Community Service and Early America

Hello Everyone,

Today I am exploring the topic of how communities exclude, judge, and/or restrict people in today's society through my community service as well as Early America.

In today's society, especially the Day-By-Day Warming Shelter, it is clear that even though there is another shelter they can be turned away. the Warming Shelter is a place that the homeless can go when they are turned away from the other shelter for not passing their background checks. Since the warming shelter only runs on a temporary basis, they can only have a certain amount of people in the building. Their limit is 25 people which really is not a lot so the volunteers are then forced to turn people away which may seem a little disheartening.

In Early America, I noticed that there was a lot of let's ignore the homeless and the poor. For example, in Salem, MA over 50% of their profits went toward poor relief. When they looked at their statistics they went "Oh sorry, we are spending too much on you. We're going to make a welfare program." So they then went and did that to push people off of poverty. These people became excluded from their society in that respect. They were forced to find their own resources because their government was judging them based on what they didn't have.

I feel as if in both societies poverty is seen as something that is always hidden. These people have gone through some tough things to get where they are. So why do we judge them? We don't know half of what they have gone through. Is it our right to exclude, judge, or restrict them? I don't think so. They have gone to great lengths to stay alive as the trainer at the Warming Shelter said. I think they should at least be respected.

Until next time,
~Amanda