Life in a Small Town

We live in a small town. Not a tiny town, but small enough that you tend to run into the same people over and over. In fact, today, I ran into someone I know from attending Temple on Friday nights.

Normally, this would be a totally uninteresting encounter, but the place I "ran into" this person from the temple was at the local office for economic support. Economic support, as in.... the place you go when you are bordering on not being able to support your kids on your income and you sign up for things like medicaid, food stamps, and things of that ilk.

Granted, I'm not ashamed of needing help. I need help. The help is temporary, and there will be a point in my life where I don't need to turn to the government for assistance. But, I have to admit having a conversation with people you know from other realms of life WHILE standing in the stinky, crowded, depressing "economic security" office is a little disconcerting.

The conversation goes something like this:

Her: "Hi, how are you doing??!!"

Me: "Fine.... "

Awkward silence...

Me: "Well, obviously things COULD be better or I wouldn't be standing HERE looking for economic security, but all in all I can't complain."

Her: Strained smile as she tries to decide if I am joking....

Well, you get the picture.


And, since we are on this topic, I thought I might post something I wrote awhile ago when I realized my "facebook friends" were all joining some group that wanted to force women like me to get mandatory drug testing so we could qualify for benefits.

Enjoy:

I'm on welfare. I'm white (not that it should matter what color I am). I'm educated. I have not only a bachelor's degree, I have a master's degree. I work four jobs totaling more than 40 hours a week. I do have three children, but they are all from the same father. Right now I need assistance. And, I, like many many many other women my situation who are in our place through no fault of or own (divorced, widowed, abused, abandoned), am human.

Requiring me to take a drug test assumes that people who are in my shoes are more likely to be drug users (we aren't). This assumes that we don't have the right to privacy (we should). And assumes that we need public assistance because of some kind of character flaw. And, I can tell you that the overburdened public system that administers welfare is not going to be helped by adding more levels of "administration".

MOST people who get welfare are poor not because they don't want to work, but because they can't FIND work, or never had the chance to get the same kind of education people take for granted. Many people on welfare have an education, but lose their job, become disabled, become ill, end up caring for sick or aging parents (or children). These things can happen to anyone of us, at any time, no matter how much education we have, and how moral we think we are.

As for, who gets welfare? We are your friends, your classmates, your child's teacher, your neighbor, the person who attends your church. You don't know about us, because the process of getting welfare is humiliating, dehumanizing, and embarrassing. We aren't going to tell you, especially when you project an attitude that we are somehow "worse" than you are because you have been lucky enough so far to escape the need for some assistance.

How many of you know the stats on welfare? Do you know that MOST people who receive welfare are white? Most welfare recipients are American citizens? Most welfare reciepients not only work, but work more than one job for long hours at terrible pay doing jobs no one else wants?

And, as for the small minority that meet your view. Do the children of drug addicts deserve to eat? Do the children of women "who pop out all those babies" deserve to be fed? How about their elderly parents? If that addict was your brother/father/mother (its possible) would you be so glad to watch them starve?

For shame.