Pardon this little rant, but I just have to vent. I keep seeing and hearing some very disturbing opinions about people living in poverty and using the welfare system. They all boil down to something like this: "Let me fix the welfare problem in this country! Under my governance, people on food stamps will no longer be allowed to buy gum or soda. Everyone on welfare will be sterilized so they can't reproduce and tax our system any further. Anyone utilizing low-income housing will forfeit his or her right to privacy, and be subject to random and unannounced property searches. Mandatory drug tests will be also be administered and anyone failing the drug test will lose his or her medical insurance. You must prove that you are either working or searching like a junkyard dog through the trash for employment to maintain your cash assistance. Oh, and if you're on welfare, your voting rights will be suspended, because clearly someone who is facing a financial crisis in his or her personal life is inferior and unable to have an educated opinion about the leadership of our country. "
These posts make me livid every time I see them. I mean, are people serious when they say these things, or is it just over-exaggerated ranting without thinking? Do people of this country really think that a person who is living in poverty should not be allowed to buy a case of soda? Does being on welfare make you undeserving of dessert? Really? Random housing searches for those on Section-8? Are you serious? What is the point of that? Just what do you think you're going to find during these searches anyway? Being poor no more makes you a criminal than being rich makes you an honorable and upstanding citizen. I'm pretty sure those are character traits, not in any way linked to financial success or lack-thereof. Surely people don't think that any illegal activity in the upper-classes is justified, because at least those classes aren't asking the government for a handout. And mandatory birth control? How on earth do you figure that birth control is in any way the business of the government? Do you want a state representative in your bedroom handing you a condom tonight? That's ridiculous, isn't it? But yet people will say that everyone who is on public assistance should be sterilized. The last I checked, being poor had little to do with a person's ability to parent. No one is telling the Duggers to stop procreating, even though I'm pretty darned sure that it's not humanly possible for two parents to provide equal attention to 20-some children. You can't tell me the older children aren't being asked to parent the younger ones in some form or another, which in my opinion isn't fair at all. But, wait - the Duggers aren't using welfare, so it's none of our business what they do. Guess what? It's none of our business what they do regardless of their income level. It's their family and they do what they feel is best, in the best way that they know how. Crazy concept, isn't it?
Don't tell me that taking part in these programs is voluntary, and that if you are utilizing public assistance, you are willingly forfeiting your rights. I could create a dozen scenarios where a working class family - not your so-called "welfare bums" - are knocked off their feet by something. They may be educated, or not. They may be physically fit, or not. They may even indulge in an adult beverage from time to time (so do I...so do most of you). Something happens to force them to use public assistance. They are not proud, in fact, they are embarrassed, but they don't have a choice. It is not voluntary, it is a matter of survival. They have children who need medical care. People need to eat. How would you feel - you, middle or upper class citizens who preach over and over about how parasitic welfare is - if you were in that situation? How would you like to be drug tested at random, have your house searched, be told that you had to tie your tubes and that you couldn't vote? What? That wouldn't happen to you, you say? You manage your money better than that. You go to work every day and earn your living. You are above using welfare. Hmmm...better watch your words. It can happen to absolutely anyone, at any time. You don't know what kind of circumstances lead any one person to fall victim to poverty's grasp. No one is better than any other person, and no one is exempt from tragedy, from stumbling, from needing help. No one is invincible. My high school American Cultures teacher started off our junior year by writing "Rome fell" in large letters across the blackboard. Her point? That the largest, most powerful, most seemingly indestructible power in the world fell to ruins, and so could any other nation, organization or person, at any point in time.
No one has the right to judge or impose dishonorable treatment on another. The foundation of this country is such that all voices, even those shouting out from the depths of poverty, are heard and valued. Everyone is given the opportunity to succeed, and everyone is welcomed. We, as a country, pride ourselves on giving those in need the support necessary to rise above their circumstances, not in belittling, degrading and shaming people for taking the hand that we have extended. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me..."
Before you judge, before you spew unconstitutional verbal vomit about mandatory drug testing, housing searches, and voting revocations, think about the people you are talking about. Picture their faces in front of you. Look into their eyes - the eyes of someone who could easily be your mother, your niece, you daughter, yourself - and think, really think, about the person behind the stigmatized "welfare bum" label. Elite, middle class, working class, children - we are all people who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. We are all one step away from reaching for the hand instead of extending it. We are all vulnerable. After all, Rome fell.
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