This, That, and the Other Thing

As time goes by, I spend more and more precious minutes from my day thinking about what is going on in the world and trying to decide how I really feel about it.  This is an attempt, in part, to clarify things for myself.  It's also a way to say, "Hey, I'm here!  And this is what I think!"  Being one of the nameless and faceless in the crowd can be a bit much, at times. 

So, from time to time, I will post my thoughts as they occur to me.  Somewhat a stream of consciousness type of thing.

Agree, disagree, ambivalent.  It's up to you.  It is, after all, a free country still.  :)

 
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7/20/03

Right now, in this country, a person can work every day and still not make enough to support a family...or even themselves.  Think about it.  Aides working in nursing homes, caring for our elderly and infirm, most often to not make enough to raise themselves to the poverty level, much less beyond poverty level.  And the poverty level itself is a lie.  In a single parent household with three kids to support, $18,400 per year is the poverty level.  If a family makes above that, they are ineligible for most assistance.  At that rate, the gross income for a month is $1,533.34.  Deduct taxes, social security, insurance (if even available), child care costs.  That's not a living wage.  

Minimum wage is what, $5.15 an hour?  That comes to $10,712 a year.  And that's a minimum wage?

People can't live on that.  Food, safe shelter, transportation.  For either scenario, affordable housing in an urban area would be located in low income areas, obviously.  Often, these areas are rife with drug dealing, drive by shootings, poor schools, hopelessness.  The jobs aren't in these areas.  Transportation is an issue for even the most basic of necessities.  Grocery stores are closing in these areas.  And, for the ones that are left, prices are often higher than in better areas of the city.  Even a McDonald's hamburger can cost 10 cents, 20 cents, 30 cents more.

Welfare reform was, perhaps, a start towards breaking the cycle.  But the stereotype of people getting rich off of welfare is a myth.  Most people receiving welfare want to work and be productive but economics are against them.  It is more economically feasible for them to not work and receive welfare than it is to try to struggle by on $10,712 a year.

Imagine then the hell that it is to work every day and not be able to get any help?  To make $24,000 a year and be automatically ineligible for most assistance.  From what I understand, if a person grosses 125% of the poverty guidelines, that makes them ineligible.  Most states that offer health insurance for the children of the working poor seem to have a requirement that they be without coverage for six months before the state will help.  So, $2,400 to $5,000 or more often comes off the top of the yearly income if there is coverage through work.  But there is another catch.  Those families making up to $45,000 are often eligible for state health insurance for their children.  $45,000 a year!!!!  Think about it!  Maybe if the upper threshold was lowered, the states could then afford to automatically cover the children of families making $24,000 a year...without a waiting period.

7/19/03

It's so frustrating to read the columnists and listen to the talking heads.  How can they say that drivel?  It makes no sense.  How can the ultra-conservatives - who proclaim to love America so much and freedom so much - spew so much bile and vindictive name calling?  And how can anyone fall for it?  It makes no sense to me.

Why is it unpatriotic to not follow in lockstep?  To think for oneself?  How is it traitorous to be against killing and against the misdirection of resources and attention?

Yes, I want to be safe and I want to be protected.  But it is not my belief, and never was my belief, that going to war in Iraq is the proper path toward that safety and protection.

That doesn't make me unpatriotic.  It doesn't make me un-American.  It makes me a human being that thinks and feels.

I see so much wrong right now.  I don't even know where to begin forming coherent thoughts about all of it.

I'm tired.  I'm tired of getting up and going to work every day and trying to raise my kids.  I'm tired of working hard and still being poor.  I'm tired of being looked down on and shunted aside because I'm poor.  I'm tired of the rantings of the right that I some how do not deserve better...that a living wage is not necessary and is somehow detrimental to the public good.  I am a working, thinking, productive member of society.  As such, I deserve some measure of respect.

And I am heartbroken because to many in the world I am rich beyond belief.

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