The Paul Ryan/Soup Kitchen Issue

[dreadfulpenny00.livejournal.com]

Last weekend, Paul Ryan, his family, and staffers made an unscheduled visit to an Ohio soup kitchen run by the Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society.



At first the story was that Ryan and his team just barreled in there without anyone's okay and the dishes they were washing were *gasp* CLEAN. It was all just a staged photo opportunity. Then Brian Antal, the President of the Mahoning County Society, came forward and said he wasn't on-site but Ryan and his group DID wash dirty dishes for several minutes. However, he stated it paled in comparison to the staff who worked hard that day to serve 180 homeless a meal that day. Antal also said that St. Vincent De Paul had no political ties and wanted to keep it that way, and the person who allowed Ryan and his group to enter had no authority to allow it nor to turn them away. Now the soup kitchen is losing donors from both sides because of the situation. (It should be noted that Antal described himself as an independent voter to the press, but has voted in Democratic primaries for the past 17 years.)

I'm just curious as to everyone's opinion on something like this - should charity work be used as a voting point? I think there's too many opportunities where politicians could take advantage of it, like this one. I would feel differently if Ryan and his staff had contacted a soup kitchen ahead of time and volunteered to serve meals AND clean-up after, with maybe a few candid photos. It's not going to change my opinion as to who could do a better job in office, but it just makes me look at them more as career politicians than people who truly are out to change this country for the better.

(Mods, could we get a Paul Ryan tag, please?)

Comments

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

Tag has been added!

I'm not a big fan of politicians using charities as a platform to get voters...on one hand they are raising recognition/awareness of the organization, but after they leave will the non-profit be better or worse? This doesn't change my mind, but it does make me cringe inside.

[lilliew.livejournal.com]

This whole things smacks of manufactured controversy and desperation by the liberal media to woo votes in the Mahoning Valley (a very blue and blue collar area).

The source for this reporting are mostly liberal media including the Youngstown Vindicator (that might be the source of it which is VERY liberal and is the newspaper that woke me up to media bias). I don't think the above articles are being accurate. Plus the president of the charity complaining is a lifelong Democrat (hmm!) and can't even get his story straight. It's possible people stopped donating because of the charity president's behavior here too complaining to the news media because Ryan stopped there.

The Corner touches on this too:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/330607/scandal-ryan-involved-photo-op-katrina-trinko

I should also point out Youngstown and Mahoning County are a total mess driven by Democrats doing what they do best (including chasing businesses and smart people away) and has terrible crime and corruption problems. Yes, I'm from that area, sadly, and am so glad I escaped. My favorite is Urban Dictionary's description of it that sums it up quite accurately: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=youngstown

I hope Ryan took a good look at what a mess Youngstown is and is committed to fixing places like that. It sorely needs it.

[chibimarchy.livejournal.com]

You're from Ohio? Hey, me too, although I'm from a rural and mostly conservative area (Seneca County, more towards the western side of the state).

The closest I ever was to that kind of, erm, urban decay, as it were, was Toledo, which is bad enough. All I knew about Youngstown was never to go there.

[lilliew.livejournal.com]

You get away from the places like Youngstown, yes, Ohio is wonderful. Even 15 miles out of Youngstown is quite nice, which is where I'm from, same idea, very rural, good communities, etc. Even Mahoning County isn't so bad and is home of the largest country fair in Ohio.

So hello from a fellow Ohioian (former, I live in Georgia now)

[neemarita.livejournal.com]

A Catholic uber-liberal I know says Paul Ryan isn't welcome in the Catholic Church and how un Christian he is for doing this and blahblahblah. Um. Okay. Granted, she is very pro abortion and gay marriage, so she isn't really a Catholic.. like most so-called Catholics in America.

Are they this pathetic and desperate?

[kelincihutan.livejournal.com]

I admit that, as a Protestant, my understanding of the Catholic hierarchy goes a wee bit fuzzy on the edges, but isn't Ryan's bishop they guy that gets to make the call on his welcomeness or lack-of-same in the Catholic Church? I mean, like you said, someone calling themselves Catholic but backing abortion isn't going to be my first choice for info on how the RCC functions, but I thought the "priests call the shots" thing was pretty common knowledge by now.

[neemarita.livejournal.com]

Being a pro-life conservative to these liberal Catholics is tantamount to excommunication, apparently.

The Pope would say differently, I'm sure. ;)

[brendala.livejournal.com]

My paternal family is full of those "Cafeteria Catholics". They embrace the parts of scripture that back up their social justice views (ie "help the poor") and twist it to say that the government MUST care for citizens from cradle to grave. And that anyone who doesn't agree doesn't understand the faith.

My grandmother worked for Catholic Charities for over 30 years. And their understanding of the scripture was that it was talking about PERSONAL charity. Not commanding Catholics to reshape their government to force grumpy rich people to give up their money.

[neemarita.livejournal.com]

Because Jesus helped the poor, it means government should step in and take care of everyone. Um. Right.

Jesus was not a politician. Jesus: *facepalm*

[neemarita.livejournal.com]

Jesus helped everybody but they forget that and cling to government must help everyone and His command of love one another means everything goes!

[brendala.livejournal.com]

If Ryan really did arrive unannounced, then he (or, most likely, his campaign's PR guy) made a REALLY bad choice. I'm sure there are a lot of church soup kitchens out there who would have loved to have him. But he had the bad fortune to randomly pick one that didn't want him there and it's blown up in his face.

I don't blame the soup kitchen people for being pissed. They're a tiny charity that has tried to remain publicly apolitical and this stunt just f**ked them over from both sides (the left is mad because they blindly hate Republicans; and the right is mad because of the charity's response to Ryan's visit). Hate to say it, but Ryan's campaign really screwed the pooch on this one.

[kharmii.livejournal.com]

Wait..wut..they lost donors because Ryan showed up? That's really petty because a soup kitchen is one of those charities that I assume puts every penny into helping the people it's supposed to help every day. Why take it out on the homeless people?

[agentverona.livejournal.com]

I've heard so many different versions of this story that all I can assume is Ryan probably did have permission from someone to come, but as soon as liberal donors started dropping off the guy who runs the charity needed someone to blame. The liberal version just sounds too uncharacteristic.

Like, if someone was reporting that Obama stopped by a military hospital to visit troops secretly without telling the press so they could get photos, I'd know that was BS. This all kinda reeks the same way.

[brendala.livejournal.com]

Mis-communication is probably to blame here. Like, someone at the charity let him in. But then another person at the top got angry when Ryan walked through the door and the charity had to do damage control after the fact.

It's just hard to believe that Ryan dropped in there completely unannounced. The Secret Service covers the presidential and vice presidential nominees (I know Palin got Secret Service detail when she was running); so they would have had to vet the place and find out who was there before allowing Ryan to go.