Bootstraps

Today, while at a local drugstore, a middle-aged woman was using an EBT card to purchase some basic necessities: tissues, advil, and milk. The card had some trouble going through and an older male behind me in line scoffed. I heard him mumble under his breath “get a *expletive* job and stop mooching”. My mind raced a mile a minute and I took a second to observe both of them. The woman was wearing simple clothes and had a tan line where it was obvious a wedding ring had been (possible recent divorce) and she had a picture of what appeared to be her son on the counter (she had taken it out of her wallet to get her card). As for the older man, he was a blue-collar construction worker with rough hands that had shown years of hard labor. It appeared to me that his past was riddled with difficulty but perseverance. All I could think to myself was “how has our society come to this?”. How can one person who has seen obvious struggles in their lifetime have such hate for a person who is experiencing the same? When did people, and especially communities, stop supporting those in need? More importantly to me…when did it ever become the job of the government to take care of a member of my own society? The more and more that our government supplies aid to those in need, the more and more flawed the system becomes... from two point of views. In a utopian world, the functionality of welfare would be a marvelous idea. But, instead, we live in our world where we have bastardized it… a world that we have created that is filled with judgment, unfounded hate, and disappointment. I see both sides of the problem. While I do not agree with the statement of the construction worker, I can understand his dismay for the dilemma that we inevitably see before us. He sees a society where it is more favorable to let the government to take care of you rather than picking yourself up by the bootstraps. There are families that have gone generations on welfare which is infuriating and plain depressing. But, I also see the reverse side of this circumstance. In such a society where we are angered by those who “mooch” off of welfare, we too expect a national government to aid the fallen. We do not bother to take that upon ourselves instead. Do you think it ever would have a thought to believe that he and his community should rally behind this woman so that she can stand on her feet again… so that she would not need assistance from another place? Why, when I volunteer at homeless shelters, is there always a shortage of volunteers? Don’t you think that if we could lend a hand to our community, that no aid from elsewhere would be needed? I leave you with this. While working on site as an engineer a year ago, a house burned down in the small town I was working for. Thankfully the family was unharmed, but they lost everything. That week, the entire neighborhood showed up at their property with donated lumber, tools, food, proper permits, clothes, toys, and more. Over the next two weeks, they rebuilt the house and held a block party to celebrate at the end with a potluck serving. When I asked one of the neighbors who helped rebuild why he did it and didn’t just wait for the insurance to kick in, he looked at me dead faced and said “Why the hell would we not help? They are our community and, therefore, they are part of us and our responsibility. There is nothing our government could give those people that we couldn’t and more. We gave them our understanding and their peace of mind back. Tell me, wouldn’t you do the same?” 

Take away: Stop bitching for assistance if you can do it your goddamn self and stop judging others that need help that ask for it if you can help them first. Jeez.