Poverty: A Global Crisis

poverty strikes roughly 43 million people in the United States every year. Almost nine million families will either wonder or fear where and when they will get their next meal. One child out of every five lives in poverty. I speculate the numbers are higher because people are ashamed of the hard times that befall them. My child is living in poverty.

I am embarrassed about my situation and the fact that it has devastating effects on her and her ability to succeed. It makes her struggle that much harder and my guilt that much heavier to bear. I often wonder if I could of or would have done things differently. I am not ashamed of myself because I did nothing wrong. Out of 300 million citizens you have a better than one in 7 chance of being impoverished. It is non-discriminate. I am not a minority, or at least wasn't some time ago, but being a single mother of one who has fallen to her medical issues, it was bound to happen. Now I can barely afford my medication on a month to month basis, and I know there are people out there who suffer far worse than I have it.

My embarrassment stems from my guilt of not utilizing my past better to prevent it. I am a good mother and was what I thought a good wife. I was an exceptional employee, represented by the fact that I was with the last company long enough to have had the privilege of affording private disability insurance. Over the course of the last three years I have been without work because of my mental state and my physical well being. This wasn't planned. But it is what it is and now, I am angry as I sit and wait for news on whether I will receive aide in the form of Social Security Disability and eventually, Medicaid. I have been mocked and accused of living "off the state" and been attacked openly by people for what they felt was their right to put me down because "their taxes pay to feed and clothe me!"

Interesting enough, this educated loud-mouthed dark comedian spent approximately a grand total of four months on welfare and welfare-type programs (her entire adulthood life) funded by you, the taxpayer (and I might add myself). I have worked full time (including several part time jobs when I couldn't that added up to a full 40+hr work week) since I was under the age of eighteen. What I will receive from SSD is more than most because of my work history. So, I wasn't a complete failure. I gave back more in donations to organizations that I felt deserved it than I ever have received from those funds, and did so willingly without the want or need of accolades. Only now, I have lost my home (last Christmas) and dignity (trying to work on that one) and still am caught in the cogs of this system. I drive by several parcels of land that could be used to build homes for the homeless that weren't lucky enough to have a brother and his family take them in. I see politicians getting salaries for doing a shitty job and spending more than they were allotted and get rewarded with universal healthcare and a pension paid for by YOU and me, the taxpayers. I never would have received such grace had I not performed my job to the utmost ability or poorly.

We have men and women fighting for this country who cannot feed their own children and have lost their homes. They were told last month that they might not get paid for one month because our president and the United States Congress had failed to live within their means. Only you and I and the good men and women who elected these idiots have to pay the price. I still see them boarding the Leer jets to shuttle about for their campaigns, I still see them dining in the finest of establishments. I even watched the President Himself tell the US citizens that they needed to suck it up and tighten their belts while standing in a very long hallway full of millions of dollars worth of tapestries, area rugs and furniture. Remarkably, we hear about global warming and the fossil fuel crisis but there he stood, solemn as can be, at the end of a hallway where we had clear view of two floor candelabras lighting the other end where there was NO one standing or walking by. I know how I was raised, and most of you can appreciate when I say we have heard our parents beat into our heads we didn't live in a barn and we aren't animals. "Turn off the @!@$!# light if you're not in the room!" and " Close the damn door you're letting the air/heat out!" So why weren't our elected officials raised this way?

What gives them the right to tell me to be ashamed because I am sick from a disease they refuse to research because the very idea of someone being/having it scares the bajeezes out of them? What gives them the right to think they can even HIRE an illegal immigrant to babysit their children while they go get drunk at the next convention (compliments of you and I again) and then tell the million or so people who would want to come here they cannot. I know a man right now with two masters' degrees and our country refuses to recognize them. He works three jobs to make ends meet while he waits for citizenship, but if you were to meet him you would be decidedly upset because he fled a worse situation to try and find a better way of life here. I am tired of all this bickering and wasteful mess. I want to see the White House sold, bit by bit and Capitol Hill too, while we are at it. I want those monies to go to feeding OUR hungry and clothing OUR naked and providing healthcare to OUR people!

Enough is enough. I don't want a man or woman civil servant who thinks that a $5000 power-suit justifies their wastefulness. How about a pay cut for them? How about foreclosure on their homes? They spent more of the US's money than they were allotted and when I spend more than I am they come and repossess my car and home. Why not repossess their material objects...then maybe...just maybe without all the distraction of parties and galas and traveling our Senators, Representatives and Chief Commander would have more time to talk TO the people and roll up their sleeves and get the job done. I have watched philanthropists with hearts of gold give back, but not one elected official.

I am not Christian, not even remotely despite my fine Catholic upbringing (complete with sexual abuse and physical violence and humiliation), but I am versed in many religions and their parables. I challenge those of you who are, to see or find the "::" for me as to where and what section it comes from, but here is my version in layman's terms:

These officials were displeased with their Lord savior Jesus Christ because he blessed and old woman who donated to her Church, her cause, far less than they themselves had placed in a kettle. "Why? Why have you chosen to bless her?" they asked "when we all have put in plenty $$$ and all she gave was one thin dime?" 


Their Lord and Savior replied simply "Because she gave not a percentage, but all she had."


This woman didn't consider herself without a fee and gave her last coin. While these men stood there expecting another handout wearing their fine robes and their trinkets and fluffing themselves like peacocks. She in her tattered rags hobbled up to the altar and threw in one lousy coin, her last. And humbly hobbled back down and was on her way home.

I give my last dime. I have less today to pay my bills than I have bills because the companies who fund the elections of these greedy officials also run the necessities of my life and have raised the prices of food, electric, gasoline, communications, medicine and so on, while merchants who also feel the strain have trickled their costs in addition to the ones we already have back down to us! I am paying twice what I used to with less than half of what I once had. And I didn't squander my money. I lived WITHIN my means and had extra to GIVE BACK to charity here and abroad. Now I am faced with eating and feeding my child and being home-bound for the month while waiting eagerly on these rich men to decide my fate, OR purchasing my much needed medication so that I may stay viable and be able to teach her (Laurel Ann) a little longer about social responsibility. I put in my last dime today. My child WILL eat this month and I WILL get sicker and when there is nothing left, WHO will teach her?~(tearfully)mobe's love to her all and her all to her loves.