SALON

Friday, Oct 19, 2012 7:08 PM UTC

Paul Ryan: Soup kitchen savior?

Donors fled when the head of a charity spoke out against Ryan. Then the Internet came to the rescue

By

Topics: Facebook, Elections 2012, Paul Ryan, Brian J. Antal, ,

Paul Ryan: Soup kitchen savior? (Credit: AP/Mary Altaffer)

When Paul Ryan and his entourage appeared in an Ohio soup kitchen last week to stage an ersatz, soon-to-backfire dishwashing photo op, Mahoning County District St. Vincent De Paul Society president Brian J. Antal quickly took umbrage at an apparent attempt to politicize his “apolitical” organization. Naturally, that was the moment things got very political.

Antal’s strenuous objection to the way the Ryan party “ramrodded their way” into his faith-based organization on a weekend was unequivocal. “It’s strictly in our bylaws not to do it,” he told reporters soon after. “They showed up there, and they did not have permission. They got one of the volunteers to open up the doors.” He added that his nonpartisan organization relies on private donations and “can’t afford to lose funding from these private individuals” over the possible appearance of favoritism. “If this was the Democrats,” he said, “I’d have the same exact problem.” But the fact that Antal has a history of voting in Democratic primaries and, more damningly, made Ryan look yet again like a complete doofus turned the incident into a battle – one with hungry Youngstown, Ohio, citizens in the line of fire.

In a Huffington Post story on Thursday, Jason Cherkis wrote that Antal now confirms that donors have been pulling out of the charity since the fateful Ryan visit. “It appears to be a substantial amount,” Antal says. Though he says donations are a private matter, he does admit, “You can rest assured there has been a substantial backlash.” And, he continues, his soup kitchen has been barraged with angry, anonymous phone calls. Side note: How big of a tool do you have to be to call up the St. Vincent De Paul Society and yell at them?

The vitriol inevitably also spread to the kitchen’s Facebook page, where the trolls have been insisting, “I hope you lose your tax emempt [sic] status for allowing campaigning at a soup kitchen.” Another chimes in, “Anyone who is thinking about donations to you should think twice.” And of course, all caps lady is there to declare “HAVE YOU ANY IDEA ON HOW MANY ARE GOING TO WALK AWAY FROM YOUR ORGANIZATION BECAUSE OF THE COMPLAINTS FROM YOUR PRESIDENT?” As another person writes, “This kind of tone and outright lying (Ryan DID have permission) will directly impact my decision of supporting our local St. Vincent De Paul site.”

So, in short, there are people out there in the world who are now declaring they are not even going to support their own local St. Vincent De Paul Societies because somehow that might set in motion a chain of events that gets Obama reelected or something. Or maybe it’s just because they’re vindictive dopes. Frankly, I’m going with that one.

Thankfully, right at those moments when many of us feel like puking in despair over the notion of a “substantial” backlash against a friggin’ soup kitchen, the nobler side of human nature somehow always comes roaring back into the picture. After the posting of the HuffPo story — which included info on how to donate to the Youngstown soup kitchen — a whole lot of people began sharing it around on their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. And that’s when something good began to happen.

Sure, there’s trolling a-plenty going on. But the Mahoning County District St. Vincent DePaul Society Facebook page has now become a bastion of goodwill – and hope. “Sending a check,” writes one commenter. “I donated twenty dollars after hearing about the backlash against this charity by the right wing politicos,” says another. “I am sorry that, reportedly, too many others are playing politics with the distress of the hungry and homeless.” And, my favorite: “Being hungry is a terrible feeling. I am sending a donation to your organization today. No one should ever punish the poor over their political feelings. Shame upon those who do.” Bull’s-eye.

On Thursday, Antal told HuffPo, “Honestly, I really don’t need any more attention. I really just want this to go away.” But attention has its own lifespan, and sometimes, that can be a wonderful thing.

Antal didn’t invite Paul Ryan into his soup kitchen, and he dared to say so precisely because he was trying to avoid the appearance of taking sides. Sides were taken anyway, and for a while, it appeared to be to the detriment of the community his kitchen serves. That miserable turn of events has now taken yet another turn, one that, in the end, might just wind up doing more for that little soup kitchen than all the traditional fundraising in the world. Paul Ryan may not have walked into that Ohio kitchen with much real charity on his mind last Saturday. Yet, remarkably, he may just have bungled his way into doing it a world of good.

You can donate to the Mahoning County District St. Vincent De Paul Society with a check sent to P.O. Box 224, Youngstown, Ohio 44501. Donations also may be made online. Online donors should specify that their donations are for the Youngstown, Ohio, soup kitchen. There’s also an Indieagogo donation page.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 12 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
196 points197 points | 7 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
166 points167 points | 27 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
124 points125 points | 59 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
73 points74 points | 15 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
45 points46 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations