I used to be homeless. (I am doing significantly better now though. Hard work and luck.)

I did actually have a job, it just didn’t pay enough to get me a place to live at the time. I was too ashamed to beg for money, but I did occasionally hang around restaurants and ask people for food. (So much shame because I had so many peers with family that helped them and they would look down on me for “failing to launch.”)

Why didn’t I go to a food bank? Because the bus system sucked and I couldn’t get everywhere I needed in the amount of time I had in the day. Additionally, I had no kitchen. No place to prepare food that isn’t ready made. The shelter did not allow me to store food.

Government help and charities were definitely not enough, but it did help. A lot of people in charity were good people, but there were quite a few that were just plain nasty. At the shelter, I would get yelled at for following their rules and asking for my phone that they held at the front desk so I could get to my job for instance.

It does not feel good when your family lets you down, your community lets you down, the government lets you down, and even the people that are supposed to fill in the gaps lets you down. Really makes you think that you are undeserving.

You are right that some homeless people have a hard time finding a job. A lot of places will discriminate against you if you do not have a permanent address (and some will even look for addresses of shelters). If you went to jail, a lot of places won’t consider hiring you. And if course wages are just really low compared to cost of living.

Yes, it is ok to feel bad for those people that don’t have what you have. That is human. Yes, some of them may have made some bad choices and some of them might not need the help. But a lot of those people are just victims of an uncaring system. If you do not help them (which is fine, it is not always possible), at least treat them with dignity. Being treated like a worthy person, rather than a second class citizen, means a lot to someone who society let down.

What an adorable script kitty.

Rest in peace, sweet Baer.

I am sorry about your loss. Losing a pet is hard.

Typically, I brush and floss before bed. In the morning, I will rinse my mouth out to get a lot of the bacteria from overnight out of my mouth.

If I have the energy, I will brush about an hour after my morning snack and caffeine.

If I don’t have the energy, I will rinse my mouth out after breakfast.

I find rinsing my mouth out, while not as good as brushing, really helps freshen up my mouth.

Thank you for answering my stupid question, that makes a lot of sense.

I mainly wanted to make sure I wouldn’t inadvertently weaken a union. I recognize I miss a LOT of things that are obvious to others but I am trying to learn. Being autistic and raised in a very conservative household has necessitated me having to think carefully about the life lessons I was taught and to logically work through cognitive shortcuts as I identify them.

Got a real stupid follow-up question: besides asking in an interview or discovering the fact in the news or a web search, is there a way to know if the reason a company is hiring because the union members left?

What is stopping the company from hiding this fact? I want to believe it works but every time I am hopeful about something like this working there is something I am missing that makes things business as usual.