This week in Wichita, it was discovered that two children at one of the local schools were living in a car with their parents. The children were taken into protective custody. A few minutes after the announcement on the news, a local woman was talking about her church and how they were collecting money to buy school supplies for children in Viet Nam. How about collecting money to help homeless families in our own backyard?
That fact has always bothered me Stuck. I truly do understand that children and their parents in other countries are hungry, children don't get to go to school because their parents don't have money, etc., etc. But, we have people here in America that are hungry too. It devestates me that children go to bed hungry in our own country. Times get tough, Mommy or Daddy lose their jobs, and when the money runs out, if they have no family to go to, they must live in their car until they can find employment.
The welfare system is not set up to support people, and probably shouldn't be or people would take advantage of it, but there should be something to help people with children. Perhaps a monthly income for X amount of time, in order to stay off the street and find gainful employment. No child should be forced by a situation under which they have no control, to sleep in a car. Nor should children be taken away from the people who love them because they ended up, through no fault of their own, in that situation.
I don't know what the answer is, other than it is up to us to take care of one another. The gov't can't or won't, so who else is going to ?
LOL,seriously you both hit the nail on the head.I hate the system and it doen't always work the way it was originally intended to but then we got polititics and power and well,you know the rest.I knew a kid when my kid was in....4th grade? She'd show up for food and once got to my door at 5 am while my kid was asleep and I was just waking up my usual way......it's a crap state of affairs in some cases.....
I suppose this family was able to eat at least because the kids probably had free breakfast and lunch, and there are a few 'soup kitchens' locally. But if they were living in their car, they had no address, and with no address, they can't get welfare benefits. The job market here is terrrible! So they are probably having no luck finding work. It's a sad state of affairs.
Stuck, you're right if school is in session they would get breakfast and lunch...I always worry about kids like that when school is out for the summer....then what ? To be homeless is to be screwed. No address= no benefits, no benefits = no hope of finding a place to live ...and it goes on and on. I just feel so badly for them. They're stuck in a no win situation. ....sigh....I wish I had money !
With so many people so ridiculously wealthy, it would seem that someone could give those people a hand up...help them with jobs, or, free rent for a month or two until they get on their feet.
I'm glad I'm not in the gutter,and I see so many kids that I know are living below the poverty line. I was lucky because I had a family and very close friends help support me and my daughter.Yeah I took some welfare.So what?I was working 2 jobs and they were taking enough of my taxes that if they felt like giving them back in food stamps to feed my kid,then I'll take it.I had no child support from the absent parent.I didn't care about anything except feeding my kid and giving her a home.
I wouldn't want to be a single parent through childhood again for love or money.I was just strait up lucky with my girl.My daughter is really something unique.She'll be 20 tomorrow,BTW
That's what the welfare system was designed for, Anna. It is there to help families through crisis and not there as a way of life forever. I worked with many families who were second and third generation welfare receipients. Suggestions and assistance for getting an education were wasted because they didn't want any other way of life than to be on public assistance. But the majority of the people I saw really wanted something better for themselves and their children.
The thing that bothers me the most now about the system is not just the abuse but the fact that there are many people who shouldn't be eligible due to citizenship factors,previous fraud convictions and multiple services from different agencies that are really making a nice comfy lifestyle off my tax dollars. The system needs an overhaul but God knows GWB is too busy trying to get our butts nuked off the planet to pay attention to the recources of the needy children in the country he is *COUGH* supposed to be leading.
I know!!! Isn't that a scream? After North Korea supposedly tested their nuclear device, dub-ya said that we should encourage Japan to develop nuclear weapons. HUH? How does that fight nuclear proliferation? Good God, he's stupid.
I think he's thinking if they are busy trying to blow each other up they'll leave us alone. Who knows what he's actually thinking. He could be thinking up new recipies for tuna casseroles for all we know.
Back on the topic of underprivilideged kids,I pulled a fast one on a stupid disgusting scumbag mother today.I was going into Circle K to get a soda and a little girl was standing outside and she said,"Excuse me Ma'mm,I haven't eaten today,do you have some spare change?" I said,"Where's your Mommy Sweetheart?" right then the Mom comes out and she had all the marks of a meth addict:the sores,the burnt fingernails,horrible skin and hair. I say to the chick,"Your kid just told me she hasn't eaten today." and she tries to give me some stupid story and I say,"Tell ya what,let's go across the street to McDonalds and I'll buy her a happy meal and we can talk." She goes,"Oh wow,you'd do that?" So we do and we go in the bathroom and she tells me she had just scored 2 40$ rocks of crack and asked me if I wanted to smoke some.I said,"Oh hell yeah! Go out and order her happy meal and I'll be right out." As soon as she was out of the bathroom I called the cops and told them the whole story.They were there with someone from CPS in 10 minutes.
It was so [fill in the blank with the dirty word of your choice] up it made me want to puke.I just can't believe people nowadays. That poor kid.
