[smallpoxgirl]

Wow! Anyone know any more background? Like why there were 2,500 people lined up for food stamps? Is that an everyday thing in Milwaukee?

[the48thronin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'W')ow! Anyone know any more background? Like why there were 2,500 people lined up for food stamps? Is that an everyday thing in Milwaukee?

[the48thronin]

btw for truths sake I have to add.....

This was a line too many people to remain on the sidewalk that ended up causing the police to close one block of the street for the safety of those in line..

A food riot is something different... when starving people start breaking into food stores to steal what they cannot afford... THAT is a food riot. People in great numbers lining up for charity is not a riot... a shame yes, but not a riot!

[the48thronin]

This article explains it better and does indicate it was rough.....
from link
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ILWAUKEE - Pushing and shoving broke out among some of the 2,500 people who lined up outside a county office early Monday in hopes of collecting free food vouchers being provided to victims of recent flooding.
Some residents told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they heard from friends or at food pantries that they could get free vouchers to replace food lost in recent floods and power outages. But the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center was just taking names for a state voucher program to help flood victims.
Scuffles began breaking out around 7 a.m. with people shoving, pushing, and taking a door off its hinges, police said. Police arrived in dozens of squad cars and restored order.
There were no serious injuries or arrests, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said. Nor did police ask people to leave.
"We're still trying to figure out why so many people showed up," Schwartz said.
Charline Britt was crushed against a door and passed out. She felt feet stomp on her back as people rushed into the center when the doors opened at 8 a.m., she said.
"They just went crazy down there, just totally crazy," said Britt, 52.
Paramedics gave her oxygen, but Britt declined a trip to the hospital. Instead, she waited to apply for assistance and said she would visit her doctor later Monday. Britt was seeking help after her basement flooded.
Eileen Force, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Barrett, said some of the people in line had heard rumors that officials were giving out vouchers, not just taking names.

County officials issued a statement later Monday saying Milwaukee County residents who apply for the vouchers by Friday would receive them. The county is administering the program for the state.
Some people at the center said they were told it would be a month or two before they received money or food assistance. Yvonne Love expressed frustration before running to catch a bus to a temporary employment agency.
"Now I have to try and get (to) a food pantry," said Love, who has children 8, 10 and 14. "I've got to feed my kids."
Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines asked for contributions to America's Second Harvest of Wisconsin, a food bank that serves the city.
"The food crisis in Milwaukee - and throughout the United States - is worse than many of us have realized," Hines said in a statement. "We expect long lines for free food in Third World countries; we don't expect a line of 2,500 people waiting for food vouchers at the Marcia P. Coggs Center."
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat who represents the area, said the incident shows families need help at a time of high prices for gasoline, housing and food. She said Congress should pass a second economic stimulus package to help people.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('the48thronin', 'P')ushing and shoving broke out among some of the 2,500 people who lined up outside a county office early Monday in hopes of collecting free food vouchers being provided to victims of recent flooding.

[canis_lupus]

time out

there was mild flooding in milwaukee

but not 2500 people's worth, not by a long shot

[Novus]

There is only a thin veneer of civilization that separates the current calm of polite society from a world of madness and zombies. With the advent of $4 gas that veneer is beginning to crack and splinter away. If someone was giving away free food in my home town there would be hundreds if not thousands ready to line up. There was a similar episode in Finland of all places. The idea of mass starvation in First World country is not just the stuff of some doomer fantasy. It is a reality starting NOW.

[diemos]

"If someone was giving away free food in my home town there would be hundreds if not thousands ready to line up."

I think this has less to do with imminent mass starvation than with the modern "gimme something" mentality. There was once a time in this country when people preferred to starve rather than take charity.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', ' ')The idea of mass starvation in First World country is not just the stuff of some doomer fantasy. It is a reality starting NOW.

[Novus]

For the last 100 years I would say you were right Smallpox but that is changing now or will be soon be if it has not started yet in your neck of the woods. I see it already where I live.

Also a good lot of those 3rd worlders know how to grow their own food or can find ways to gather something up. They are ready for peak oil. It is we in the West who are not read for it.

