown's Black Panther Buses and taking the abuse from the RTC and DTC bus drivers, it sure does.
No, tomorrow, like the days before tomorrow, those times of my homelessness in Las Vegas under the fat pigs of Animal Farm do not stop me from returning to the streets to helping my poor brothers and sisters I left behind there. The real humanity in this world. The real down-to-earth folks who will give you the shirt off their backs, when they don't even have two dimes to rub together at once.
I don't ever want to repeat like last time and know my people were so hungry and when they saw my car coming their bellies growled.
Enough to Fed Over Half-a-Million People!
This time, I throw in $55 dollars of something for the hungry bellies of 100 homeless people. That way, they get their new boxer shorts they so sorely need, sizes small to XXXL and their food. Did I say $55 dollars for 100 people? Actually it could even be less that that! If I had $212,000 I could service nearly a half-million homeless persons the same foods. And if given time to really bargain, well over a half-million!
In addition to the boxer shorts and maybe the t-shirts and socks, gloves and hats, and hygiene supplies which I carry just in case the others who I’ve trained in the Christian River fashion and that do this on their own now hadn’t made their rounds of late, I’ll have them ready. They always come in handy especially when an unprepared newly homeless person finds him or herself landing on the streets.
I won’t get into the expense of the clothing items and stuff, but I always bargain hunt. I shop for the best prices and I use store fliers, the Internet and personal visits to local stores to locate the best products for the lowest cost. I’m a big customer of Wal-mart, K-Mart and the 99 cent only store. Albertsons I take advantage of the 10 for $10 sale and only buy a few items there since I would be boycotting them completely if I had a choice, and this store was my ONLY store for the first seven or eight years that I lived in Vegas, but we won’t get into that.
I do find things at Albertsons that I can't find in any other store, such as the Gillette 2oz. shaving creme and triple-blade razors shown in the photo in a couple of posts below at a reasonable price.
Bargain Hunt for the Best Deals!
That's the key in helping the homeless in the Christian River way. Every store has a special bargain that the other stores don't have. You invest time, yes, but once you learn your way around you know just where to go to quickly find the things you need. You establish a personal relationship with a contact at each store. You find out the little secrets you need to function.
The 99 Cents Only Stores for example will ship to the store of your choice cases of the products you need. You don't get a price break, but you get what you want in the quality and quantity you want, when you need it.
Here is what I will do tomorrow. I will go to Smart & Final store and pick up three cases of water in which they keep in the cooler for me (The only special attention any store does for me) and I’ll pick up some apples and chips that are on sale.
(Those tortilla chips on the left-hand side of the photo image next to the boxed 50 count snacks are only $3.79 regular price for a hug
e 4pound bag at Smart & Final. Break them down and put a handful or two inside sandwich bags and you serve 64 people 1oz servings for only $3.79 or only 6 cents each. If I were using them tomorrow instead of the chips and snacks it would only cost me 37 cents per homeless person, or $37 for 100 homeless people. Since I don't have the time for that this time, I'll pay the Piper.)
Corrupt, Aggressive & Hostile Public Officials
Gail Sacco has been feeding the homeless every week, often several times a week for years. She was arrested once for feeding the homeless, an action brought forth by the Nazi regime of Mayor Oscar Goodman and the corrupt Rory Reid. Reid and Goodman applied pressure against the people who were feeding the homeless or helping them in other ways.
The courts later ruled the arrest and charges as unconstitutional. But the City of Las Vegas and Clark County continues to perform unlawful acts against the homeless and poor citizens of Las Vegas and Clark County.
They also applied pressure to local charities, and so-called shelters. Catholic Charities which used to have outside lockers that stored street homeless possessions at a fee took those lockers out. That’s another subject for another day, the point is many good people were hurt by the corrupt public officials.
