How Florida Failed Its Citizens When They Needed Their State The Most

"We The American People"...

Simply saying the phrase to yourself out loud is enough to ignite a tiny flame of pride within you. We're as tough as they come and you can bet your ass that we don't have a problem letting anyone know it. Hard work, commitment, taking full advantage of the freedom that we possess to pursue our dreams in life; to me that's literally what it means to be a citizen of the greatest country on earth. We know how to stand strong come hell or high water, we've been forced to prove that fact on several dozen occasions already. However, once in a blue moon a situation comes along that presents circumstances so difficult, that even people as tough as us Americans need help to make it through.

The Covid-19 pandemic that we (as an entire species) have been struggling to endure, is the the best example that I can provide of such an occasion. A virus that swept through the world in what seemed like a blink of an eye; a modern day plague so lethal that it racked up a death-toll of hundreds of thousands of people before we could even form an understanding of what we were dealing with. It took several months for us just to comprehend how the damn thing even spread... Killing more and more people each day. Never in my entire life has an event had such a massive impact on our society as a whole. Before we knew it, movie theaters, restaurants, clubs, sports stadiums, theme parks, you name it; anywhere that usually hosted large amounts of people suddenly came to a close. Which inevitably caused the vast majority of the countries population to find themselves out of a job.

Make no mistake about it, the unemployment situation has been a "Shit Show" across the board from the beginning. Families went days on end waiting for politicians to agree on a resolution, all while they could barely even afford to put food on the table. Stimulus checks were sent to every america capable of voting on three different occasions, anyone who had been impacted by the virus was granted unemployment benefits on a federal level. Meaning it was mandatory for every state to provide benefits to anyone who applied for them. On paper it seemed like more than enough aid to help us endure the virus until it was over... Unfortunately it wasn't and that's assuming that the distribution of the planned benefits were executed flawlessly. The distribution of said benefits was so far from flawless, that it'd be funny if it weren't so sad. Each state handled the task of providing aid to their citizens the way they saw fit. Naturally causing some states to be more productive at doing so than others. However, when it comes to the states that completely dropped the ball in terms of delivering aid to the people, few managed to as magnificent of a job of fucking it up as Florida.

"The Sunshine State".., ironically enough there weren't all that many sun shiny days for my fellow Floridians and I over the course of 2020. To make matters worse, it seemed like every citizen living in every other state aside from ours continued to receive all the help in the world. Not us though, not when it came to unemployment benefits. In fact, the system that Florida relied on to distribute unemployment benefits was so broken, it has been revamped entirely twice since the pandemic started. I'm not talking about just your average system update either; I mean reprogrammed from top to bottom and all around. Not just once, god no just once wouldn't have been nearly enough, it underwent such an intense amount of system maintenance two times back to back. How can I describe this situation so that it can be understood easier? Imagine Florida's unemployment website was a little girl, not just any ordinary little girl but one that was the victim of demonic possession. In order to save the demonically enslaved little girl that represents Florida's unemployment website, she(the website) required to endure the most intense exorcism that could possibly be administered. Than, once the most thorough exorcism in history was completed, the little girl that is our states unemployment site required to do it all over again for a second time... In the end, even after all it has gone through, things still seem like they're just not functioning like they should be. That is the best way I can explain the situation that individuals , such as myself, attempting to claim unemployment benefits had to withstand. The state of Florida had burned through nearly as much money trying to fix the damn website for unemployment benefits as they did on actually providing unemployment benefits.

Have you ever heard someone use the expression "FUBAR"? It's an acronym that stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. If you want to know the simplest way to describe the "Connect System" Florida has been relying on to provide the financial support so many relied on so heavily.., than just think of that acronym. Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition! I am willing to bet that if it wasn't the worst in the country than it definitely was in the list of the worst 5. There is no way on gods green earth that the government leadership in charge of dealing with this situation can look back at their performance proudly. If I were in their shoes, I would spend each and every day either apologizing to the citizens of Florida for letting down or working to make up for failing them when they needed me the most. You would think that would be their plan of action but in reality they look like they're just going to head in the opposite direction.

Florida's government officials let the American people down!

It's no secret to anyone, especially not them. Yet, it seems as if in acceptance of their failure to come through for citizens, they're making the decision to just give up on the whole unemployment benefits situation all together. They're not even going to try to limp to the finish line set for September, you know... the one that was set by THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. How dare we expect such a thing from those responsible for such a piss poor performance thus far? Instead they're going to put the cherry of disappointment on top of the shit sundae representing their efforts to resolve the situation. How? by bringing unemployment benefits to an end ahead of schedule; most likely at the end of next month, if not sooner. No that was not an error in my writing of this article and yes you bet your ass you read it right! Florida's government officials have decided to cut off benefits for the people who rely on them so much currently. I guess they're logic being that they already failed us this much, why not just abandon us completely?

Maybe they're just providing every future government official who takes their place with the most accurate example of "what not to do". Maybe they genuinely just don't give a fuck about us Floridians at all. Who knows the motive behind their decisions... The only thing that I know, along with every single other person they left to fend for themselves, is this:

Florida's government failed the Americans who call this state home!