I moved to Florida in August of this year to get away from an abusive ex-girlfriend; she was addicted to drugs and just a mean person to me and my son. We came here for a new start and found it, but it was short-lived. I went to a Goodwill today to get clothes for my son and myself, because we left everything behind. I thought that places like Goodwill and the Salvation Army were here to help but I was wrong.

Today I saw the poor and homeless fighting for clothes like a pack of dogs over the only food that was left. They put all the clothes in what they call the bargain barn. Believe me, it is no bargain; it is everything that they can’t sell in their stores. The ripped, stained, and no good. These places that we give our money and clothes to, that should give them to people like my family, don’t. They go out on the shelves at prices we can’t afford. Where does the money go? I’ve been trying to get help with rent, but there is no money. Well, why is that, when the donations are being sold for ten dollars a shirt and ten dollars for a pair of paints? The money that they collect that is for the poor and homeless is not given out to those in need.

What I saw today was ashamed people being treated like animals and acting like animals, only because if you don’t act that way, then you don’t get the help. I saw a man grab a pair of shoes that should not have been even donated to the poor, fighting with a woman that was hitting him over the head just to get him to let go of them. I myself was knocked to the ground trying to get out of there. It is not right that we the people that fulfill the jobs that the middle class and rich won’t do get treated like we’re worthless. Without a person like me, who will cook your fast food, pour your coffee, or deliver your morning paper to check your million-dollar stock?

I want to know where all the money that we donate to those in need go, like the Salvation Army, which gets grants to help people with rent and utilities. Where does that go. Where does the money that the bell ringer collects go? And why are the bell ringers dressed in name-brand clothes and drive Volvos. Give that job to me, let me work to pay my bills. The government gives more money to refugees than it does its own citizens. We as a country do the stupidest things, like take in ten thousand African refugees every year, just to have Africa stand on our side to say that Israel is its own nation. We can’t even support our own citizens; how can we be willing to bring in ten thousand more? I know, I know, it’s all Obama’s fault. Bush had nothing to do with this mess. It’s the poor people’s fault because they are not working, it’s my fault because of some other bull**** reason. I left high school in 1998 and have worked ever since and now I’m a low-life welfare drain on this country.

Well, do something about me. Help me with good clothes to go to an interview. Help me with my rent so that instead of struggling to find help, I can spend my time looking for work. If the business owners opened up one job in every business, then that would put hundreds of thousands of people back to work, and do it for the welfare, not the mayor’s brother that has a strong financial family to back them. People like me get put into this state of life, some through our own fault and some not of our own, but we stay here because we get depressed going from shelter to shelter, no one giving us a chance to better ourselves. You, the rich, keep us knocked down and just keep kicking, and then give the foreigners the chance to take their shots.

I lived in Rhode Island, and it was bad in Providence. The Spanish hire the Spanish, the Arabs hire Arabs. Oh well. Why should they give us a job? Well, it is our government that gave them the grant and tax-free exemption of ten years to start over here. We had a plan for our country when it was founded: to live and prosper in a free nation. Not let the rich get rich and the poor go to h*ll. If I had only one chance to make a difference in this country, I would give the people the right to vote on everything that is to affect us as a whole. We don’t choose where the money goes; Saks and AIG and all the big-time companies do.

If I keep going I’ll just die from stress. I had to get the frustration off my chest of how us poor people, the servants to the rich, are still the slave of yesterday. We just don’t get beat for not calling you rich SOBs master anymore.