Arizona city shuts down church program that fed the hungry for the last 25 years
Nieves Riedel, mayor of San Luis, Arizona, and
very hostile to churches feeding the hungry
They’re coming for you next: In 2022 a new mayor and administration arrived in San Luis, Arizona, and immediately thereafter the food program of Gethsemani Baptist Church in San Luis, Arizona, came under harassment, with repeated citations and bureaucratic demands that it limit its operations, to a point that the threatened fines (more than $4,000) and potential jail terms for its pastor forced the church stop the program, despite operating peaceably and acceptably for a quarter of a century.
After new officials took over in San Luis, the city sent a letter last fall ordering the church to stop using semi-trucks for food delivery at its property. Attempting to resolve the order, the church offered to use smaller trucks. The city denied the request and told the church it must stop the food ministry entirely. These limitations make it functionally impossible to carry out the ministry in the same way.
Since receiving the city’s letter, Pastor Jose [Castro] had to significantly cut back on the food ministry. He’s tried to continue feeding the hungry as best he can under these limitations. But this wasn’t enough for the city of San Luis and its new Mayor, Nieves Riedel. Just a few weeks ago, while Pastor Jose passed out emergency food supplies to a small group of people at the church, a city code enforcer showed up unannounced and issued him four citations. Less than a week later, when a third party parked a truck in front of the church for just five minutes, the code enforcer returned and issued Pastor Jose four more citations. Not only will Pastor Jose have to pay fines in municipal court, each future violation may result in criminal charges.
These aggressive tactics have now forced Gethsemani to pause its ministry, as the church and Pastor Jose cannot afford the heavy fines or to relocate. Because of the City and Mayor Riedel’s intimidation tactics, the church cannot feed the hungry. That means people are going hungry right now.
The pastor has enlisted the legal services of the non-profit firm, First Liberty, and sued.
It boggles the mind why a mayor and city government would suddenly harass a church in this manner after so many years of success, but such things are no longer a rare exception but almost routine. First Liberty also had a similar case in Ohio that it won. I’ve reported on others here and here.
In addition, I documented numerous examples in the past four years of businesses, governments, and academic organizations blacklisting religious institutions and individuals, merely because of their beliefs. For example, there was the case where a California county government used cell phone data to track church-goers to make sure its members were not violating its odious COVID restrictions by praying together. Then there was the case of a college in Michigan punishing a student because she had gotten a COVID jab exemption because of her religious beliefs. Or what about the charter high school in Florida that allowed and even encouraged its students and teachers to bully, harass, and slander a 14-year-old boy because he liked to bring his bible to school to read.
I could go on but I think I’ve given my readers the flavor. It seems the very existence of religious charity and practice now offends the secular world. It must not exist, no matter how much good it is doing.
In this atmosphere, it seems very clear who the bad guys are, and they are not the ones holding the Bible or Star of David.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Nieves Riedel, mayor of San Luis, Arizona, and
very hostile to churches feeding the hungry
They’re coming for you next: In 2022 a new mayor and administration arrived in San Luis, Arizona, and immediately thereafter the food program of Gethsemani Baptist Church in San Luis, Arizona, came under harassment, with repeated citations and bureaucratic demands that it limit its operations, to a point that the threatened fines (more than $4,000) and potential jail terms for its pastor forced the church stop the program, despite operating peaceably and acceptably for a quarter of a century.
After new officials took over in San Luis, the city sent a letter last fall ordering the church to stop using semi-trucks for food delivery at its property. Attempting to resolve the order, the church offered to use smaller trucks. The city denied the request and told the church it must stop the food ministry entirely. These limitations make it functionally impossible to carry out the ministry in the same way.
Since receiving the city’s letter, Pastor Jose [Castro] had to significantly cut back on the food ministry. He’s tried to continue feeding the hungry as best he can under these limitations. But this wasn’t enough for the city of San Luis and its new Mayor, Nieves Riedel. Just a few weeks ago, while Pastor Jose passed out emergency food supplies to a small group of people at the church, a city code enforcer showed up unannounced and issued him four citations. Less than a week later, when a third party parked a truck in front of the church for just five minutes, the code enforcer returned and issued Pastor Jose four more citations. Not only will Pastor Jose have to pay fines in municipal court, each future violation may result in criminal charges.