Life Changing Experience
Vegas advertises the world over for people to come here and gamble, for senior citizens to move here while offering “life changing experience” advertisement. It’s a life changing experience alright, if pushing a shopping cart while being homeless on the streets is your idea of a life changing experience, then yeah go for it. The very casinos that cause homelessness in Vegas do very little to eradicate homelessness.
All but one person missed the idea behind my first YouTube video, Vegas Snap Shots. "Snapshots" was purposely spelled wrong to signify that something was wrong in Vegas. The video was shot while I was homeless and the statement is the fact the city that has the most hotel rooms in the world also has the most homeless per capita. See the video Vegas Snap Shots @ YouTube and/or at Christian River I’ve since explained the video in Christian River and will update it on YouTube site soon, but nevertheless, people missed my point, and for that that is my own fault.
Smart & Final; A Good Place to Volume Purchase
Now for tomorrow, already called in and saved at the store (Smart & Final) and/or placed in a cooler for pick up tomorrow or the next day at the latest.
(See the photos for the actual items selected, all on sale.)
Chips 50 Ct for $11.49 x 2 = $22.98
100ct. @ $0.23 per individual item.
($22.98)
Crystal Geyser Water $4 ea for 35 ct.
3 cases x $4 = $12
for total of 105 individual item count ($12)
(Bottled Water 11 cents each.)
Red Delicious Apples 3# bags $1.99
3 bags with about 10 apples each = 30 apples total ($5.97 ) or
10 bags with about 10 apples each bag = 100 apple total ($19.90)
100 people are fed with an apple, a bag of snack chips and a bottle of pure water for $54.88 or 54 cents per person.
When I find these items on even better sales with a greater savings I can pay as little as $40.95 or 41 cents each.
Not only will I bring this food, plus I'm delivering new boxer shorts, new t-shirts, socks, and I always have on hand knit hats and gloves for any newly homeless persons as we have a stock of hygiene or personal care products. Now that's just tomorrow. $55 for 100 people. (Apples 20 cents each, chips 23 cents each and water 11 cents each.)
.23 + .11 + .20 = 54 cents each person or $54.88 for 100 people.
When I Hungered, You Fed Me. When I thirst, You Gave Me Something to Drink.
Again, this food isn't my normal food delivery, this is basically a snack, but those seeing my car and expecting food while I'm delivering clean new underwear will at least have something to put into their hungry tummies. It takes the hunger pangs away until they can get to a soup kitchen. I also have some used clothing people donated, used backpacks that were donated and other donated items.
Spread the Word!
Let's Get The Movement Going Humanitarianism Depends Upon Us!
$212,000 divided by .41 each = 517, 073 homeless people, that's over a half a million homeless people that could be treated with snacks to take the edge off of hunger. Or I could do this same thing and treat 100 people an apple, a bag of chips, a bottle of cold water as a mid-morning snack, ready? 5,171 times. Or every day for 14 years! That's right, I could treat 100 hungry homeless persons on the streets every single day of the year for 14 solid years, and then have some left over to snack on during the drive home. $41 x 4 times a day =$164, fed 1,292 times, or fed 4 times a day for 100 people for over 3 and a half years. 41 cents x 2 times daily = 82 x 600 people x 365 days per year is $183,960. $212000 - 183 960 = $28, 040 left over or enough to feed another 68,390 homeless people.
$212,000 divided by 55 ¢ = 385,454 people fed. Or over 100 people fed twice a day everyday for over five years.
Yes, I have big problems with anybody in charity making more than $30-$40,000 per year with donated money, simply because you could end hunger and homelessness, even all of poverty if the fat cows who graze at "charities" and the pigs of Animal Farm in the government didn't hoard the public money for themselves.
Ask any body who is hungry if a bag of chips, an apple and a bottle of water will stop their hunger pang?
The Crime of a $212,000 Charity Salary!
For $212,000 I can buy 212,000 Banquet TV dinners at Albertsons during their 10 for $10 sale and feed nearly a quarter-of-a-million hungry, homeless American citizens. And I bet Albertsons will throw in some free food they have been giving to Three Square, too, I bet, I bet, I bet!
