We thought scenes like these were a thing of the past:
But thanks to the war on the poor, spearheaded by Republicans, this is again a normal scene in many American towns:
Once upon a time this was not what happened to parents and adults that suffered economic hardship.
What happened?
Welfare reform was touted as the panacea to rid us of poverty forever. Instead it depressed wages, and resulted in families doing anything just to survive. And instead of reducing poverty it has just left us with an underclass of desperate people.
The poor people who were dropped from cash assistance here, mostly single mothers, talk with surprising openness about the desperate, and sometimes illegal, ways they make ends meet. They have sold food stamps, sold blood, skipped meals, shoplifted, doubled up with friends, scavenged trash bins for bottles and cans and returned to relationships with violent partners — all with children in tow.
Esmeralda Murillo, a 21-year-old mother of two, lost her welfare check, landed in a shelter and then returned to a boyfriend whose violent temper had driven her away. “You don’t know who to turn to,” she said.
Maria Thomas, 29, with four daughters, helps friends sell piles of brand-name clothes, taking pains not to ask if they are stolen. “I don’t know where they come from,” she said. “I’m just helping get rid of them.”
To keep her lights on, Rosa Pena, 24, sold the groceries she bought with food stamps and then kept her children fed with school lunches and help from neighbors. Her post-welfare credo is widely shared: “I’ll do what I have to do.”
So much for civilized society.