Famine/Food Insecurity Increase Globally

Have you ever experienced hunger? Not just for a day but, for weeks at a time? If you answered yes, then you know it is a terrible feeling. Imagine what it is like to look into the eyes of a starving person. What we don't see doesn't bother us and in this Trump era, people are only concerned about greed and racism. 

Two simultaneous famines are confirmed globally. This marks the first time this century that multiple famines have been declared at the same time in Sudan and Gaza. A famine is not declared based on a specific number of hungry people, but rather when an area crosses critical statistical thresholds for extreme lack of food, acute malnutrition, and starvation-related deaths. Globally, roughly 1.4 million people were facing famine or near-famine conditions, while an estimated 318 million people faced acute levels of hunger. 

American's attitude towards hunger is, "We are tired of paying to help everyone in the world. What about Americans?" Good question. What about Americans?

Food insecurity in America has surged significantly, with a major Federal Reserve study showing that 10% of U.S. households and nearly 20% of those earning $50,000, reported lacking enough foosd or having children skip meals. This crisis is driven by persistently high food costs, the expiration of pandemic-era aid, and recent SNAP program cuts affecting millions of Americans. Americans are not doing any better.

How can an era with civilized people allow hunger to be this invasive? We are focused on WHO is living morally and if they aren't they should die. The Book of Genesis in the Christian Bible tells us, if you are a CHRISTIAN, how God feels about His creation. The book of Genesis contains two complementary accounts of the creation of man: God creating humanity in HIS IMAGE on the sixth day, and detailed, intimate fashioning of the FIRST man from dust and the FIRST woman from his rib. After creating them He said it was GOOD.

MAN, in all his wisdom is deciding which and who of God's creation is good. SERIOUS MISTAKE! What God sees as good man should also. These people are on Earth because it was deemed GOOD for them to be created to be here.

My daughter was wrestling with God about why did he create poor people, people with severe disabilities, or living in horrible countries. She just could not see how a good God could let people suffer. My answer was it is fine to question God because he sees you care enough to bring it to Him. I told her that people's suffering was not about THEM being punished or treated unfairly, but, it is to SHOW the heart of the people who follow Him and they are FAILING miserably. I don't know if that sooothed her feelings about "unfairness" but it did give an opportunity to see if she was any DIFFERENT than the others who showed no care for those suffering.

This post is asking the same. Why are people suffering when there is no need for them to suffer? There is wealth galore in this world. No one should be suffering from the lack of food period. We have turned inward. We hoard money and wealth. More, more, more, is what we are individually DOING not just saying. No one is concerned about his neighbor because they may end up with as much as we have and we can't have people BEING like us. They always have to come in below us for us to feel good about ourselves. Your life will be empty if money is what makes you feel important because it's bought and paid for as demonstrated by Trump.

I guess you can call me a WOKE person because I care. You can call me a WOMAN because I care. You can call me CHRISTIAN, which I hope you do, because I care. you can call me MOM because I care about what makes my children sad. you can call me HUMAN because I care and you won't be wrong.

I'm hoping this post will help others to become AWARE and hopefully someone out there will CARE. 

Holidays Cancelled Due To Trump PTSD

Standing at the checkout line behind a grandmother and her young grandson, I heard him ask his grandman, "Are you finished with your Christmas shopping?" The grandmother turned to him and said, "We're not doing Christmas this year," then quickly looked at the others in line behind her. I diverted my eyes because there was no reason for her to have my approval or disapproval. I know EXACTLY why she and the boy's mother had made the decision. If you think about it, you know WHY too.

The feelings I experienced hearing a little kid being told there will be no Christmas, darkened my spirit. a Kids being A kid, he held out hope and showed his grandma a little toy he really wanted. She nodded politely and changed the subject. A glimpse of pain registered on her face momentarily. She took a breath, gathered herself, checked out and exited.

For those effected by the SNAP shutdown and just the HIGH cost of groceries, difficult decisions are being made about the holidays. For people who have FOOD SECURITY and support Donald Trump, the shutdown was just another opportunity for cruelness. SNAP receipients were publicly MOCKED and SHAMED. They were called fat, lazy, stealers, a drain on the nation, and any other things they could think of to denegrate a person for needing help to feed themselves and their family. It was a public, brutal, ABUSIVE ASSAULT.

