Welfare, Social Services, Public Assistance = Tomato, Tomato

Before you even walk wit’ me, please know that this isn’t a pity party, it’s just one guy’s (mine) experience dealing with “The System”. All of these bloggers out there talk about keeping it real and being relevent and all that shit, but while they talk the talk, I’m walking the walk. I do hope that people realize that “ether” doesn’t even make a dent when Real Life happens, soooo save the insults because honestly? You’re just wasting your time.

Put on your shoes and

I’ve got one eye on the tv watching WWE Monday Night Raw, and the other on the compy.

It’s Go Time.

Lesson 1: Unemployment = Awesome…at first.
As some of you may know, last September 14th was the last day I had a job. My company, First Advantage, decided to close down our office and lay everyone off. I did the math and realized that I could get by on Unemployment, and then proceeded to take off from work and enjoy being a bum. I figured I deserved it and that as long as I was bringing in money, who was it hurting? I’d take time off, then look for a job and if I couldn’t get one, go back to a temp agency like the one that found me the First Advantage gig. Eventually tho’, the unemployment ran out and where as we were at .500 for a while, we (Pop Dukes and I) soon slipped under.

Lesson 2: The Job Market sucks.
Now, I spent 2.5 years working in corporate America. I did very well there and worked very hard (no disclaimers in grown folks talk) to make sure the work got done and got done correctly. I figured this, combined with the 3+ years I was a 411 operator, could land me a gig in some kinda Date Entry or Customer Service gig. I…was wrong. I went on 3 interviews towards the end of May/Beginning of June, and I struck out 3 times, or just once, or however it works. Kinda demoralizing, I gotta admit.

Lesson 3: This Is How Someone Becomes “One Of Them” or “They”.
As time went by, we slipped further under .500–Pop Dukes made good money, but not insurance, rent, food, & bills by himself good. Sooon enough, we fell behind, and despite assists from my Mom and my brother and my Aunt, we couldn’t keep it going. Pop Dukes said to me: “Papi, you’re gonna have to go down to Social Services.” This really annoyed me. It couldn’t have been my fault. Surely there was something Pop Dukes coulda done to fix it without me having to go there. See, we went thru something similar in 2001 when Pops got screwed out of a Riker’s Island gig. (motherfuck Rudy Giuliani). The place was miserable, and people didn’t wanna help you, and that stuck with me. Well, 7 years later, thanks to a combination of circumstance and sloth, I became a “They”, “One of Them” people who go on welfare.

Lesson 4: Gubment Cheese? Ni**a Please.
June 27th I go down there, and it’s exactly how I remember it. Lots of people there looking for help. Long lines. Annoying paperwork. Catch 22’s. Getting only 2 forms to fill out when you need 3 to make something happen. Apathetic workers. Po’ Folks all walking in looking for help. I hand them my paperwork, wait two hours, finally see someone, and that someone says that Food Stamps will be issued right away (it took 2 weeks), and “If it was an emergency” (it was), I could get a rent voucher that day. Fun Fact: Still haven’t gotten it. It’s been almost 2 months.

Lesson 5- Welfare is for Single Mothers, Lazy Minorities, & Illegal Immigrants.
Lemme tell you something, there were white people there, black people there, hispanics, moms, physically disabled people, developmentally disabled people, elderly people… For those who try to place the blame on the niggers, spics, and loose chicks, I say this: Go down there and look around. Go The Fuck down there…and look around. It’s not about white or black anymore, it’s about Haves & Have Nots.

Lesson 6- Welfare Is So Easy To Get & That’s Why So Many People Are On It.
I’m a citizen of the United States of America. I was born in Florida, moved to NY, and never tried to cheat the government. I paid into The System for years. Up until the other day, the only thing I received was some food stamps. Plus, that whole rent voucher never coming thing. For everyone who wants to say that illegals come to this country, go on welfare, and never work, I say this: Yeah. Right. You need so much documentation it’s fucking ridiculous. Birth certificates, Social Security cards, bank statements, landlord forms… My goodness, it’s fucking obscene. No illegal motherfucker is getting off the boat, donning a mesh tanktop and walking into Social Services and leaving with anything.

