Helping Hand False Prosthesis

When an individual is in distress, common advice is for him or her to reach out for help, to seek solace and resiliency in groups, and to keep a positive outlook.  These things are uttered as if they are ingredients in a recipe to a better life.  Bake them in the right proportions, and the dish that is created is a sure success.

Reality, though, is very different.  And perhaps shockingly, those who espouse progressive values – sometimes the most vocal – act in identical ways and with the same callous disregard – by offering phony offers of assistance.

The real message is the same: take care of yourself.  It can’t be that bad.  God helps those who help themselves.  God never gives you more than you can handle. I wish I could help you, but…. Here’s a number to call for a homeless shelter in my area – maybe they can tell you where you can find help wherever you are.  You need to learn how to beg.  You need to humble yourself.  It doesn’t matter what you think you need; I know what you need. There must be something wrong with you if you can’t get a job.

Care to disagree?

Please do.  Please give examples of how you directly help and engage with someone you have identified as needing help with something basic to remain compatible with life: homeless, jobless, abused, destitute, ill, injured, ostracized.

It’s very personal to me.  I am the one who has been placed in an untenable position.  Who can’t compete for jobs.  Who has desperately needed a real hand.  And who has been repeatedly and violently victimized by every single person who offered “help”.  One person is an aberrancy.  Two people is a concern.  Every person is a norm.

I have been ridiculed, humiliated, ostracized, judged, condemned, used as an object, defrauded, attacked, defamed, stalked, and robbed.  All the while trying to deal with a life turned upside down, stripped, without a future, without any reality of being able to change any fundamental part of it without help.

It’s always been terribly hard for me to ask for it, and the lesson learned is that it’s harmful and devastating to to so.

Hypocrisy is right here in progressive land.  It is indistinguishable to anyone who is oppressed, depressed – who is in great need.

Voyeurism and sensationalism is used by both the left and the right wings.

Ad hominem attacks are still the common currency.

And they are effective.  They kill real people.

The next time you are ready to spout platitudes of false hope, reel in that prosthetic hand that drops like a salamander’s tail, and either be honest in your true refusal to help, or do the real and genuine thing.

People in need don’t want your tears – they want jobs, and safe housing and a way to get to work and healthy food to eat. And a true friend wouldn’t hurt, either.