By Teka Lark (September 29, 2015)
It makes me very sad that in the US we have a safety net to catch you in a free fall and not a universal support system that prevents you from falling. I get angry too, but it really breaks my heart when I hear people’s stories of struggle. The older I get the more I really do care. I thought I would get numb to people’s suffering, but I can’t.
Our social service net is woefully insufficient, but I would not call it broken. It is working like it is supposed to. It is working with the idea that we aren’t a community, but a business and if you can’t produce you should die. Why must you lose everything before you can get any help? We SHOULD do our very best to help those with children (and we don’t do a good job at that either,) but also for those who don’t have children, this system will essentially let you die on the streets if you are by yourself.
There are no jobs. There are really no jobs. And the jobs that exist are horrible. Working every bit of spirit out of people. People aren’t lazy. So many people have little pieces of soul crushing jobs. Jobs that don’t add up to anything, and if you make anything there is this idea that you need to kill yourself and break before you can get anything.
I think about leaving the US sometimes, but I can’t leave with everyone doing so horribly. I can’t just sit by and let corporate America destroy the people here.
I know I am one person, but all it takes is one person. I am sure there are many other one persons out there. We just have to all find each other and believe that we can make a real change.