[smallpoxgirl]

We in the west eat a diet that is outrageously expensive, comlex, and opulent. The truth is most Americans could spend 5% of what they currently do on food and would be just fine. Even the "poor" in America eat lots pre-packaged prepared food, meats, out of season fruits and vegetables. Really for hunger to become a significant problem in the US would require something like an extended trucking strike that goes on for a month or something like that. Most Americans think they're poor if they can't afford a big screen TV and Nikes. They have no idea how much further down they can fall.

The Pine Ridge reservation is said to be the poorest county in the US. Even there, obesity and diabetes are the killers, not hunger. I've been there many times, and you do not see kids looking like this:



That kids doesn't live in Milwaukee either.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'W')e in the west eat a diet that is outrageously expensive, comlex, and opulent. The truth is most Americans could spend 5% of what they currently do on food and would be just fine. Even the "poor" in America eat lots pre-packaged prepared food, meats, out of season fruits and vegetables.

[Novus]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'T')hat kids doesn't live in Milwaukee either.

[wisconsin_cur]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Novus', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'T')hat kids doesn't live in Milwaukee either.

[Fredrik]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ome symptoms you may see if you go more than a couple of days without food are:


Weakness
Confusion
Chronic diarrhea
Irritability
Bad decision making
Decreased sex drive
Immune deficiency

[Kylon]

I think your forgetting something.


Just because a society can it's people does not mean a society WILL feed it's people.

During the Irish Potato famine, there was more than enough food in Ireland to feed everyone. But the wealthy English absentee landowners wanted to ship the food elsewhere to make more profits.

If things get out of hand, a president may declare martial law.

With martial law, that president may suspend elections.

With elections suspended, all it would take is a bunch of willing thugs with some weapons(nerve agents anyone?) to keep the downtrodden masses in place.

Basically what I'm trying to say is this: Due to greed, the rich, or the would be rich, might end up causing many Americans to die of starvation. We already don't address hunger in this country. We already don't provide food to everyone who needs it. We have more than ample surplus production. If our society won't feed those at the bottom when there is abudance, why would our society feed those at the bottom when there is scarcity?

[Jupidu]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')f someone was giving away free food in my home town there would be hundreds if not thousands ready to line up.

[gunny7258]

I live in Milwaukee and they opened this office right in the heart of the ghetto. There was a false rumor that FREE food stamps were being given out right on the spot. Lazy people who refuse to work like FREE stuff so a ton of them came and of course cannot behave to save their lives.

All the people had to prove was that they lived in milwaukee and nothing else. It was basically your typical lazy inner city trash trying to get more free handouts from people who actually work.

The comments from these people on the news were pathetic! They actually were complaining how hard it was to get FREE food.

There is no food shortage in the Midwest just a bunch of low life lazy people who have nothing better to do then to cause trouble while waiting for their government handout!

If you go to the FEMA offices in the better parts of the state this does not go on and everything runs very smooth.

[smallpoxgirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wisconsin_cur', 'P')art of the issue, as it develops, will be if Americans can learn and adapt to that food that is not prepackaged and pre-prepared. It is not that there will not be food but we may have problems getting things that we recognize as food. I don't want to beat a dead horse but if people think there is no food to be had it is as bad as if there were no food to be had. In all but the worse of fast crash scenerios I think there will be food.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gunny7258', 'I') live in Milwaukee and they opened this office right in the heart of the ghetto. There was a false rumor that FREE food stamps were being given out right on the spot. Lazy people who refuse to work like FREE stuff so a ton of them came and of course cannot behave to save their lives.

All the people had to prove was that they lived in milwaukee and nothing else. It was basically your typical lazy inner city trash trying to get more free handouts from people who actually work.

The comments from these people on the news were pathetic! They actually were complaining how hard it was to get FREE food.

There is no food shortage in the Midwest just a bunch of low life lazy people who have nothing better to do then to cause trouble while waiting for their government handout!

If you go to the FEMA offices in the better parts of the state this does not go on and everything runs very smooth.