Put-Upon Victims Forced to Wait in Line for Freebies or Even Pay Their Own Bills

from Moonbattery by Van Helsing


Put-Upon Victims Forced to Wait in Line for Freebies or Even Pay Their Own Bills: "

Have a hanky handy — this one is a tear-jerker. From Macon, Georgia:

When Eugene Jenkins showed up at St. Paul AME Church at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, he didn't know he would be one of the last people to get a ticket for assistance with his heating bill.

He waited in line until 7 a.m., when officials started to hand out the tickets, then went home for a few hours before returning at 10 a.m. By the time he had finished up his paperwork, it was 1:15 p.m., making for a long day.

Imagine having to spend hours hanging around and filling out forms, just to get someone else to pay your heating bills. For others, it was even worse:

Other people were turned away because the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council, which distributes the federal money, had its share of funding for the program cut by 44 percent this year. … That's left people such as Raymeica Kelley frustrated. Kelley said she, her mother and her sister arrived at the church about 3 a.m. Wednesday, only to get turned away.

Kelley has a job, but wants you to be forced to pay her heating bills because other bills piled up during a period of unemployment. Evidently these include cable bills:

Original caption:

WOODY MARSHALL/THE TELEGRAPH Showing her Georgia Power bills in the one warm room of her home, Raymeica Kelly explains how her mother, sister and herself were turned away from the Energy Assistance Program on Wednesday morning after standing in line for four hours. All three complained that the system the Macon-Bibb County Economic Opportunity Council uses to give out the assistance needs improving.

What's better to have, heat or a gigantic new state-of-the-art television? The answer: both, and if you can't afford it, make someone else pay.

On a tip from Lyle.

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