A mother cries, but not where her children can hear her. She buries her head in her pillow after a long day and the children have been sleeping for hours. Who hears her cries? She hurts for what she cannot give her children. Her body aches from toiling all the day long and still she has not enough to meet the monthly bills. Overcome with grief she thinks the unthinkable...she remembers that policy in place that could protect her children if she were gone... Who is there to stop her, who is there to care?
NO ONE!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Gentle Introductions
It is funny how reunions come about -within the last two years I had the pleasure of reuniting with my father after 25 years. My father being most proud to once again have me as part of his life was pleased to introduce me to everyone he knew. It was on several occassions people said, "Why we didn't know you had a daughter?" My father being blessed with a graceful tongue would then explain, "Well you see 30 years ago my wife said to me, I do not believe in sex so you need to find it elsewhere, so what did I do, I found Sarah's mother and nine months later we had my bastard." Yep that is how my dad introduces me to everyone he knows.
Judging the Poor
Today, I decided to share the joy that the government decided to cut my family's food-stamps by $300.00 per month -family of five. Considering that there are 43 million people on food stamps if everyone's food stamps were cut by even $100.00 per month that would be a savings of 4,300,000,000 every month.
For certain, it is going to be a difficult adjustment to have such a large reduction in food stamps, but I am more than willing to make the sacrifice if people would just stop complaining about the poor. Unfortunately, people still blame the poor. When I posted this information via my blackberry, I guess that was just too much for people to handle. Assumptions ran wild! It is too easy for someone to assume that having a blackberry is a luxury that should not be afforded by anyone who is on foodstamps. Therefore, I received the blunt of much criticism. It is curious, how it is so easy to judge other people's spending decisions. No consideration is given to the larger picture of circumstances surrounding a decision. For instance, it is assumed that if you have a blackberry that you paid a large amount for that phone -which in my case was only 1 cent because I signed a two year contract. What is not taken into consideration is other things that have been sacrificed -like not having a landline or cable -things which even the poorest of society generally still have intact.
Our family actually decided to go without a phone all together for three months, which ended up not being a safe situation because, I have a history of seizure in which my children at one point had to call 911 when I was in my van outside of a supermarket -thank the good Lord we had a mobile phone at that time. Additionally, one really requires a phone when you are seeking a job, or have children in school. So it was the most logical step for my family to once again decide to turn on our cell phones.
Other sacrifices my family has made include moving out of our 3,000 sq ft house into a 500 sq ft home -currently there are six of us living in our small living space. Our living room doubles as a bedroom, and I have slept on the floor for three years because we sold all of our furniture to survive. My family drives two vehicles which are totally paid off and are pressing 10 years in life. We have 0 credit card debt. The only debt our family has incurred is a very small mortage less than 60,000.00 and our student loans.
Another judgment passed on my family is our skating. Skating is the one family recreation we have. I guess people would rather see my family sitting on the couch watching cable -which is a monthly bill- than to have my family buy skates so that we can exercise as a family.
For certain, it is going to be a difficult adjustment to have such a large reduction in food stamps, but I am more than willing to make the sacrifice if people would just stop complaining about the poor. Unfortunately, people still blame the poor. When I posted this information via my blackberry, I guess that was just too much for people to handle. Assumptions ran wild! It is too easy for someone to assume that having a blackberry is a luxury that should not be afforded by anyone who is on foodstamps. Therefore, I received the blunt of much criticism. It is curious, how it is so easy to judge other people's spending decisions. No consideration is given to the larger picture of circumstances surrounding a decision. For instance, it is assumed that if you have a blackberry that you paid a large amount for that phone -which in my case was only 1 cent because I signed a two year contract. What is not taken into consideration is other things that have been sacrificed -like not having a landline or cable -things which even the poorest of society generally still have intact.
Our family actually decided to go without a phone all together for three months, which ended up not being a safe situation because, I have a history of seizure in which my children at one point had to call 911 when I was in my van outside of a supermarket -thank the good Lord we had a mobile phone at that time. Additionally, one really requires a phone when you are seeking a job, or have children in school. So it was the most logical step for my family to once again decide to turn on our cell phones.
Other sacrifices my family has made include moving out of our 3,000 sq ft house into a 500 sq ft home -currently there are six of us living in our small living space. Our living room doubles as a bedroom, and I have slept on the floor for three years because we sold all of our furniture to survive. My family drives two vehicles which are totally paid off and are pressing 10 years in life. We have 0 credit card debt. The only debt our family has incurred is a very small mortage less than 60,000.00 and our student loans.
Another judgment passed on my family is our skating. Skating is the one family recreation we have. I guess people would rather see my family sitting on the couch watching cable -which is a monthly bill- than to have my family buy skates so that we can exercise as a family.
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