07 February 2016

The People That Complain About Others

The people that complain about the "others" on welfare, unemployment, food stamps, disability, Medicaid are the ones who never had to rely on our nation's safety nets. They are the lucky ones who had family and friends to help out when times were tough or, even better, never had tough times. My family was one of the 'lucky' ones - two daughters with mental illness (I had bipolar depression and the other with anorexia/bulimia) and the doctor and hospital bills totaled in the thousands after insurance stopped paying. My father lost his job with the bank he worked for - this was before banks were too big to fail. We would have lost our house if it wasn't for two relatives that loaned my parents money for their mortgage(paid back in full). Friends and relatives gave us food baskets. Eventually my dad got a job - pumping gas at Bridgeport airport for minimum wage($5/hr then) and my mom got a job at a hospital cleaning OR's. Within two years my dad was back working at a corporation making half what he had made at the bank but he was thankful for a living wage and health insurance because he had been diagnosed with his 1st round of cancer. My family survived because we had family and friends that could help us but if they had not been there or had been unwilling we would have had to rely on our nation's safety nets, just like thousands of others. No one should be humiliated and made to jump through hoops to receive aid that more than likely they have already paid into. I do not begrudge anyone on welfare, unemployment, food stamps, disability, Medicaid or any other government aid because my family has been there and I am there now and none of us is any better than the other - just luckier.

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