In the summer of 2010, my wife was downsized. Oh, we knew it was coming, but that didn't make the fact of it any sweeter a pill to swallow. No, we knew perfectly well we were in a pickle. So, like most people who are faced with a changing landscape, we began to adapt. We moved to use this setback as an opportunity to fulfill one of my wife's dreams. One of my dreams. A dream almost universally shared.
Shall we?
Wisconsin is/was fortunate in a number of ways. For one thing, we once had a crazy, America-hating, socialist Governor in Republican Tommy Thompson, who created a health-care cost-reimbursement program in 1999. In 2008, the program, called BadgerCare, was expanded under Democratic Governor Jim Doyle. Basically, BadgerCare is safety-net, publicly-funded health insurance for the poor. It was designed to fill the gap between those who were poor enough to qualify for Medicaid and those who could afford - and who's employers offered - health insurance.
Wisconsin also has fairly decent financial aid options for people entering college, with the usual grants, scholarships, and loans you see federally available locally. They also have Tuition Reciprocity Agreements (which helps with tuition for Wisconsin residents attending out-of-state schools) and Tuition Capitation Contracts (which helps with specific graduate-level professional schools.
Thanks to the downsizing of my wife and my unofficial disability (unofficial largely out of foolish pride; I have yet to apply for disability benefits, yet I am limited in what work I can do and for how long), our family qualifies for a whole lot of aid. Our primary concern was keeping the kids covered for medical expenses. BadgerCare takes care of this, as well as insuring my wife and I.
With BadgerCare, financial aid, the Wisconsin Quest program (food stamps), student loans, my meager day-job pay, my thinning comedy career money, Wisconsin Unemployment Insurance benefits, some very tricky budgeting/financial planning, and my wife's awesome brain, we have been able to send my wife back into school. Like many of you (and many of our "enemies" who vote against their own interests), we are skating right on the edge of ruin in our attempt to get a better grip on that ol' American Dream™.
The mid-terms were pretty bad for everyone, and Wisconsin was no exception. We lost adequate Democratic Governor Jim Doyle and "gained" corporate whore Scott Walker. Already, some have diaried his plans to turn my state into the midwest Delaware (and his not-so-stunning lack of knowledge about some basic issues). Worse, and most painful, we lost Russ Feingold, to be replaced with a defender of pedophiles who's name I refuse to speak or write.
Scott Walker campaigned on much of the usual neocon bullshit, and among his pledges was to put a time limit on BadgerCare. He also intends to slash it's budget in order to pay for $2 billion in tax cuts. Do I really have to say who the tax cuts are for? I think not. Walker intends to have the Republican version of an "adult conversation" (the Orwellian talking points just get better and better) about other programs which benefit the poor, by which I mean he plans to cut them, too. Obviously, he will not use the money to balance the projected $2.5 billion state budget deficit.
Cue the corporations' Snidely Whiplash cackle.
Somehow, I don't see much laughter in my family's future. We're already on the edge. As I've diaried before, I am no stranger to adversity, especially financial woes. Of course, I didn't have a family then; in fact, it was in part the family I found that helped me claw my way back to a life with some measure of dignity.
The trial of endurance (in both senses of the word) was supposed to be behind me. Now I see another trial looming ahead, and this time, I am less equipped to manage even bigger problems which affect more than just lil' ol' me. I will state it plainly: I am afraid. I spend a lot of energy these days remaining vigilant lest my fears induce me to make irrational choices or give in to despair.
My family is close. So close to the edge, and so close to realizing a dream that all Americans (and others throughout the world) share: a good education opening up new opportunities which lead to a better life. I see and hear Republicans all around me mouth off about working hard and making good decisions and making your own luck and all that git-r-dun self-determination (that always pays off) they've been indoctrinated with. I want to tell them that's exactly what we're doing, and their chosen representatives are readying themselves to pull the rug out from under my family's feet.
If that happens, I honestly don't know what I would do the first time one of them told me they were pleased that Scott Walker stopped the "handouts" to "lazy people" who "don't want to work". I mean this. A trip to the ER and jail time aren't out of the question.
I am afraid.
What American dreams we dream may become nightmares of high-tech feudalism at the hands of the short-sighted, the misinformed, and the outright evil. Too many Americans would rather assure the comfort of mediocrity than risk the burden of greatness.
I reach for the dream; I fear the nightmare; I carry on for my family.
What else am I going to do?