Hi there. I voted for Obama.
*pause for gasps of horror*
Early this morning, I watched in amusement as members of seve ral social media sites that I frequent threw a collective temper tantrum worthy of an army of toddlers when Barack Obama was elected to a second term in office. My amusement turned into contempt as the day went on and I watched my "Christian" friends dropping F-bombs left and right and then my contempt has turned into a deep anger and I read about how people who voted for Obama are "freeloaders" and "want a handout because they are too lazy to work".
Readers, you listen to me and you listen good. I did not vote for Barack Obama because I am poor (because I am far from it) BUT one reason that my political views led me to vote for him is that I have been poor.
To be absolutely clear, here is how I, personally, define what is not "poor":
1. "I paid my mortgage/rent, paid my important bills, put enough gas and bought enough food to last me until next payday but I can't afford my cable bill or my cell phone bill." Guess what? NOT POOR
2. "I paid my cable bill and my cell phone bill and bought that awesome new COACH purse and a night with the girls but I can't afford to pay my for my rent/mortgage, gas, or food." Guess what? NOT POOR (Just irresponsible and stupid)
3. "I shouldn't have gambled all of my money away and bought so many hookers." NOT POOR
4. "I'm gonna sit on the porch of my paid-for-by-the-government house and play on my iPhone and smoke Marlboro Reds while I yell at my 20 naked children." NOT POOR
To me, "poor" meant sleeping in my car for a few weeks because I couldn't afford anywhere else, DESPITE HAVING A FULL-TIME JOB. Yes, that happened. One of my most vivid memories from that time was sitting in my car in the rain (22 years old) and looking at the $3.50 that was left over after paying my bills (including paying monthly on an ER bill from having toxic shock syndrome while not having insurance). I had just paid $25.00 to the gym for a monthly membership so that I would have a safe place to shower and get ready for work and use the restroom while I was living in my car. That $3.50 was my grocery money for 7 days and I made it work.
Want another example? Poor means sitting against a brick wall for half of the night in the dead of winter because you have had the flu that turned into pneumonia for 2 weeks and the cold air is the only thing that opens your lungs enough for you to breath. Why not go to the doctor? Well, my full-time job did not offer an insurance plan that I could afford and I was unwilling to go into massive debt with an outrageous ER bill. And I also could not afford to take time off of work, so I didn't miss a single day. I was finally able to make it in to the free clinic and, after waiting for almost five hours to be seen, I ended up with 2 IVs for the next five hours. I went to work again the next day.
How about an example regarding the much-maligned Planned Parenthood? Ooh, this should be a good one, huh? Every month, I would suffer crippling menstrual cramps during my time of the month and I would bleed an insanely absnormal amount. I also suffered from ovarian cysts. No insurance, so too bad for me, right? Well, there you are wrong. Planned Parenthood is a wonderful organization for women. I was able to receive an exam and yearly tests for cancer, despite my lack of funds, and I was able to afford birth control every single month to help regulate my period and control my cysts. Reduced-cost birth control pills, for me, were a medical necessity and I am so grateful that this was available to me. Keep in mind that there are struggling women out there facing medical issues that condoms and abstinance cannot fix.
I can give you a thousand examples from those days of what it means to me to be poor but, other than the reduced cost of my pills and my one trip to the free clinic, I never took one dime of government assistance. I was not on Medicare or food stamps and I did not live in government housing. I worked a full-time job. Are there freeloaders out there? Sure there are.
I didn't make much money but I paid my taxes.
A "freeloader", I was not.
No comments:
Post a Comment