Today I opened my Facebook to see yet another Poll...this is so common with Facebook that you have to accept it as a way for people to express their identity and share themselves. One has to retreat from getting to emotionally involved because someone is going to disagree with you everyday pretty much. I am a Liberal Democrat living in a Conservative town, so I am a minority. Disagreement happens everyday. Most days I am really good at just letting this go by. Today is a different day: (As well as this poll I got a call from the Health Insurance Company's group "Americans for Solutions" a conservative group who wants to stop any govt. health care reform. They would prefer the Health Insurance Co. regulate themselves...that's turned out really good for the country so far.)
This poll is going around "Should people on Food Stamps/Welfare" be drug tested?
Everyone I have seen has said "Yes." At first I even thought "yeah probably," then in two seconds I was thinking "Who the hell are you lady? What have you done with my brain." Three of my friends have been pushed onto Food Stamps in order to feed their kids because of divorce. All three have been professionals or are professionals in their chosen field but can only work part time because they can't afford childcare full time. None of them are on drugs, except maybe the occasional Prozac (kidding.) Now how would I feel if I had to pee in a cup to pay for my kids food. Probably humiliated. The fact is a lot of people on drugs are probably on Food Stamps, and their kids probably are not on drugs!
What about probable cause? Should we blanket drug test people for being innocent? Or should the government say if you get arrested for drugs, or you are caught selling food stamps for drugs then we are going to test you? Then you should not receive them if you lose your kids are do not get into rehab.
* As an aside ( I have an adopted child who was in foster care, her mother was and is on drugs, she probably received food stamps, my daughter was often left without food to eat, this is one reason she was taken into foster care.)
Things change in your mind when you are affected by them or those you love are.
I was a recipient of Medicaid and WIC at one point in my early life, we had kids and we wanted to better ourselves by going to college. In order to do that we needed some assistance. It was so humiliating to use those vouchers in the store. If you had told me to pee for the vouchers I probably would have decided to forgo college and keep my husband working the $17,000 a year job, and our children s chances of getting out of Poverty would have been even worse, and so the cycle continues!
We are now middle to upper middle class and still struggle (we have four teens) but we don't need any assistance. We have private insurance, own a home, two cars (right now three, need to buy one?) an old boat and take vacations every three years. Our kids go to nice camps every summer. If you looked at me: a blond thirty eight year old mom, driving a nice Honda minivan, decently dressed, a husband who has a high ranking job at a college, you would never guess I needed government assistance as little as ten years ago.
Maybe there is no Democrat or Republican solution. It will have to be met with some thoughtfulness, humility, and honesty. Before you put out your opinion remember the very person reading your poll may be the last person you expect is on food stamps.
6 comments:
It's almost as if some people would like to make being poor in this country a crime. Most people who look at me probably wouldn't think I was on government unemployment less than a year ago, but I was. And after realizing that unemployment was so measly that I wouldn't have been able to afford COBRA to keep my health insurance, as it was literally hundreds of dollars more than my unemployment checks, let alone attempt to live on unemployment, I'm not sure I begrudge anyone what little money they get via government assistance. Especially considering that I had to visit the unemployment office so darn many times, and really, who would like to hang out at what is essentially the DMV multiple times per month? Thank God that at the time my husband had a job, a paycheck, and the ability to get me on his health insurance despite deadlines, and we both had family members willing to help us out if we needed it. So many people are not nearly so lucky.
Hi,
read all your recent posts, very informative and I thank you. I am most likely going to apply for food stamps this month. My dh is a commercial shrimper but with all the imported chemical laden shrimp that infiltrates the US (80% of all shrimp consumed in the US is imported) we are losing 2/3's of our income. With a stay at home, homeschooling mother of 3, a dog and cat, you can see why we are going on food stamps. Thankfully my husband will kill a wild deer this year on a planned hunt, they went fishing yesterday and caught a cooler full of sea trout and of course shrimp will be part of our diet. In Savannah, GA organic anything costs 3x what other food cost. The city has 87% black population and 75% are on some sort of government assistance. So there isn't too much concern except on a local level for organic, with the wide economic diversity, it is almost a status symbol here to afford organic. Kinda sickening considering the children who make up the public school system are well over 80% at risk kids. Our state is 47th or something like that in the nation educationally. I see the link between nutrition, standardized scores and behavior but it seems people like me are a voice in the wilderness.
My question to you is what do you do about packing kids lunches in safe containers? Are there any safe containers out there?
Great perspective on this issue, Courtney! I am probably saying this because I completely agree with it. Nonetheless, if all the jerks who came up with this "clever" deterrent to using up government funds want to be fair, they would also mandate drug testing for corporate fat cats (who have wasted gov't money far more than the poor) and security companies and others like Blackwater and Halliburton who are profiting from our country by war mongering. God knows they are taking WAY more money than any "welfare" program.
Like you, our family also received gov't assistance through WIC and Medicaid and it gave us a leg up to make life better for our families. I am thankful someone was nice enough to think of those programs because my family (who are by and large in support of the drug testing) sure didn't line up to help us out.
Bless you for speaking your mind!
Thank you all for your comments. My blogging is often a way for me to express myself after I have absorbed something and didn't say it out loud, and often wish I did. In a country that is so ridiculously wealthy we often discriminate against people who need a leg up. The working poor and those who have lost a job, or are trying to better themselves don't need the added stress of discrimination.
Thanks again,
Courtney
As a current recipient of food stamps I AM grateful I don't have to pee in a cup to get them, and I am DRUG FREE. But it is already embarrassing, sitting at DHS, using WIC, etc. A lot of us don't grow up thinking, "when I get older I'm going to have kids and get a divorce and get on food stamps." I have three classes left and I'll have my associate's degree, and this has been such a relief to not have to decide between paying my gas bill or feeding my kids. But the funny thing is, if you asked me a year ago what I thought about this, I don't know what I'd have said, because I wasn't on them. It's funny how much empathy you develop from life experience.
Wow thanks everyone for the comments. My hope is that those who have the power remember that some people really need a leg up, and that those who get a leg up become those in power.
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