Or, I can bypass Albertsons and go to Wal-Mart and buy 268,354 of the same identical Banquet TV dinners for 79¢ each on sale ALL THE TIME! And feed 134,177 hungry, homeless American citizens TWO TV dinner meals and get some church group to cook them and donate the milk and bread to make it a filling hot meal. Yes, for only $1.58 and a few pennies extra even a fat boy's belly will feel filled.
I could probably buy 424,000 dinners directly from ConAgra Foods, the makers of Banquet dinners for 50¢ each and feed from a quarter-of-a-million to a half-million people with a little help.
This article is (CC) which means Creative Commons. You are free to print it, republish it, circulate it, decorate your walls with it so long as you leave it intact, change nothing and include the byline credit, that’s me, my name, as the author and post or state a link back to this site. The photo images, used for educational purposes, are also (CC) licensed under the same conditions. (Photographer, Cliff Harrison.) Otherwise, ask for permission for any other form of use by e-mailing me.
Saturday, January 01, 2011
$212,000 Salary and They Call It Charity
Written by a friend of mine, I am reposting this here.
I'll Tell You What Is Wrong With Charity Outfits These DaysBy Cliff Harrison
Friday, December 31, 2010
$212,000 Salary and They Call It Charity
I'll Tell You What Is Wrong With Charity Outfits These DaysBy Cliff Harrison
Perhaps I close the year with this post because I vow to open next year with hard-hitting educational posts that are coupled with video and photo images.
One of the themes I'm going to incorporate into the blog entries for 2011 is a comparison of just what I can purchase for the homeless and what I can fed the hungry with if I had $212,000 to spend on the needy. 
For $212,000 I can fed 600 hungry, homeless persons on the streets for 365 days.
For $212,000 I can make 5,435 complete turkey dinners with all of the trimming that each will feed 12 persons or a total of 65, 230 persons fed a complete turkey meal.
For $212,000 I can buy one hundred and twenty-one thousand one hundred and forty two (121,142) homeless persons triple-blade shavers and shaving creme.
For $212,000 I can buy 24-hours of private motel rooms night for 5,300 people, equipped with kitchenette. OR, I can house and shelter in fully equipped PRIVATE apartments 35 homeless persons for an entire year!
For $212,000 I can provide 26,500 homeless persons with haircuts. 3,533 homeless persons with 30-day bus passes. 3,533 homeless persons will cell phones. 42,400 homeless persons with complete personal care kits. 70,666 homeless persons with emergency winter kits, of knit hats, clean socks and gloves. Nearly 2 million homeless persons with bottled water.
For $212,000 yearly salary in a so-called charity, I would feel I was corrupt!!!!
I am so appalled at the people in the "non-profit" business who start an organization and call it charity and then assign themselves a fat salary that makes us who are in real charity sick to our stomachs.
Three Squares is a popular local charity that was started in the home of a Las Vegas woman. The idea was to feed the hungry. She drew donations from concerned citizens and that grew into a mammoth organization. But there are two major problems.
People give out of the kindness of their hearts only to have their gifts sold. Just like when people donate clothes to local homeless shelters thinking they are doing good, those clothes are placed in a thrift store and sold to the homeless, not given to them.
Three Square sells the food that is donated to them to smaller charities. Now, the local food bank is part of a larger, national charity that used to go by the name Second Harvest. They run a monopoly on food banks across the country since the control some 95% of the food banking going on in America.
And now, for the real shocker, this lovely, nice lady that we all respected and admired so has just announced her salary, $212,000 per year.
That's not charity. That's stealing from those who donate in the name of charity to fatten ones self.
In the bylaws of the RIVER Organization I wrote a locked in couldn't be changed salary for the highest-paid salary of any executive for the organization; $33,000 locked in for 5 years and then no more than the median American income, no matter if there were a thousand such organizations nationwide. Of course, I never got the charity off and running, YET, but if I ever do, that will be in the Constitution and Bylaws come hell or high water.
