The Other America

Poverty in America

Recently caught a bit of the CBS nightly news and good old Katie Couric was talking about "The Other America". This "Other" America was one in which good, hard-working, decent folks were forced because of circumstances and the economy to have to visit food pantries and live hand to mouth. Boy, oh boy. Big surprise I guess for those people who live in ivory towers. The presidential race is not different. The candidates talk about the middle-income brackets here in this country. I wish we had those problems. I once saw a story about a family who were experiencing "tough times", they had to sell their 2^nd house and could no longer afford to send their children to private school. It must be difficult for them.

The family I came from has always had "tough times". My great-grandfather was a Lead Miner in Bonne Terre, Missouri. He raised his family on the meager wages he earned and they were content. My grandfather worked for the city of Farmington for a bit, drove tourists up Pikes Peak, drove trucks...any job that paid the bills. He and my grandmother raised four children and lived through the Great Depression. Tough times, indeed. My father raised a total of five children and owned his own business for twenty years. We still didn't have any thing of real value, except our feelings for one another.

I've served my country during the first Persian Gulf War. I've worked since I was 16 years old. I've done all I can to raise my three children with good morals and values, however we live paycheck to paycheck. Once, when I was down with a disability I suffered during the war, we were down to living off the meager disability I receive and we were told by the State of Missouri that we "made too much money" to receive any assistance. Wonderful system and country we live, huh?