These aggressive tactics have now forced Gethsemani to pause its ministry, as the church and Pastor Jose cannot afford the heavy fines or to relocate. Because of the City and Mayor Riedel’s intimidation tactics, the church cannot feed the hungry. That means people are going hungry right now.
The pastor has enlisted the legal services of the non-profit firm, First Liberty, and sued.
It boggles the mind why a mayor and city government would suddenly harass a church in this manner after so many years of success, but such things are no longer a rare exception but almost routine. First Liberty also had a similar case in Ohio that it won. I’ve reported on others here and here.
In addition, I documented numerous examples in the past four years of businesses, governments, and academic organizations blacklisting religious institutions and individuals, merely because of their beliefs. For example, there was the case where a California county government used cell phone data to track church-goers to make sure its members were not violating its odious COVID restrictions by praying together. Then there was the case of a college in Michigan punishing a student because she had gotten a COVID jab exemption because of her religious beliefs. Or what about the charter high school in Florida that allowed and even encouraged its students and teachers to bully, harass, and slander a 14-year-old boy because he liked to bring his bible to school to read.
I could go on but I think I’ve given my readers the flavor. It seems the very existence of religious charity and practice now offends the secular world. It must not exist, no matter how much good it is doing.
In this atmosphere, it seems very clear who the bad guys are, and they are not the ones holding the Bible or Star of David.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Related:
“Governor Kathy Hochel was apparently confronted and asked to leave police officer Johnathan Diller’s wake. Officer Diller was murdered by a career criminal who was recently released from custody after being arrested with a gun on the street in New York City.”
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/governor-kathy-hochel-leaves-funeral
That mayor looks quite well-fed herself!
“It boggles the mind why a mayor and city government would suddenly harass a church in this manner”
Satan?
No one said taking out a 6,000 year old death cult would be easy.
https://t.ly/tzWXY
Sounds like a scene from this movie https://www.angel.com/movies/cabrini
GeorgeC: What I see from that trailer is just another woke film, where all the white guys are toxic bigots and only women and immigrants care about kids. The stereotying is over the top and quite offensive.
My grandparents were Jewish immigrants to America. They had it tough, but they also knew the possibilities were endless for their children and their children’s children, because they knew that the people then running the country were decent and open. It is too bad this story can no longer be told without slandering the Americans of the past.
I can see why they are trying to stop the food deliveries and the whole program.
Legally technically it is a zoning violation.
The church should be offered a way to make it legal in some way. The city attorneys do know a way to make it so. But they are not saying anything because of the administration change, they no longer like the church for some reason.
Either a neighbor is raising a stink or someone rich wants the land or the administration just does not like them. Or it could just be as simple as the local grocery does not like the free competition.
The church must find a place to store the food and clothing that is NOT borrowed city property. Then it needs to find a new place for the church, some place friendly to it.Some place semi trucks can also be stored.
And third just to stab the city in the back they should donate the present church to a Muslim group looking for a mosque. Or turn it into a drug rehab center. Or a halfway house for just released felons.
They will always be harassed while they are in that location. The best thing to do wold be turn it into something even worse after they leave.
But taking the city to court is the right way to start things off. Force them to reveal the real reason for the harassment.
FWIW, San Luis, Arizona is across the border from San Luis, Sonora, Mexico. I do not know if this has any significance to the story.
Maybe 30 years ago, my wife and I walked across the border from San Luis, Arizona and spent the afternoon in the downtown of San Luis, Sonora, before walking back across the border, with no hassles either way. Neither side made much of an impression, except that I tried my first Tecate beer, which remains a favorite.
Ps. San Luis is in the extreme southeast corner of Arizona and marks the border crossing of the Colorado River, or what’s left of it!
I can relate to their trouble.
I provide support to an independent (not a church-based) Christian group called Lighthouse Mission ( https://www.lighthousemission.com) , here on Long Island They go out in panel trucks and set up in parking lots around twelve times a week in various places, where those in need come to get freely-given groceries in a well-organized manner.
They have had to put up with police and town-board harassment repeatedly, by those who think that the poor should come to a church’s back door, and stay out of sight and out of mind. They miss out on corporate and government funding, because they insist that their events include at least one, respectfully delivered Word from their Sponsor because the food isn’t the only hope they seek to deliver.
