General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPoor/Unemployed/Homeless Appreciation Thread
This is about all the things that folks do for other people. Things like staying home to take care of an aging parent, even though it means giving up on one income in a two income family at a time when having two incomes is the only way most middle class families can rise out of poverty. Like serving two or three tours of duty in a war for oil in a desert country and then coming home to find that no one wants to hire you, because everyone thinks that the war was a big embarrassment that they would rather forget (and they have heard too many horror stories about PTSD). Like letting homeless friends sleep on your sofa and eat at your table, even though you aren't doing so well yourself, but you've done the homeless thing and you know how it feels to be in desperate need of food and a bath. Like giving your neighbor who is too old or infirm to drive a ride to her doctor's appointment and not asking for gas money, because you know her Social Security check is even lower than your minimum wage check. Like working days and then coming home nights to care for a dying partner who outweighs you by a hundred pounds----sometimes you feel as if your back will break when you try to help him to the bathroom, but it never occurs to you to leave, even though if you did, the state would assume him care and you would be much better off financially and physically. Like quitting work and home schooling your special needs child because your school district has cracks so wide she would fall into the sewer and be swept into the ocean if you didn't.
There are lots of reasons that some folks in this country are poor. The one that people tend to forget is that when you take care of a child, an elderly parent, an extended family or needy neighbors and friends, that pushes you into poverty, too. In this country, children, the elderly, the disabled and their caregivers are the poor.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)If I weren't a retired editor, I would publish you. Someone should.
Yes indeed
littlemissmartypants
(22,631 posts)BumRushDaShow
(128,831 posts)who don't seek praise for doing but just... do.
TheKentuckian
(25,023 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)historylovr
(1,557 posts)lpbk2713
(42,753 posts)That's her on her late mother's shoulder.
{Link to Article}
The article is a few years old. Don't know what her status is now.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)About Southern Sharecroppers during the Great Depression. Sometimes I fear we're headed down that same dusty road.
MarianJack
(10,237 posts)...thank you!
PEACE!