That's a picture from today of the page at the website for Los Angeles Mission that I got to from doing a search of "losangelesmission" and then looking at the first search result, which was an ad.
"2.03"? The shelter knows that a lot of rich and famous people don't like me, doesn't it? Is it easier to get contributions from those people by advertising conglomerate-friendly numbers?
I don't mean to ridicule anyone's charitable activities. However, I, like so many 1st-Worlders probably still do, used to see and unquestioningly believe ads on television that said things like "You can feed starving people for pennies a day!" Can you? Do you mean that they then stop starving or just that they're getting fed something that can be bought for pennies a day?
Those ads always had the "Before" and "After" pictures of the people whom the advertising organizations had supposedly helped. Not surprisingly, the "After" pictures never showed people looking not only emaciated but also disillusioned, with captions saying "Would you get that camera out of my face and please give me something to eat? No, I won't smile; even if I had teeth left, I wouldn't smile for you. I hate you people. We all hate you; just leave if you can't help, all right?"
I don't know what the shelters are like in California. I do know that a lot of people in homeless shelters in the Boston area gain weight while being homeless; getting food is never a problem, although fruits and vegetables don't tend to be featured that prominently.
Hopefully, no guests of Los Angeles Mission are getting videotaped in the showers or bathrooms.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, October 22, 2015 @ 10:56 a.m.
