Poverty is a bad place to be. When I was young, I could not go to high school because we were simply too poor. In AZ, legally, one only needs to graduate grade school. My sister had already sat out two years and I had spent one year at home - we had no suitable clothes or shoes to go to school and a bunch of times went hungry.
My mother finally broke down and applied for welfare. The year was 1959. I went with my mother to apply. It was a hideous experience. The people treated us as though we were the scum of the earth. They also sent us to get some surplus food. Back in those days, food stamps did not exist. They distributed the food from the back of the truck.
They threw the food at us.
They could have handed it to us just as easily, but they chose to give the food to us as though we were cows coming to the trough. It was clear that they thought we were scum, too.
We never returned for food distribution. Those were lean times where we missed a lot of meals. At one time all we had to eat were lima beans. I stopped eating for a while. To this day I cannot eat lima beans no matter how they are cooked. Just can't do it.
Well, my sister and I went back to school. She graduated in 3 years, on the honor roll her senior year. I graduated in 4 years and honor rolled as well.
I vowed that I would never, ever be in a position to need help again. And if I was, I would choose death rather than to re-experience those awful days.
I graduated college, then a master's degree. I never stopped working until I reached 62.5 years.
Within a 5 year period, I had both knees replaced and both shoulders replaced. I felt ready to return to work. I had become single again some years before at age 50 and my children were grown, so it was just me.
My COBRA was about to run out so I thought I'd get a mammogram first even though it was 8 months since my last one. I was doing this because I didn't know when I would have insurance again.
It found stage 0, intra-ductal, non-invasive carcinoma in my right breast. Bummer. My children had to buy post-COBRA insurance, about 1200/month so that I could get it taken care of quickly.
After a lumpectomy and radiation, I was fine physically, but totally out of gas. I needed to work to pay off thousands in Medical bills. I eventually had to declare bankruptcy because the very expensive post-COBRA insurance paid very little.
I could not summon the energy to work. I ran out of money and did not want my children to bear this other burden because they had very young children. What grandmother wants to take money away from her gandchildren?
So I applied for soc security early. It was a whirlwind. I received my first check in 3 weeks, sorta unheard of really. They convinced me to apply for food stamps and Medicaid. It took some monumental arm-twisting by the young lady to convince me to do this.
It wasn't so bad after all. I received $1162/month from social sec but this made me ineligible for Medicaid, so I went without insurance until I reached 65. In AZ, a single person can bring in no more than (at that time) $739/month to be eligible for Medicaid. And my food stamp allotment decreased to $10/month.
It was a struggle.
Fortunately I have wonderful children and sisters because otherwise I would not have made it.
I applied for soc sec disability and got it, $1551/month after Medicare.
When I returned to Chicago, I applied for housing with the CHA. I don't know what I expected. I did not expect what I received.
The 3 people who helped me could not have been more wonderful. It was a totally different experience than the one in my childhood and very different from my food stamp and Medicaid experience in AZ.
I was cheerfully treated as a buyer. They were anxious to meet my requirements of a larger space due to claustrophobia. They found me a lovely one bedroom apartment in an interesting area of Chicago, Clark and Belmont. There are lots of restaurants, night life and interesting people there.
Once they knew my requirements they searched until they found one that met my needs. They 'sold' me this apartment, pointing out amenities and so on.
At no time did they treat me as less than a responsible adult. This was an experience that I will never forget. I dreaded the process, but Ken and Mildred made it easy and fun.
Now, why am I writing a diary about this?
I am almost 66 now. I still cannot hold down a full-time job. I clearly needed help and they gave it to me with grace and honor.
This is the way it should be for everyone. No one in this country should be homeless or hungry or treated in any other way except with respect.
I will continue trying to help get the same kind of thing for anyone who needs it. We need good health care for everyone and we will achieve that in the months and years to come. We will achieve it because we will not give up.
Many people became homless under Reagan because he cut subsidies to psychiatric hospitals and halfway housing. We see people with psychiatric issues on the streets because apparently that funding has never been reinstated. Of course he also de-funded early childhood education, which was the most successful government program ever.
We need to address housing issues, not only for the mentally ill who need halfway housing and support, but for everyone. No one should be hungry because they have no food, homeless because they fell on bad times or mental issues. And we will do this with passion and civility, and because we will outlast those who work against this.
Jews believe that if you save one person, you save the world. So let's save one person apiece, shall we?
We cannot give up on these issues. Let me end with a couple of Kennedy quotes:
Teddy:
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
The more our feelings diverge, the more deeply felt they are, the greater is our obligation to grant the sincerity and essential decency of our fellow citizens on the other side. . . .
In short, I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.
I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt — or religious belief.
I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division.
I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.
Bobby:
A revolution is coming — a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough — But a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.