Alrighty, so I hate to use this as a platform for talking politics because I like to use my blog as self-preservation and exploration more than political commentary; BUT I was just watching the news and I heard about a two-minute clip of Paul Ryan (Republican VP hopeful) and his views on government aide.
In the clip, he states that "too many people feel entitled to government aide like SSI." He goes on to say that he believes the government aide programs need to be re-vamped and re-evaluated (which I agree with, but his re-vamping and my re-vamping would look very, very different).
I got a little heated when I this clip because of what I know and what I've seen. In DC, I worked for eight months as a case manager, trying to find housing, trying to gain citizenship, trying to find jobs and trying to apply for government aide like SSI with many, many homeless men and women. In that time, I sat through enough SSI applications and phone interviews with different guest, so needless to say, I know the process.
For example, picking just one man experiencing homelessness out of a hat, there's Gilbert. Now Gilbert has been applying for SSI and SSDI (disability) for at least nine months now. In that time he has suffered a heart attack and has had to re-learn some of his speech because his heart attack messed with his memory and speech a little. When I started working with Gilbert in July, he showed me his disabilities...yes, it's plural.
He showed me his right hand (which had about a six inch long bubble on it that he's had for 30 years). He injured his hand working at age 23 and hasn't been able to hold a pen since. He showed me his ankles and feet (really gross, I'll spare you the details) and explained what the heart attack, he suffered from just months prior, had done to his daily routine.
Gilbert has been denied SSI and SSDI a few times...DENIED. Yes, boys and girls, denied and I'll say it one more time for good measure, DENIED. He has never approached me with a sense of entitlement and he has never asked for more than he needed. Gilbert is just one man out of the countless others I could share about.
So now I bring it back to where it began...Paul Ryan. Mr. Ryan, if "too many people felt entitled to SSI and were abusing government aide" than how come people who truly need it, like my friend Gilbert, can't even get approved for it? Why does it take over nine months to get approved for it (if you ever do) or go through the process? Wouldn't those who truly need it fight for it as long as they had to? They would stick with it because their livelihood depended on it. So maybe by the time it's finally awarded to them...hmmm...they might feel entitled to it or worse, earned it.
My over-all questions for all political figures are these: when have you ever stepped into a government aide office? When have you ever attempted to ask for help, when you desperately needed it and were denied three times? When have you waited in line for three hours to even submit your food stamps application, only to be talked down to, told you wrote something incorrectly so your application was denied, verbally abused or neglected entirely? When has that ever been part of your life experience? When has that ever been your reality? I know it was never a part of my reality until eight months ago.
I didn't fully understand government aide until I started helping people apply for it. And now I know how tedious and embarrassing and hopeless the process is. If the many people I assisted in applying for government aide is who Mr. Ryan believes feels "entitled" than I would challenge him spend a day, nothing more, just a day, applying for these "oh-so-wonderful" government programs he is referring to.
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