To Stop the Bleeding of America (or, thoughts on the "feminization of poverty"

Those "fleecing of America" reports always amuse me. Every new report makes me wonder if this is truly news or simply business as usual for many companies. I would like to use this space though to address a couple of issues.

1st. Behind every statistic is a human being. For some people, having 'no money' means having to forego shopping at the mall or fast food or purchasing something. For others having no money is so literal it hurts. It is hunger that keeps you awake at night and absolute fear that keeps you running all day. It is constant prayer for some people: prayer that their car won't break down, the baby-sitter won't be sick, the day care will accept your child an hour earlier because that's when your shift starts or won't penalize you for being fifteen minutes late because your boss wouldn't let you go. For some people it is the prayer that this ache or that ache isn't fatal. That your teeth won't literally rot out of your head. That your children's clothes will hold up for a little longer. For some people that money you spent on a mocha latte would've meant food or medicine or the ability to pay down old medical bills or extend payments on the obscenely high power bills because their tiny apartment lacks livable insulation.

2nd. Every budget cut that cuts "social programs" as pathetically skeletal as they are, turns another human being into a statistic. That human being could be you. It is a simple fact that most people in America would not survive a "catastrophic illness or accident" such as cancer or traumatic brain injury. In fact, I have personally seen families drain their entire savings and max-out their insurance and still end up on what people who have never had to be on "public assistance" scorn as "Welfare." If you knew how many parents put their children to sleep at night hungry as they themselves go to work hungry, would it change your view of those who receive "food stamps" or "cash assitance" or even "WIC?" If you knew how many parents cannot afford insurance for their children, would you look at your own children or someone else's children any differently, wondering how that might feel? To not be able to afford decent shoes for you or your children. To not be able to see a doctor at $80-100 for a fifteen minute check-up. To not be able to afford "organic, low fat whole foods" from the local co-op. To not be able to pay your electric bill, or put gas into your car, or to own a car that you can choose not to drive for conscience sake. There really are leeches that drain Federal and State budgets but we look for them in all the wrong places and mistake them for all the wrong faces. We do not see the corporations who bilk countless dollars from schools and health clinics to build more prisons and shopping centers. We do not have a condescending phrase or simple stereotype for the corporation that receives "Welfare." Nor do we have follow up stories to those heartwrenching commercials about hunger in America, that show just how many of those on "welfare" are children who CANNOT BY LAW earn a wage, let alone a living wage. Nor do we see hear stories about how the local welfare office won't "go after" those "deadbeat parents" for court ordered child supports due to consistent and relentless budget cuts. We only read the occasional stories about a tiny group lobbying the State to insure everyone within its borders. We do not however, get to read how many of those lobbyists are disproportionately non-white and unthinkably poor. Or how this relates to those countless white-faced, well-fed lobbyists who continue feeding off the those they manage to push into greater economic lows.

Behind every statistic is a human face. Every time some politician claims he or she is answering to their constituents' pressure to cut social programs, I wish they had to stare at the face of every human being who their cuts will cause to suffer hunger, illness and even greater poverty and most likely, even greater discrimination. What tools will succeed in dismantling the myth of "equal opportunity for all" and translate it into reality?