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In Reply to: Who treats Barney like the devil? posted by Acheick on July 24, 2002 at 07:38:42:
I can answer some more of what kind of help Barney gives people.
Besides food and lodging. He helps them to get drivers licenses, birth certificates, passports; he helps them to fill out job applications, lends them the use of a car if they need one to go apply for jobs, shows them where to apply for jobs; he helps them get bank accounts so that they can save the money they earn. He encourages them to save their money to buy their own first car. He and Joanna have driven kids all around the town they live in, to look at used cars.
He helps them to learn to stand on their own two feet. He asks them to act like responsible people and to pay their share of the board and care cost. They learn to function like real people in the real world. We all pay rents, mortgages(if we are lucky enough to own homes), car payments, pay our bills. The people that Barney help are learning to do this. They aren't just thrown out to starve and to fend for themselves. We should be glad for them that they don't have to go through what we did.
He also provides group activities like traveling to visit other cities, as tourists. Imagine that! He takes the people in his home on trips to the public pool, to the river, to Washington DC, to museums, to the park to play ball games. In rainy weather they sometimes go to an indoor soccer place and play against/with the locals.
I know that Joanna, Barneys wife sometimes wishes for a more conventional life but that she gets value out of helping others.
So God bless people who are like Barney and Joanna. I know that all these facts are true because my son went there when he was in a tough spot. That was in January. He was able to find a job and an apartment within a few months. He still rollerblades to work everyday as he saves for a new car/truck/whatever.
We can't all be like Barney, but we can quit ragging on him for doing a good thing.
