19 February 2016

Entitled to be Human

In response to a comment to this article:

"She made poor decisions and now wants taxpayers to pay for it?  Arrogant  person..."
http://projects.aljazeera.com/2016/02/section8-mobility/

This woman made decisions that society encouraged and then demonized. In her senior year with scholarships to FOUR colleges she became pregnant. Instead of an abortion she chose to give birth, something the right to life groups encourage, however, once she chose to raise the baby the demonization started. Originally it was a two parent home but after her boyfriend left not only was she a single parent working hard and paying her "fair share" - federal and state taxes but she was doing it without government safety nets. She then applied for Section 8 (with years on the waiting list), to help make life easier - to try and get a boost up. She wants what any parent wants - a clean, safe home, good schools, a safe neighborhood and a chance at upward mobility for herself and her children. Are these wrong for an American, a human, to want and strive for? 
What exactly do we promote within our society - empathy, love and humanity or indifference, cruelty and hatred toward our fellow man? Does dropping a donation in the church basket or writing a cheque to a charity absolve us of compassion to the poor, the homeless, the hungry? Why does the color of a persons skin, where they live, if they are impoverished or if they speak with an accent matter? If they are good people who just want a better life, the same life you strive for, it should not. I hear people speak to the fact that they are not biased against the poor/lower-middle class yet they begrudge those who access the safety nets that were put in place to help exactly these people. When did Americans become so resentful of the people we once were? The immigrants, the working poor, the disabled, the elderly, the generations that were our grandparents and great-grandparents, they still exist, struggling to survive. I believe Lady Liberty speaks these words not just to arriving immigrants but to America's residents as well: 
"Give me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
I see people who want a better life held back only because on some level society has deemed them unworthy of success because they need a helping hand. People need a helping hand sometimes and not everyone has a family, a church or religious/secular group to help, or the ability to work more than one job and at the same time attempt to further their education. Sometimes the 'Government' does need to help that is why these safety nets were created and that is why they DO work. The Social Safety Net of the United States is made up of 13 categories of Federal Welfare Programs to protect low-income Americans from poverty and hardship. Eligibility for welfare benefits depends on a variety of factors, including gross and net income, family size, pregnancy, homelessness, unemployment, and serious medical conditions like blindness, kidney failure or AIDS. The programs are meant to be a safety net to catch Americans if they fall on hard times. They are: Negative Income Tax, SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), Housing Assistance, SSI (Supplemental Security Income), Pell Grants, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), Child Nutrition, Head Start, Job Training Programs, WIC (Women, Infants and Children), Child Care, LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program), Lifeline (Obama Phone). Whether you despise the idea of "entitlements" and deem them unfair you must admit that children, who are the majority of the recipients, deserve food, shelter and a stable living environment. We are ALL human, are we not? 

No comments: