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We are two people, one dog and three legs...well technically ten. But this is our story about going through life with some obstacles we have to maneuver and how we go about doing just that! And by the way, our life is fewer obstacles and more awesomeness. Stay tuned for more awesomeness...

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Rant

So I need to go on a rant here for a while.  We were discussing political views due to some unfriendly comments on Facebook and made earlier this week by a parishioner of a church we visited and it has been making me somewhat frustrated (*understatement).  The comment about a free store needing to have assurances that people weren't "abusing" the store or "going from store to store" for personal gain was one thing.  Then the Facebook comment about how due to her tax increases in her paycheck she was going to have to put a picture of the "ghetto family she was supporting" on her fridge; now that was just sh*tty.

Do people not realize that the largest group of those benefiting from you taxes is grandma and grandpa, not "ghetto families."  Or the defense budget and how war budgeting isn't even calculated into the federal pie chart because the damn pie chart would look too ridiculous because we spend so much money on war?  But the thing that this person likes to focus on is that she is supporting some "ghetto family" somewhere.

Well, I'm appalled at her language but also WHAT IS WRONG WITH SUPPORTING PEOPLE THAT NEED HELP?  And yes, there will always be those who abuse the system, BUT THAT IS NOT THE MAJORITY.  And DON'T BLAME/PUNISH THE VICTIMS. And also in case you were wondering, Medicaid spending is decreasing for the most part, not increasing...so most of that money you see coming out of your paycheck is going due to our mismanagement of the federal budget for years and our continued military presence in multiple countries.  Do we forget how people cut corners and recycled every last little piece of metal during the world wars due to rationing and other programs to help save money?

And do people forget that they benefit from their OWN taxes?  Like public schools, or ROADS to drive on, or social security, or that if they lost everything including their job and didn't have anyone in the family to lean on THEY COULD APPLY FOR THESE PROGRAMS TOO?  Honestly.  There is no dignity in having to ask for help, even beg for help....but without programs like these, returning from the brink of poverty and starvation would be even more impossible.

I just want to say I appreciate the woman I met who was thankful for medicaid because she had been a middle class housewife all her life until suddenly her husband left her and her two kids for another woman and she had not been working for over 20 years and so obtaining a job was difficult for her?  But this would never happen to you right?  You are immune to the perils of poverty and so therefore you can continue to judge the poor people who have no where else to turn than the governmental programs that were put in place to support them.  Since you can just move back in with mom and dad and continue playing your Xbox360 or ipad while others struggle to try and get a job in a volatile job market that doesn't hire people based on 1. not having a permanent address 2. based on being named a name that sounds "too black" or "too ghetto" or 3. you've been out of the business for too long or 4. you don't have any experience (but how can I get experience if no one will hire me?)  

I am sorry for this awful rant but I get frustrated especially when folks think they are somehow better or different than the poor, because you are not.  You are just the same, you were just born into a privilege that they were not.  So shut your mouth.