They made the news a while back, by respectfully turning down a big donation from a lottery winner (whose winnings then went into the formation of an evangelical church here!) … not to send a virtue signal, but because they also occasionally provide counsel to those damaged by gambling, and didn’t want to erode their credibility in doing that.
Based in the rather rough area of Bellport, I don’t think the gangs like their influence on the youth either … their full-time “CEO”, a fun yet no-nonsense guy with a business background who I know personally, ended up with a 9mm slug in his windshield a while back. But that got the cops eventually helping with his youth programs.
Subsidiarity – The principal that problems should be solved at the lowest level.
What an opportunity to revert to this Catholic (and American) tenet here at Easter.
When communism reared its ugly head, the idea of communal living, sharing the load and “Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnisse” “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” was initially a thought that could ring true to following the Christ. For in fact Jesus and his Apostles were living in the communist role – sharing the burdens among themselves….but with a divine leader.
Then the capital C came into play – Communism, the implementation of an ideal by mortals.
With the new Communist states, the communist principles (classlessness, communally owned production, and distribution…etc) were quickly contorted into the overarching states we see today and in history: e.g. the PRC and the Soviet Union. And one other dictate occurred – The State shall own charity.
The response of the Roman Catholic Church was to look back into its past and recall the tenet of subsidiarity. This was based upon the idea that you have an individual relationship with God (I believe). You do not have a relationship with God through your associations, your stature in government or society; no, you are directly in a relationship with the Divine. Your thoughts and actions are an interaction with Him. And with this you can not push away your responsibilities for your behavior or your relationships with your fellow man to a third party – the government (or anyone or anything else).
Several Popes have argued for the role of subsidiarity vs the “Social Assistance State” in their writings, addressing the theft from the individual of providing a charitable response to a need as well as the practical efficiency of individuals vs and over-arching state.
Here in this example of San Luis AZ we see yet another example of the state hindering and usurping the role of individuals and lower organized groups in providing solutions to problems without the government.
However, do not look for this tenet to be defended nor argued by the modern US Catholic Church. Nay, the United States Catholic Bishops (perhaps and overarching organization itself?) remain in line with the statist approach to curing our social ills.
https://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-6-number-4/principle-subsidiarity
I am not a devout congregant nor particularly religious; but I do believe that “charity begins at home” and happened to reflect on this as I drove home from working on my daughter’s kitchen last night. If we keep our work for each other close and refuse the call to create larger “solutions” by government, embracing the tenet and principal of subsidiarity we can make a better society and a smaller government.
Happy Easter
Apologies for the rambling…
Uncanny how the codes enforcement agents showed up at the perfect time. Surveillance anyone?
It gets worse.
“The code enforcer, Alexis Gomez Cordova, apparently expecting armed resistance from the pastor, “arrived at the Church with [multiple] City vehicles — two police motorcycles, a City Code Enforcement Specialist truck, a City Transit Enforcement truck — and was accompanied by a police officer. With this entourage in tow, City Code Enforcer Gomez Cordova cited Pastor Castro with identical code violations.”
https://thenewamerican.com/us/arizona-city-abruptly-shuts-down-church-food-pantry/
Recent ruling (this week) does not bode well for this mayor.
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/03/28/brookings-southern-oregon-federal-judge-rules-city-permit-church-feeding-homeless/
I saw that she apparently ran on a platform that includes shutting this church down. What I cannot find is her purported reasoning.
In CA there was an attempt to shut down these charities unless they declared some woke values. In other words using the power of the state to influence their practice of their faith.
Chris, I had not heard the term “subsidiarity” defined as you have related. I wholeheartedly agree.
You do not have a relationship with God through your associations, your stature in government or society; no, you are directly in a relationship with the Divine. Your thoughts and actions are an interaction with Him. And with this you can not push away your responsibilities for your behavior or your relationships with your fellow man to a third party – the government (or anyone or anything else).
The relationship-through-proxies you describe is the stuff of theocracies, and we have seen how those end up as being led by those who see God in their mirrors. The direct relationship you describe, OTOH is a foundation of the Reformation spearheaded by both Luther and Gutenberg’s press … it is known in evangelical circles today as “the priesthood of the believer,” and also drives the church autonomy that has led to far more flavors of Christian practice than Baskin-Robbins has in ice cream.
