Misconceptions

America, land of the free home of the poor. The land of opportunity for the chosen lucky few. Poverty is crippling in America. I understand poverty-stricken families those living paycheck to day after paycheck. Those living and relying on food stamps I understand them because I am one of them.

I believe there are many misconceptions about poverty in this country. The first is that the poor are simply uneducated and lazy people who don't want to work. That is simply 100% not true. My husband and I are both college educated and hard working people. I am currently unemployed. I recently lost my warehouse job, a great use of my psychology degree.

My husband works as much as he can although lately that is barely part time. There is no work. Especially not living wage work. I am currently home with our four children ages 13, 12, 4, & 2 more out of necessity than desire. I love my children but I would much rather work than stand in line at the food bank at 4am just so my children eat. Trust me you don't understand struggle unit you have had to beg for food to feed your children. You don't want to, you have to.

Here in my Southern Indiana hometown the charitable folks have what's called The ALICE Story. ALICE stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed. My family is Alice. We are a single paycheck from financial disaster.

Many say that I should go get a fast food job. I would be perfectly fine with that there is but one problem they say I am overqualified. I do not understand this concept. I am willing to work but because I am educated I'm too qualified to operate a cash register or ask someone if they'd like some fries. This happens more than many might think.

My family like many American families is dependant on food stamps. This is not out of a desire to sit back and let the free stuff just roll in it is out of absolute necessity. Without those benefits we would starve.

The food stamp program was created to assist families trying to get back on their feet usually for a small period of time less than a year. Sadly that is not the reality of the program. The reality is a dependency on those benefits. I know families that don't look for work because minimum wage is not a living wage and if they work they lose the only thing keeping their children fed. They like many are trapped.

An alarming statistic is 1 in 5 American children face hunger everyday. That is 25% of children in this country do not know where their next meal is coming from. I find it disturbing that in 2017 there are children starving in this country.

Poverty is now criminal. We live in a place where you can be arrested and put in jail because you don't have the money to pay a bill. A country where a mother and father can have their children placed in foster care because they are poor. It is asinine that being poor is somehow believed to make someone a bad parent and a criminal.

Our country is in a crisis. Poverty rates are skyrocketing nation wide. We are raising a society dependant on the welfare system. We sadly live in a world where the objective of those with power is not to help people rise above abject poverty and live a sustainable life but rather to keep the poor poor using their backs to keep the higherclass high. There is no equality. The rich stay rich the poor stay poor and there isn't much of an in-between. You either have or you don't.

People say poverty is a choice. This disturbs me. I can't think of a single person who dreams of food stamps and bills they can't pay. Nobody chooses to be poor. It is a hard life one you learn to live because there is no other choice. I make choices everyday. I have to decide if we are paying rent or the electric bill if we buy groceries or clothes and school supplies for our children. These are choices people should never have to make.

The answer to this problem is not a simple one it is as misunderstood and complicated as poverty itself. We do not need welfare reform. We need jobs that pay a living wage not a minimum one. We need affordable housing that is worth living in. We need affordable childcare millions of families can't work because there is no one to care for their children while they do, I have that problem. Childcare for my two youngest children is over $150.00 a week and at a minimum wage job that's about what I'd make.

More than anything what this country needs is understanding. We have to stop hating each other. The poor aren't crippling America. We need to offer our fellow man a hand up not a hand out. We need less judgment. We live in a world where kindness is less important than taking a great selfie. Think about these things the next time you drinking your overpriced coffee. Remember that you don't know the struggle of the person in front of you in line at the grocery store using their EBT card. That person could easily be you.