New Bon Jovi ‘Volunteer’ Jersey Restaurant
EmailReported by ABC News’ Seniboye Tienabeso:
The menu may have gumbo, cornmeal crusted catfish and carrot cake with lemon cream frosting. But the main dish served at Bon Jovi’s experimental new restaurant is hope.
If you cannot afford to eat, still come,” said the rock ‘n’ roll superstar. “We are open to any and everyone who wants to volunteer.”
The Soul Kitchen, inspired by the adage “teach a man to fish” and spearheaded by the Bon Jovi family, opened in gloomy Red Bank, N.J.
With no prices on the menu, the Soul Kitchen provides meals to anyone who has earned them through volunteer hours.
”At a time when one in five households live at or below poverty … we believe this is a time for this restaurant,” said Bon Jovi.
“The Soul Kitchen is meant to serve people in need who will then donate their time. We are not a soup kitchen.”
Bon Jovi hopes the restaurant, which took two years to come into fruition, provides a new model for community empowerement, and hopes to see his dream spread to other communities.
”This is a place for this community made by our community. This is America. We can fix these problems.”
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This has gone too far! Everywhere I turn, I am being forced or encouraged to “volunteer”. Through my college, we HAVE to “volunteer” in order to graduate. Apparently, some educators don’t seem to understand that the root word of volunteer is voluntary. Instead, call it what it is- community service, which is unconstitutional for anyone, but criminals. Is that what is happening at this restaurant? Probably not, but it still does not make it a benevolent practice. Yeah, it seems nice that someone volunteers and then is provided a meal, but where is the dignity in being provided charity, even when you know that in the amount of hours you had to do to earn the meal was ridiculously inflated from what you would really pay if you were being charged in cash? Why doesn’t he hire people, pay them a living wage, charge a mutually acceptable price, and then people will have so much more dignity than if this guy wants to get a thrill up his leg, feeling as if he is giving perpetual charity. That is what these people want- they want people to thank them for being charitable, even when they never had to pick up a piece of trash or crack open the wallet themselves. Volunteering, and especially community service requirements, RUIN the economy. That’s why we’re in this mess to begin with. If you’ll work for me for free, or better yet, you HAVE to work for me for free (and smile while you’re doing it, because your grade depends on it), than why would I ever hire someone that I have to pay a normal wage? For instance, one of the forced service projects in my area is to rake leaves. If they hired someone to do that, it would cost them $15-$25 an hour. They don’t want to crack the wallet at all, even if that guy they hire will get taxed on his $15, helping out the community in that way, spend his $15, further helping the local community. No, that would mean that we get to stop kissing up to a washed up, wait, what is it that he did? No, seriously, nobody my age actually knows who this prig is (look it up, it’s not a misspelling of a curse word, people). But, anyway, you get my point- they would crap themselves if someone would focus on themselves for just a moment, and by doing so would never have to depend on anyone else and may be able to help someone more than they ever would as a low-level dishwasher or leave-raker. We have enough non-profits in the US in order for every man, woman, child, and infant to have 2.5 of their very own. Why do we have so many? Because they are profitable! The woman that Michelle Obama “helped” Ty Pennington build on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition drives around in a Mercedes because her “non-profit” is so profitable.
Posted by: CaveWoman1984 | October 21, 2011, 12:56 pm 12:56 pm
Jeebus say: Chill.
This isn’t for you. Expend your energies where they will make you happy. Clearly people trying to help out their fellow humans makes you angry. So go do something for yourself, since that’s apparently where your head is at.
Posted by: jeebus | October 21, 2011, 5:24 pm 5:24 pm
Hey Cavewoman1984,
He is paying the staff! Why don’t you learn how to read properly or have you not graduated yet from your college that is forcing you to volunteer? No one is forcing anyone to go to the restaurant. If it’s not your thing, don’t go but maybe someone that can’t find work right now and needs a meal can get one by volunteering. Kudos to Bon Jovi!!! Geez, chill is right.
Posted by: Marysia | October 21, 2011, 6:06 pm 6:06 pm
I don’t understand why my responses to the very unkind responses I got from Jeebus and Marysia keep being deleted. Perhaps because someone does not agree with the status quo, or God forbid, the oh holy ABC News? I am simply trying to answer back that I am certainly not selfish, I give tons of money and time to help others. I used to give it to non-profits, but realizing that they are actually harming instead of hurting in many cases, I now give to individuals in need. I am not upset at helping people, but rather at the precedence it sets. And Marysia, you are flat out lying when you state that he is paying the people. There is nothing in THIS written article stating verbatim that he is paying ANYONE. Now, if you have information from somewhere else, bring it forth, but do not insinuate that I am stupid (I am off to graduate school soon, thank you), or in the case of Jeebus, selfish. I DO NOT focus on only myself and I find it morally repugnant that whenever someone disagrees with what is (now, because it hasn’t always been this way) the typical liberal public statement, someone comes out and makes a personal attack at their character or intelligence. Or, as with the Tea Party, calls them racist or sexist (fully ignoring the fact the the candidates who are Tea Party favorites are an African-American man and a woman). Or simply deletes the post altogether. The points I was making are absolutely true- when you have an employee who will (or is forced) to work for free, you are tempted to never err from that path. I mean, people complain about illegal aliens taking their jobs. Why? Because illegal aliens, being legally incapable of demanding a fair wage, will work for less than the average guy. The same economic truth applies for volunteer work, and to an even greater degree with community service requirements. I still think that if you want to do volunteer work, that is fine, but with a restaurant, two ice cream flavors, and at least four local news stories on it everyday, the push for it is becoming so great that there are a significant amount of people who feel that they need to 1) do so much volunteer work that they are very much displacing employees and 2) some people in power are encouraged to make requirements where there were none before. This was all I was saying, so I am not sure why the attacks on my morality (both whether or not I am a giving person and whether or not I lie, when in fact, it was the other person who either did just that or misread the article) or intelligence (insinuating I cannot read when my post is much more eloquent than theirs and contains real economic truths- It’s hard to write well when you can’t read the letters back to yourself in the first place). And I am not sure why their posts get to stay, but, nope, not mine because it doesn’t agree with your master plan for how to disseminate the news (and push certain beliefs).
Posted by: CaveWoman1984 | October 23, 2011, 6:47 am 6:47 am
Just think of all the volunteer work CAVEWOMAN could have done in the amount of time it took to post these comments.
Posted by: Renee | November 2, 2011, 9:07 am 9:07 am