This is necessary because human leadership lacks Divine omniscience and infallibility, and therefore lacks the ability to reliably perceive what is best for another and assure its implementation.
It is interesting that, once the direct, physical presence of Divine leadership returned to the Father, the communal approach of the early church did not last long thereafter. II Corinthians 3:10 speaks to this (For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.) … and while many people embrace the directive to “bear one another’s burdens” in Galatians 6:2, they stop there and don’t see verse 5 – “For each one will bear his own load.” A “burden” is the unexpected; the “load” is what we know is coming and need to prepare for, to the best of our ability.
Aiding those who need help is imperative to assure a stable society. Our problem is how we are going about it.
Government operatives, being human, lack the insight to differentiate between the truly needy and the merely greedy from the pedestal of bureaucracy … equal protection under the law, especially when leveraged by aggressive lawyers and SJW’s, work to severely limit our government in that regard, as well.
Also, a lot of the problems that lead to the need for aid, have behavioral/ethical components that require the caregiver to “get inside the head” of those who need help, for that help to be effective … which, because of government’s monopoly on the use of coercive force, can seriously threaten civil liberties and freedom-of-conscience.
Bureaucratic inertia, the desire of bureaucrats to empire-build, and politics exacerbate the problem, by perpetuating career-advancing/politically-beneficial but ineffective programs and systems that would otherwise die on the vine. This is also fed by our society’s obsession with economy-of-scale and blind worship of “expertise”.
Bottom line: government is structurally incapable of resolving such individual-specific issues effectively and efficiently … regardless of the amount of virtuous intent on the part of its operatives.
It needs to get out of the compassion business … and not only for all of the above reasons, but because its dominance of the process and its unique ability to coerce funding fosters a “gave at the office” attitude among We the People, who ARE better equipped to deal with such problems …
… because we are closer to the problems
… are more motivated to solve the problems
… lack the blank checks to perpetuate the problems
… and lack the coercive force to become a problem
Chris, my opinion on this is concurrent with your’s. It’s time to stop outsourcing our responsibility to be our brother’s keeper to a faceless, industrial compassion-delivery system that keeps people locked in it, and go back to something closer to the model of the old barn raising – if we as a nation are truly interested in being compassionate in a sustainable manner.
But that does mean we have to actually help people, instead of outsourcing OUR responsibility to our government and expect it to jam your or my particular socio-economic morality down our throats as The One and Only True Way. That is what our elites have insisted upon since the start of the Great Society … and is why the War on Poverty is a quagmire to this day.
Lack of caring is not the problem. Using the wrong tool for the job, is the problem.
sippin_bourbon … the government: “none shall stand against our One True Way!” They see God in their own mirror.
Or should they just rename Brookings “Karen”?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxVY9ouFnQY
Tim Hawkins: The Karen Song (Live In Eden Prairie, MN – 3/25/23)
(from 3rdDayRocker, via YouTube)
If the people liked this service so much, why did they vote in a communist? Voting is no longer a viable means of maintaining this ‘country’.
Our Host Said “It boggles the mind why a mayor and city government would suddenly harass a church in this manner after so many years of success”
I think this manner of thinking from an unlamented Italian dictator is what the Mayor and his cronies have in mind
“Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”
Initiative of any sort, especially when motivated by a deeply felt conviction is anathema to these petty tyrants.
The lefts mantra is Separation of Church & State, right?
Charity is the realm of the Church, not the State.
There is no provision in the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution for government charity.
The items in the Constitution that “promote the general Welfare” aren’t charities. They’re things like coining money, establishing post offices & roads, & patent & copyright offices.
The article isn’t clear about the people who were being fed. Who are they? Are they local citizens who have fallen on hard times? Or, are they illegal immigrants who have just crossed the border and expect to be fed? It matters. If the former, the city should be hands off. If the latter, the town citizens may not want the added burden of attracting more “newcomers” to their tiny town. They have a right to protect the homes and town they paid for.
Louis M.: Also to be considered are the professional “Unhoused”. Junkies, really.
There has long been a segment of Christianity which doesn’t care much about whom they’re “helping”. For some it’s a means for feeling better about themselves. For others, they’re attracting “Unhoused” to the region deliberately – which has uses, to that sort of politician: to spread first “Awareness” and, ultimately, Our Democracy.
