INDEED, JOHN...AND ASA IS ONE OF THEM. YOU ALREADY KNOW A SMALL PART OF HIS BACKGROUND, A PART OF WHICH I FACILITATED. BUT IN THE MIDST OF HIS HOMELESS HARDSHIP IT IS NOTHING BUT REMARKABLE WHAT GOD IS DOING; FOR ASA COULD GET MONEY IN THE WAYS THAT HE USED TO BUT HE REFUSES, AND EATS THE DUST. I WISH I COULD HAVE HIM LIVE WITH ME WHILE HE PRESSES ON THE ROAD TO HIS FULL RECOVERY, BUT BECAUSE OF HUD REGULATIONS IN MY SENIOR CITIZEN RESIDENCE, I CAN'T. HE IS NOT WHERE HE SHOULD BE BUT HE IS NOT WHAT HE USED TO BE AND STILL HAS A WAYS TO GO, SO, IT AIN'T EASY FOR HIM ...BUT GOD!!! PLEASE KEEP HIM IN YOUR PRAYERS, AMEN. LOVE, BLESSINGS AND FAITH...HIS+ INSPIRATIONS

Thank you for sharing, John....You are right....

You are right, of course, but I would remind everyone that not everyone who is homeless is so simply because they don't have a job. Many aren't able to hold jobs, mostly for mental health issues. There are no simple solutions, only individual ones. But giving jobs to those who CAN work is a good start.

Rebecca

Thanks, John Michael. You got right, right on the nose.

As much as I despised Nixon as a person, he proposed a workfare program, based on our taxing system that benefited everyone fairly and in a way that no one would be in poverty. Every time I bring it up, people cry "socialism!" Or even worse, "communism."

Since when is charity supposed to pick up the slack for the inability of government and society, as a whole, to care for our people? I'm sorry that this is political and not religious, but tithing or even giving 30% of one's income to charity will not solve the problem of 40 years of the wealth of this country moving towards the very rich and leaving the rest sliding into poverty, one bill at a time and one job loss at a time.

I have experienced twice, making 500 applications without a single job interview. With all my degrees experience and knowledge, no one would have a cripple work for them with three degrees in different fields and the last one in education. I was fortunate to stay in my administrative position that slid into a clerk's hourly pay level over time, and only because I saved my money and deprived myself am able to still be comfortable in retirement. Still giving all I can to good causes, but not to the needy because you can feed a man today, but if you don't provide him with an income, you have to feed him again tomorrow.

In over half of the households in America, with no assets and a lot of debt, the charitable help of friends, charities and neighbors on this Christmas Day can bring a little light of hope that will wear off very quickly in January when they try to find someone who will pay them for the work that they can do with their ability, physical or mental.

The glorious low employment rate that is touted by the administration is filled with the underemployed working two jobs to make ends meet and is absent the many who have given up looking for work like I did about 1986, after twice making over 500 job applications without a single interview and just dug into what I had. BTW, on unemployment after I was fired at 69 in 2011, I made numerous online inquiries for jobs and was on all the major employment websites. I received, once again, very few inquiries, and no interviews.

Merry Christmas to you and yours and thanks for your good work.

Ron