To be honest, I am in such a foul, foul mood right now.
Part of it stems from the fact that I didn’t get to see my mother yesterday. I called to let her know I was coming down, but got no answer. I called my sisters to see what was going on, and I got no response. I joked today that, for all I know, my mother was in the hospital . . . .
I should know better than that shit by now.
She was, but she is home now. Of course, if it weren’t for Medicare, she would not have received any medical treatment at all. It makes me feel so much better hearing from my friends that she shouldn’t receive treatment that she can’t pay for, and that is one of the shortcomings of our society . . . that people expect the government to take care of them. Sure, it’s easy to say “Damn right!” when people make such statements. We all have moments when we feel that we have either given the government enough, or that the government has taken enough, or that the government takes for the “haves” to help the “have nots” who don’t deserve it.
Right?
She is my fucking mother. Tell me she deserves to die because she doesn’t have medical insurance and lives in government housing. Tell me that she’s a leech on society, and that we would all benefit if she weren’t.
What is the role of the government . . . to just take and take and take without ever helping the people who give and give and give throughout the span of their lives. To take money to allocate funds to a war that the taxpayer might not support? To help people in foreign countries? Because giving handouts to those in another country is better than helping people here?
She was in the hospital, and I am grateful that she is okay, and thankful to the program that made that possible. I want my mother to receive treatment even if she doesn’t deserve it (sarcasm). I am selfish that way.
But, really, why stop there?
My mother deserves no help, because she dropped out of high school, raised five children, and was raised with the mentality that she automatically forfeited the continuation of her education when she had a child. Really, because of my mother’s poor choices, there are other things that should not have been granted to her or to us.
My mother could never afford private school, and I went to head start . . . along with a lot of other kids from low-income families. But, really, who cares? Because she couldn’t afford private education, by default her children should not have received an education. It’s not society’s problem.
And in our public schools, we should simply put our foot down and refuse to provide free lunches to students who can’t afford the established price. It’s not the government’s fault that my mother had a low paying job, and to prove that point, we should not provide aid to her children in the form of food. That will teach her.
Upward Bound, a program designed to show high school children whose parents do not have a college degree know that it CAN be different, shouldn’t exist. Why should the government fund programs designed to break cycles of ignorance and to show children that life can get better. Shouldn’t the children automatically and inherently know that already? Oh, wait . . . .
And once you reach that point, let’s go ahead and get rid of federally-funded financial aid. It’s not your fault that I couldn’t afford college otherwise. The ones who deserve it are the ones to pay for it themselves. If that means that your children repeat the same cycle of poverty, who cares? You made your bed, let your children lie in it.
People who work for agencies that provide the assistance provided to my mother should not be rewarded with employment just to serve those who need financial help, so we should eliminate that segment of the workforce. Those people can find other jobs, after all.
Long story short, if you come from a low income environment and can’t afford medical care, education, or housing, tough. And that goes for your kids, too. They can blame the absence of such comforts on their parents.
It’s so easy to say that education should be privatized, and that medical treatment should be given only to people who can afford exorbitant hospital bills.
When you think about it, it’s Darwinism at its finest. The “haves” are superior to the “have nots,” and it’s just not the government’s job to do anything to balance the two. Not even with respect to children and the elderly.
What the hell?
I know people manipulate the system and take advantage of programs for which they might be eligible, and I know that fact is frustrating as hell, but the idea that people should be left to sink or swim without a lifeguard on duty, even those who really need the help?
What is that?
I am from circumstances that necessitated my enrollment in government-funded early childhood programs. I had free lunches provided by the school. I participated in a government-funded program that taught me that I could go to college and forever break a cycle in my family. I received financial aid from the government, and it made it possible for me to achieve all the goals I had set for myself through life. Strip all that away under the theory that I am not society’s problem, nor is anyone else in those circumstances, and what you are basically left with is a wealthy, educated upper class, and those who probably depend on them for their income, such as it may be. Because they didn’t receive an education, they might not even be able to read, much less compete meaningfully with those who have more money to afford the luxury of an education.
They should be grateful for what they can get, and it, under no circumstances, needs to come from the government. It has other things to do . . . you know, wars to fight, autocracies to end, third world countries to rebuild, oil to harvest, and important contracts with big corporations to be negotiated, particularly those to whom our leaders are closely associated.
Because of governmental assistance, I altered the course of my life and went places no one else in my family had gone before. That was an oversight on the government’s part . . . and we should do what we can to make sure that doesn’t happen again. Ultimately, it’s awesome that people pay taxes that fund so many things, but none of that should go back to help advance the prospects of American citizens.
It takes, we give.
Not vice versa. So, pay your taxes and keep your cakehole shut about how your dollars are spent. The government is there to ensure that it is spent wisely on worthy endeavors, and that doesn’t include the bottom layers of society. If that includes you, and you are unable to get over that (from the time you take that first step into head start), tough. Quit being a litte four-year-old victim and suck it up.
Fuck.
This whole thought process has been on my mind all day today, and I got angrier and angrier each time I thought about. Needed to rant, sorry to impose, and I still love you, even if your proposed system is little better than a feudal system governed by the powerful, wealthy elite.
I’m just glad others didn’t agree . . . can’t imagine how it might have otherwise gone. There’s a chance that the concept of “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” might have kicked in, and I still would be where I am (although I WOULD have been hungry in elementary school, yo). But I am so glad I don’t have to go back and test that particular theory, and I would rather another child HERE be given the same opportunities that I had, rather than going overseas to help other countries develop ANY DAY. (Although if no social programs had ever existed, how would we have been any different?) And I wonder what lesson there would be there . . . we’ll come, we’ll liberate you, but you’re on your own at that point.
Welcome to democracy.
The seats for the poor huddled masses are at the back of the bus.
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