We’ve seen this pattern in Denver. Now we who didn’t do a lot of drugs and saved up for our own housing can’t even go to Denver safely.
Who their feeding is irrelevant to the problem that the city gov believes it has the power to dictate to a church.
Mr Z
Cabrini is made by Angel Studios.
They are not known for being woke.
Same folks who made “Sound of Freedom”.
The problem with Woke Hollywood is that when they want to make a film about a “strong woman” is that it is either entirely fiction, or it is only a woman that has very select left wing values. Or both. Usually both.
Clearly, real women in history or even today, that are truly strong do exist but Hollywood will never tell their stories because they did not provide a way to work their values in. More often, those women exhibited strength through values abhorrent to Hollywood in general.
I am planning to see the film. Will let you know.
sippin_bourbon: I am aware of who Angel Studios is. I can however only go by the trailer, which clearly sells the idea that only women and immigrants are kind and caring, while all the white American men the leading women meets are bigoted and hateful.
As I say, the shallow over the top stereotyping I found off-putting, to say the least. This might simply be my general dislike of almost all modern movies. Either way, it doesn’t interest me in the slightest.
Jester,
I just read the passage the other day, when Jesus and his disciples were in town, and saw a bunch of poor folks. He turned and said “When is Rome going to do something about this!”
(/sarcasm)
Another factor to consider– this church must not participate in processing & distributing illegal aliens into the Country, otherwise we’d never hear about them.
Lest everyone forget, hundreds of millions of dollars have been funneled into and through ‘church groups,’ since 2012, to facilitate illegal immigration.
Wayne — according to my running Tally based on the figure of $2 billion for a full year of 2021, paid to Catholic Charities USA for the handling of Newcomers – Joe’s Migrant Army – Illegals Aliens :- across the lower 48 states, it is higher.
Also Lutheran Charities, Baptist Family Services and Methodist Family Services have also received similar amounts each year. If you include the amount sent to the groups handing the inflow on the Mexican side, such as International Red Cross, the Salvation Army (international headquarters in London ENGLAND) and others, thus it is over $20 💵 Billion.
Thanks United Nations! It seems to be funnelled through the US State Department.
They are all democrats.
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/1159374950/nieves-riedel-immigrated-from-mexico-as-a-child-now-she-s-concerned-about-border-crossings
https://www.allsides.com/news/2024-01-04-1322/politics-dem-convicted-ballot-abuse-appointed-vice-mayor-arizona-city
It looks like even immigrant Democrats are tired of illegals.
The previous administration actually paid the church 7,000 a year to do their ministry.
It seems the city has grown about 125% in the last few years and the new mayor ran on slowing this down and gaining control over it.
She is also one of those developers who profited from the increased population growth.
The Democrat party is schizophrenic..
Alton’s comments here might provide an explanation to this story that I had not considered. Before posting I tried — and failed — to find out the political affliation of this new mayor. Understanding her motives are important.
Based on the information provided by Alton, it could very well be that her actions are an attempt to rein in illegal immigration in her town, aided and abetted by this church. If so, there might be some method to this madness, though if so it means there is plenty of wrong-doing by all parties.
The non-profit legal firm that is helping the church is First Liberty, which generally supports conservatives being harassed and blacklisted by the left because the left hates all organized religions and most religious values. However, we might be seeing a case of the right doing its own harassment of this church, for other reasons related to the alien invasion being promoted by Joe Biden and the globalist community. First Liberty values first amendment rights and freedom of religion above all. Any attack on free expression brings out its legal knives.
At the same time, the local Americans in this town certainly have the moral right to do whatever they can to stop an illegal invasion that is likely costing them millions and damaging their quality of life. Harassing the church in this way however is not the right way to do it.
As I said, there might be plenty of wrong-doing here by all parties.
It all comes down to not enforcing the law in the first place, by the federal government. Thank you Brandon!
The government is AT WAR with civil society. This is yet more evidence of that. (If an effective civil society exists, there is less need for government to be as big as it is.)
Alton-
Thanks for those factoids!
All 3 of those organizations are very active in SW Michigan, and have been secreting illegal aliens into the area, for some time.
If I could speak fluent Spanish (and I hated America) I could get a FT job tomorrow (with no licensure), paying $60K, with any of them. Obstensibly, “processing and acclimating” illegal aliens.