While mocking people needing assistance with food, our president partied, golfed and threw money around to foreign governments as people were not sure about their next meal. America is a wealthy country with citizens paying taxes that are to help the country and its citizens. Overwhelmingly many people are saying poor lives don't matter. Poor people have become reviled and seen as the OTHER.

When trauma, and not knowing if you will be able to eat IS a trauma, there can be long reaching consequenses such as PTSD. You remember feelings, smells, words, actions of a traumatic experience whether you want to or not called FLASHBACKS. Hunger is traumatic by itself without being denegrated for being hungry.

PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a mental health condition that can develop after a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic event, such as a car accident, natural disaster, or assault. Symptoms include re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks or nightmares, avoiding reminders of the event, and feeling on guard or easily startled. Treatment options like psychotherapy and medication are available and can help manage the symptoms, which include negative changes in mood, difficulty sleeping, and trouble concentrating.

Can you imagine, if people who WERE affected by the SNAP stoppage did have enough money for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, sitting around the table having flashbacks of not being able to buy food. How is their self-esteem after living through food insecurity? Do they think about what if this happens again and they're unable to buy regular groceries AGAIN? HAVE THEIR MENTAL HEALTH BEEN AFFECTED?

People in favor of the cuts were like, "just get a job" when many recipients of SNAP benefits are WORKING Americans, elderly, children and the disabled. Minimum wage is a struggle income and jobs for college educated people barely pay more. Ask recent college graduates and they will tell you they can't EVEN find a job with a degree. Many American homes are filled with parents, adult children and elderly parents. Many grandparents are raising grandchilren on their own. 

The HAPPY season of holidays is suppose to be joyful. But Donald Trump has turned the season into flashbacks of trauma. Republican Christians fight so hard for people to say MERRY CHRISTMAS because of Jesus while showing no reverence to Jesus and how he cared more about the POOR than the WEALTHY. One of the three times Jesus became angry was when the poor was being taken advantage of.

Jesus expressed anger at least three times in the Bible: he was angry when merchants commercialized the temple, "My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers" (Matthew 21:12-16). He was angry that the temple had become a place of commerce rather than worship. When people lacked compassion for a man with a withered hand, and when the Pharisees stubbonly refused to believe his teachings. His anger was described as righteous indignation at the hardness of heart or the desecration of his Father's house, not as a sinful human anger.

PTSD is not just happening to those whose SNAP benefits were cut. Americans wake every morning in FEAR of what cruel abusive thing Trump will do next. The news has become a source of trauma. No matter how hard you try, you can't escape Trump's antics. In some way or form he has hurt an American citizen. Even though airports are back at full operation, people are not going to fly. Trump's indiscrimnate FIRING of COMPETENT government employees and whoever else he wants to fire, has caused people not to trust flying anymore. Those who do fly are filled with anxiety questioning their decision.

The damage Trump's administration is inflicting will be felt for years. Even if people aren't experiencing TRUMP PTSD now, it can show up years later. Trump is an ABUSIVE president and have supporters who enjoy the pain he inflicts. This may be the most traumatizing of all. The realization of how many OTHER cruel people exist in America is SHOCKING to the system! This will be the hardest phychological healing for many. 

PTSD can be helped with therapy and medication, but many do not know they are suffering from it. Having a family member at holiday meals who RAVES about how wonderful Trump is can send someone into a rage. Pushing those feelings down, trying to get along, adds to the anxiety and stress caused by Trump.

Trump is a grifter and a ROBBER. He robs people of their dignity, humanity. This is not TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME. This is something else, TRUMP PTSD. He is robbing people of their joy and SECURITY in so many areas and ways as he enjoys his life without threat or fear. We are experiencing trauma from his actions and behaviors daily. If you do a self-check, you probably are experiencing anxiety. Every day people are wondering, "How was he even elected?" Then we have to face the fact we live among the cruelest of people who continue to support him. Feelongs of helplessness and hopelessness abound. Our children are experiencing the same emotions as the adults. This is their world too. And for parents and grandparents, their hearts break for the little ones.

No, there is no need for explainations why the holidays have been canceled. People are preparing for the worst they know is YET to come. But how do you prepare for blatent abuse of power? You can't and that is TRAUMATIC.