How did this all start? I did today what I often do ... I had to go to town for something, and I visited Goodwill while i was at it. I bent over and looked in the dumpster and found what I usually find behind Goodwill, and that is tons of good things like bags and bags of perfectly OK clothing and other similar things. Many times I fill my car with the wonderful dumpster stuff. But now it will go unused and wasted. Goodwill will call the police on you if you go in their dumpster. And now that I have raised a fuss about that the dumpster will probably get locked.
We the citizenry give to Goodwill on good faith that the stuff will be sold to the poor or dealt with in some other useful way. Unwanted stuff could be given to nearby churches for the very poor instead of thrown in the dumpster. But this trust has been violated. If Goodwill thinks there is no big profit to make well then the stuff is useless to them and in the dumpster it goes.
Part Two: Not Just Me in Trouble
In the same shopping center as Goodwill is another store called "Restore". It was started by the Jimmy Carter people, the Habitat for Humanity people. They are in a similar thrift store business but they do not sell clothes. The lady there told me that she knew a guy who took clothes and gave them to the poor. I have a camper now half full of clothes that Goodwill threw out over the last few months and I am going to call that guy that Restore mentioned to take this stuff and give it away to the poor. And I advise others to find a better way to give old clothes away rather than to give them to Goodwill because there really is not that much good will at Goodwill Industries. A goodly amount of those clothes will be simply thrown in the dumpster. That is my experience.
Part Three: Conclusion
As this current culture goes further and further into free fall, and an enormous cultural vacuum is created, many of us will find it necessary to find a new way and a need to listen to our hearts. Each one alone in our private lives and all together we will forge a new way to go and a new culture will soon be born. The process is already begun. Just turn on your TV. All of a sudden it is no longer the propaganda machine saying profoundly repetitive stuff. Suddenly the boob tube is interesting because now the uproar and the rebellion is so loud it can no longer be suppressed.
Well I did my part and raised a fuss at Goodwill and its scandalous corporate waste. I was treated pretty gruffly but that kind of thing is familiar to me and I just think it funny and sad. I have yet to end up behind bars for doing these kinds of things, and I have been doing them for many of the decades of my sixty six years in this earth-body. I think that shows that cops are generally pretty good guys. Though if I go back to Goodwill now I will spend thirty days in jail for trespassing. How ridiculous is that? I took items out of the garbage and recycled them so they would not end up in a landfill. I am supposed to feel I am a criminal for doing that? And I gave some of the stuff to homeless people. A real criminal. :-)
So I guess I will leave Goodwill store alone. "Boycott Goodwill Industries" is my motto these days. It will be awhile before we can topple Wall Street but we could topple Goodwill Industries very quickly and easily. We could become responsible citizens and make sure that the things we discard find new homes and that people are truly helped.
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