Assholes.

A friend of mine shared this and I have to say, I’m offended. Normally, I just ignore political stuff, leaving my friends to their opinions, even when I disagree with them for whatever reason. I think, as long as they’re voting, and they’re informed, who cares which way they vote? But this offended the hell out of me.

My mom was on welfare when I was a kid. It was so she could finish college and get a job that would pay her more so she could take better care of her kids. She wasn’t on it long. Maybe two years? Three? Not all that long, when you think about it. I also knew someone who was getting food stamps, but worked. They had a kid and working at McDonalds didn’t pay them enough to feed their kid, but they only had a high school diploma, and they were going to school part time. Like my mom, they were trying to step out of the poverty they found themselves in, and needed a little help up to do it. The food stamps meant her kid didn’t go hungry, and she had money for rent.

Welfare was put into place to give the poor a little help stepping up. Not everyone understands what it’s like to be poor. They think ‘why not try harder?’ or something equally ridiculous. If you don’t know what it’s like to be in that position, if you’ve never been there, then you really shouldn’t judge others for being there. They’re born poor. It’s not as easy to get out of that place as you’d think. If you’ve never lived or experienced living in a ghetto, or understand the mentality that you’re surrounded by there, or the sense of despair, how dare you judge someone that takes advantage of a system that gives them a little help out of that place?

People who use the Welfare system, or who get food stamps, or use government assistance to go to college, are not taking a handout. They’re taking a hand up. If it weren’t for those programs, there’d be more crime, more desperation, more poverty. Would you really want to take away the only life rafts they have? Would you tell them to swim harder if they were drowning? Because that’s essentially what taking those programs away would mean. I’m sure Romney’s father appreciated the Welfare program he took advantage of when he first came to America after fleeing Mexico. Where would Romney’s family be if it weren’t for that hand up they received? Probably nowhere near the White House.

So, for all those people who are so willing to take food and shelter from those that are beyond a level of poverty than you can understand, try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to imagine what it’s like being born into a family that has to decide if they’ll be able to make rent or feed their children  Try to imagine what it’s like to have to tell your kids that they have a choice between Christmas presents or a Christmas tree, because you can only afford one or the other. Try to imagine what it’s like to look at your kids and wonder how you’re going to provide for them because you don’t have a way out of the life they were unfortunately born to. Try growing up knowing there’s no money for college, or food, or school supplies, or new clothes.

Try imagine growing up seeing your friends get things you could never hope to have, or hearing them bitch about their allowance and not knowing what that’s like, because your family has never had money to spare. Try imagine the shame you feel when you have to buy groceries with food stamps, but you swallow that shame because you have kids, and they have to eat. If you don’t know what that feels like, then don’t judge someone, because you can’t know what they’re going through, or feeling, or how much of yourself you have to swallow just to take that hand up, because it’s the only hand up out of that pit.