There is a reason I wrote it that way. I don't believe, no matter how good someone is or how big of an organization they are running should ever make more than the median American income. Not if you are in charity.
And I don't believe a food bank that monopolies a food supply that is intended to feed the poor and the hungry is a legitimate organization, nor are the ones who work with them. To me, this is the purest form of corruption.
I can't always stop purchasing food for the homeless at certain supermarkets that supply Three Square, I don't have much choice. I can not boycott everyone every time I disagree with someone. But I can show you how I make purchases, how I volunteer my time for free and I am in very poor health. I'll show in videos, photography, and articles just how simple it is in purchasing food for the poor. And if I can do it on a very low fixed income, then anyone with a job can do it too.
You'll need to make up your own mind rather or not this lady is worth $212,000 income when she could spend most of that on feeding the hungry, helping the needy and giving to the poor.
The Salvation Army lost $13,000 of donated money, obviously an inside job. The public is outraged and many say they will no longer donate to the Salvation Army because they blame the supervisors for the loss claiming they should have been more responsible. It's not the first time the local Salvation Army has been a victim of foul play.
Charities all across Clark County are run by over-fed people who are not worth what they are being paid to do their jobs. Volunteers and those in rehabilitation do most of the real work in charities, it's foolish to be paying the incompetent top staff excessive salaries.
Station Casinos promised to give the Salvation Army $13,000 replacement. They made a press release making it sound like they were doing a great deed to a charity that is suppose to be doing great deeds. All 18 Station Casinos are said to take part, that means just about $722 per casino to contribute. About what one person could loose in a slot machine, especially a tight one, in a single night.
There are many stories about the local charities that need to be brought up to the public. I'd rather be doing something else. But when I learn that it is nearly impossible to get help from a local supermarket where I do business with to help me feed the hungry on the streets, no in shelters, not in schools, not in someones homes, but on the streets, and I'm told no, "We give all of our products to Three Squares."
Three Squares CEO making $212,000 a year is no charity. The top person in any charity should make no more than $33,000, certainly no more than $49,000. If they do, they are not in it for charity, but to fatten themselves.
If they want to make money, then they ought to go work in the free enterprise system. In a private company. Not in non-profit and not in government. But we seem to thing non-profit workers and government workers should be compensated equally as well as those in the private sector, but that is not wise.
As we begin the New Year we're going to show you in show and tell style and how-to-do something style Direct-to-the-Streets humanitarian care. It's not new, Christian River is something which has been doing it for a time and more and more people are joining the effort. And not only are they gaining knowledge and satisfaction in helping others, they love the feeling that they accomplish in giving directly.
Eliminate the high rollers who run the charities that are bleeding America. Station Casinos and every casino in Las Vegas can give who they want to. Every charity in Las Vegas can spend the money donated to them as they like. They can even loose the money if they like. All the big supermarkets can keep their food for Three Squares. No problem. We who work in real charity and do so for nothing, volunteering our time and using our own money to buy the goods we give to the homeless, the hungry and the needy and poor will continue to do so. We will proudly pay our income taxes and our taxes on the items we purchase for donations. We will not tax exempt anything nor will we write off on our income taxes what we donated to charity.
That is because we are not corrupt. That is because we don't do it for ourselves. We don't even really do it for the needy. We do it for Jesus Christ, because we obey him.
Christian River is a movement that is growing in favor with common people who are sick and tired of being sick and tired with so-called Charities and "non-profits".
So, tonight, have an extra drink and bring in the New Year. For this New Year, 2011, I'm going to show you how easy it is to deal directly with the homeless and not through a charity. I call it Direct-to-the-Streets and it is the most rewarding thing you could ever do. You can do your alms in secret just as the Bible tells us to do. I'm going to show you how.
Good Night. God Bless and Happy New Year 2011!
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