Lesson 7- Welfare Makes It Easy For People To Not Work.
You walk into the office and you stand on a line and you look around and you see poor people. There’s nobody taking a limo there like ODB did back in the day. It’s nothing but people with sorrow and sadness in their eyes. You hear people arguing to get food stamps. You overhead someone saying to a bored-looking worker, “So I call this number and I’ll have a place to stay tonite?”. If you’re a compassionate human being, your heart breaks. You realize that these people’s lives did not start out this way. When they were being held by their parents, aunts and uncles, or grandparents, that child had all the promise and potential to be the next Michael Jordan, Bill Gates, or Jay-Z (the rapper entrepreneuer, not drug dealer). They didn’t know that their path would lead them to a place of broken dreams and wasted potential. Welfare isn’t a perk, a bonus, or a crutch. It’s a punishment. A prison sentence. A scarlett letter.

 Lesson 8- This Can’t Be Life, Can’t We Do Better Than This?
I am determined to make sure that I never have to go back to that fucking place. I promised myself that I’m never going to let circumstance or sloth guide my path back to that place where the workers lie thru their teeth, saying they can’t help when the reality is that they just won’t help. If I do go back, it’s to rescue the people there. I look at the sad faces and the desperate faces and I get upset because it shouldn’t be this way. There’s more than enough room, more than enough food, more than enough medicine, and more than enough money to make sure that people don’t need to leave their dignity at the door and beg for help, for someone to recognize their humanity. It hurts and it haunts, and if I ever come into a buttload of money, I’m going there and I’m cutting checks and I’m gonna look people in the eye and ask what they need to get by, not to make them feel like burdens on society for needing help. I’m proof that These Things Just Happen, and not to single moms, lazy minorities, drug addicts, or illegal immigrants. They happen quickly, happen in less than a year.

Lesson 9- It’s Us vs Them & sometimes it’s U.S. vs Us.
Subprime mortgage scandals, skyrocketing food prices, obscene gas prices, & a shitty economy all contribute to the plight of having hardworking people, diligent, honorable people, needing to go, hat in hand, to Social Services and ask for help. Thanks to the shitty administration we have, people are choosing between spending money on gas to get to their lousy job to keep a roof over there head, and spending money to buy food to put on the table in the house, which has gobbled up savings to match fucked up interest rates. It’s us poor folks on the front lines of Government fuckery–the middle class just trying to get by–vs the people making $100k who can’t (or won’t) understand that not everybody has had the same breaks, the same opportunities. Some people zig and succeed. Some people zag and do not. They look down on us and make us feel subhuman for using food stamps, for daring to use their tax money to keep a roof over our heads. It’s the Government worrying about business, worrying about special interests, and worrying about their own interests–vs the people that sincerely do need help, the people who tried to make it but couldn’t. The Thems & the U.S. turn their backs on Us and leave us to twist in the wind, shrugging their shoulders and going about their business…instead of taking 10 seconds to reach out.

Lesson 10- They Ain’t Social & The Don’t Serve.
I got into it with a few different people over this rent voucher thing. I had to jump thru hoops and make the same impassioned, genuine, truthful speech to 3 different people for someone to finally shut off the cynicism, the skepticism, and the lack of compassion to ask the person down the hall if this fat kid from Brentwood can please have money so he doesn’t lose sleep and lose peace because he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to pay rent. I had to tell them over and over again that I had a job lined up. I had to tell them I was just a person who needed some help to get from A to B, but then I’d be skraight. I had to break through all of the walls and ceilings. I had to dodge their booby traps. I had to reaffirmate and reiterate my own humanity, my own sincerity. It is truly a humbling experience having to defend yourself when someone treats you like you either can’t or won’t help your own self. It’s humiliating to say, “Please help me”. It’s a terrible feeling, and it’s one I never want to relive again.

It’s also one that I will never forget, because tomorrow morning some person who had a bad break will start jumping through the same hoops I had to. It is to that person I send my sympathy and my empathy to.

Stay up, Things will get better.

***

Call Reynolds, Cuz it’s a Wrap.

The first thing people lose isn’t their job, or their car, or their home. They lose their hope. That is the cruelest loss of all.

Welfare is a great punchline, a great platform, and a great bit of “ether”. However, there are two important things it is not:

Well, or Fair.

–Rey.I.Is

PS- I do have another job, just took the piss test today. Oh, and since his wifey is talking: VOTE OBAMA. People deserve hope, and McCain ain’t it.