It is a fact, that every one of these people gets a Debit card loaded with cash benefits, an EBT card for food-stamps, ID, Section 8 housing (although there’s a waiting list), Medicaid, and vocational assistance.
And amazingly, these folks are offered the opportunity to buy a new car as well. Once they get sucked into the minimum-wage menial jobs around here, their credit is suddenly rock-solid.
The slum-lords love this as well, they charge market rates for dumps, and the Feds guarantee payment.
My opinion?
–It’s slavery, with extra steps, and the Feds make us pay for it all, and then they lecture us on how evil we are.
“Let’s Go Brandon!”
The whole point of having laws is so that everyone knows which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. If laws are enforced on everyone, then we live in a land of laws, and we are all treated the same, but if the laws are enforced on the enforcers’ enemies but not on their friends, then we live in a land of men, and favoritism depends upon who you are or who you know. It is like Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, who said he would not prosecute any of his people. This was the beginning of the end of democracy ( the practice of social equality) in America, where certain people suddenly became above the law, and the list only grew from there.
If shoplifting laws are not enforced for theft less than some amount of value,* then crime increases and shops close, as we are now seeing in several California cities. Shoplifting is becoming common throughout the state, as California’s governor saw in person, the other month. We are also seeing that crime other than shoplifting is increasing. Worse, crimes are not being reported, because it is wasted, futile effort, leaving our elite leaders, living in their ivory towers, to truly believe crime is decreasing; just ask Oakland’s mayor. Worser still, insurance companies are now fleeing California, others are not issuing new policies, and all are raising their premiums, not just on businesses but on homeowners and drivers, and they are cancelling policies at the first opportunity. Companies are not making claims for fear that they will lose their insurance. Prices are skyrocketing, and the cost of living in California is driving away even the Democrats who think lawlessness is a good idea. You don’t have to be crazy to live in California, but you do have to be a Democrat. Come to think of it, that means that you do have to be crazy.
Three years ago, Brandon’s administration declared that 1,000 illegals per day invading the U.S. would be a crisis. Last year, they favored a law that would make 5,000 daily an acceptable routine. It is insanity. Where is government’s grip on reality?
Robert wrote: “… despite operating peaceably and acceptably for a quarter of a century.”
A quarter of a century ago, illegals invading the country weren’t the problem that they are today. Even four years ago they weren’t. Food programs, even religious-based food programs, are not the problem. Wantonly eliminating them is not the solution.
wayne suggests that the traffic flow of illegals may be the problem, and this more closely follows the problem of an invasion than does feeding people. Feeding people may make them less inclined to get jobs — a problem — but when millions of people break our laws and soak up our resources, that is a big problem. Now it is dishonest people being fed, not honest people.
Let’s Go Brandon!
_______________
* The only jury** I have ever sat on was about a shoplifted pair of bluejeans. Naturally, in the jury room we had the discussion about whether it was worth our time for a pair of trousers and concluded that we didn’t want petty criminals to turn into felons who thought no one cared.
** Interestingly, both the judge and the defense attorney allowed a girl to sit on the jury who worked at another store of the same major national chain. I wonder just what it takes to be dismissed from jury duty.
Disciplining a child…walking a picket-line, maintaining a border….being a police officer and making arrests.
These are all unpleasant things to do.
Unpleasant and unnecessary are two very different things.
Only semi-engaged in this….
Who are these people receiving food assistance?
Depending on your State, you can qualify for food assistance at between 110 to 130% of poverty-level which is roughly $12K/year. (and in some situations, you qualify at 150%+)
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/19/what-the-data-says-about-food-stamps-in-the-u-s/
Robert and others – Saw Cabrini. I thought it was great. Didn’t get that feeling at all that it was pushing a only women and immigrants care. Just told a dramatic story that was based on a historical fact. In fact, unlike most movies today, didn’t feel like I was being bashed over the head with ideology.
Just one persons opinion,
Doubting Thomas: I am glad to hear your sense of the movie. If so, then I wish the filmakers/studio had not put together the trailer as they did. It definitely put me off.
At least the team that handles the comment section understands that black text on grey background is retarded.
Mr Z,
I wonder if that is clever marketing. Make it appear woke, and lure people in for a real story, not the made up Hollywood stuff.
These “feed people off the street” programs only serve to encourage the homeless.