If we starve them they’ll
get a job.
Warning: Mild profanity ahead.
Sometimes I sit and pray to no one in particular that
politicians are just too dumb to understand how the bills they pass actually
affect people in everyday life. The
reason this prayer sinks like a lead balloon from my lips is because I am
unfortunate enough to know that politicians tend to know when their bills are
shitty-- they just don’t care.
Congress just voted to cut 40 billion dollars from SNAP over
the next ten years. SNAP recipients will lose about 30 dollars a month if not
all of their of their food assistance benefits in 2014. Many others that end up
needing SNAP will be unable to get any help in 2014. The average amount per a
meal per a person will be less than $1.40 in 2014. The Democrats claim that 4
million low income folks, including 170,000 veterans will lose their benefits
due to these cuts.
Take a minute and let that sink in.
Republicans don’t care that your family goes hungry. It’s
all just political pandering to them. If you’re poor you don’t vote so why
should they care about you?
Democrats probably feel really bad that your family is going
hungry, but not necessarily bad enough to do anything substantive about it. It’s
not like your family has a lot of money to pay them to champion your cause, you
know, because you’re poor. Why should they stick out their neck for you?
I see you over there, mother-of-three. You’re working 50 hours a week between two shitty
part time jobs and still not making enough to keep up with your bills and keep
food on the table for your family. They think you’re lazy.
I see you over there, soldier. I know you’re struggling with physical and
mental scars from fighting in a war that was probably started before you even were
old enough to vote. You came home and we all thanked you for your service, but
now you simply can’t find a job or the self-medicating you've been doing to
deal with what happened makes it damn hard to keep a job. See, they think you
just don’t want to work because we make it too easy for you to be poor.
I see you over there, fourth grader. I know your stomach is
growling so loudly in class you are afraid your other classmates will hear it.
I've watched you struggle to concentrate in class, but your head hurts and you
are just too tired to listen to the math problem your teacher is going
over. They think middle class folks
shouldn't have to pay for your mistakes.
And don’t think I forgot about you, grandpa. I know that if
your darn legs would work right you’d gladly go back to work. You've worked
hard all your life, why should now be any different? I've watched you ration
off saltines so you could save up to buy grandma’s Alzheimer’s medication next
week. The doctor’s got you all on more medicines than you could possibly need
and you certainly can’t afford them. See, they think you are abusing the
system.
I’m a Food Justice advocate. I see hunger in my community
every day. I know that SNAP doesn't end hunger. I know it’s a band-aide, but,
my god, can’t folks, at least, keep the damn band-aides till we figure out how
to solve it?
Y'all, "bending the arc of history towards justice" isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. So, we take the punch. We get back up. But this time we get up ready to knock them out. As my favorite social justice advocate once said, " You don't need a vote to raise hell!"
Start getting together with folks in your community and start hashing some stuff out. Meeting at the grassroots and talking to one another is the only place we've ever found real change anyway. The system is broken; time to plant the seeds of a new one.