Their Reward

I am sick to death of hearing yet more stories of people who just don’t have the means or the opportunity to make their way in this world. Today on NPR the story was told of a woman who was 21 years old, had a 3 year old and a 1 year old, was pregnant with her third child, and was homeless. Her boyfriend/spouse left her some time ago and she is now living on the streets with her kids.
Conservatives love to say “equal opportunity, not equal wealth.” Pray tell me just where is the equal opportunity for this woman? Where is her opportunity to get off of the streets, find a home for her family, turn on the utilities, get a job, find child care, and get back to being a productive citizen? Give me a break. How is this woman going to keep her one year old clean (he’s in diapers, if she has any to put on him)? Who will she leave her children with while she looks for work or goes to school to learn a trade? What will she do with her kids when it’s time to deliver her third? After the third one is born, assuming it’s healthy, how will she have time to do anything toward a job or schooling? Where will she go to clean up so she can apply for a job? How will she afford deodorant, toothpaste, and other necessities? Where will she find clean water? How will she cook for her kids? I could go on and on. This woman and her children are well into the point of no return in the whirlpool of absolute hopelessness and utter helplessness.
Tell me that the woman has made poor choices. I agree. But have her kids made those same choices? Where is their opportunity? Where is their hope? Are they human beings? Or are they being punished for the sins of the adults in their lives? In order for the kids to have opportunity, the adults in their lives have to have opportunity. And much of the time, that’s something that has to be given in some way. There aren’t that many situations where someone can make his own opportunity. How could this woman possibly do that? Give me specifics of what she could reasonably do given her situation that involves only "pulling herself up by her bootstraps" and making her opportunity without help from anyone else.
Where is the opportunity for the children of illegal immigrants? These kids are citizens of the United States…they were born here. Will we deny them basic needs because the adults in their lives are here illegally? The children aren’t here illegally. They have just the same rights and privileges as you and I have. Yet they many times don’t benefit from their citizenship because of misinformation, discrimination, or even hatred.
Where is the opportunity for the woman on the edge of poverty, working at a low-paying job, living in a cheap motel with her husband who also works at a low-paying job? She has dental problems that cause her pain and suffers from infections. She earns too much to have a medical card, yet can’t afford to see a dentist. Sometimes the pain is so bad she can’t work. But if she doesn’t work, the family falls even farther behind. Even if she sees a dentist at no cost, she can’t afford to buy the prescriptions for antibiotics and pain that he prescribes.
How do they make it when the place where the husband works doesn’t issue payroll for a time because the owner is laid up in the hospital and doesn’t have a backup plan for payroll? Where do they go? What do they do? Where is their opportunity?
And here I am, sitting in a house that many people can only dream about, with a full gut and much, much more than I could ever possibly need. I am blessed beyond measure. I have a decent job, gas in the vehicle, payments up to date, money in the bank, and food in the cabinet. I can’t fix everything. I can’t help everyone. But I can do what I can do as I have the opportunity to do it. Bring it on.
There were about 700 “tea parties” across the nation today. People were telling government that they were being taxed to death, and they wanted no more of it. Give me another break. These are people who drove to the tea parties in vehicles less than three years old, live in homes and neighborhoods similar to ours (upper middle class), have money in the bank, bills paid up, gas in the vehicle, decent jobs, and food in the cabinet. They don’t, for the most part, have a clue. They’ve never been up close and personal with abject poverty and utter hopelessness. They know the catch phrases, but don’t know anyone without hope. Their voices are shrill, clanging gongs, dripping with the selfishness and smugness of “Me first, last, and always.”
Verily, they already have their reward.