By John Scalzi
Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.
Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.
Being poor is living next to the freeway.
Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.
Being poor is off-brand toys.
Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.
Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.
Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.
Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.
Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.
Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.
Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.
Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.
Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.
Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.
Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.
Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.
Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.
Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.
Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.
Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.
Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.
Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.
Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.
Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.
Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.
Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.
Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.
Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.
Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.
Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.
Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.
Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.
Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.
Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.
Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.
Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.
Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.
Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.
Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
Being poor is running in place.
Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.
-September 3, 2005 By John Scalzi
I can relate to some of the things listed here. I have learned the value of a dollar and I have learned how to stretch it, and what resources are available when the dollars run out. I am not poor, but I am not rich. I have seen paychecks disappear into paying bills quicker than you could blink. I have seen items tossed aside that I have stopped and picked up and brought home. I have gone to the grocery store with only enough money to buy ramen noodles. I have been homeless. I have, in the past, contemplated committing a crime to help my family.
There are people who are in worse situations than those which I described in regards to myself. Not everyone is in these situations because of poor choices they made, some are there because the opportunity is not there. The opportunity being something that can help that person be in a better situation than the one they find themselves in. This life experience has taught me that I am better than no man, and if possible, help out your fellow man/woman, either because you've been there, or because you never know when you will be the one who needs help.
I believe that disliking a certain people or lifestyle because "the Bible says..." makes no sense, especially when people who commit acts of aggression because apparently the Quran "says so" you call evil. I believe that there are people who are homosexual who have a better shot at getting into heaven than some people who claim to be "in to the church".
I think that abortion is a choice that the woman has the right to make. The consequences of that choice are for the responsible parties to bear, but it is still a choice. And since God created man with free will, then we are allowed to make these choices.
I believe that the modern Republican party is being controlled by the Tea Party, whose main agenda is to remove the black man from office and ensure that another one of his kind never again takes that position. To some this may appear as "pulling the race card", but when have you ever seen this type of backlash towards a president to the point of a party trying to alter the voting process to prevent certain peoples from voting.
Supporting the Republican party right now is a wrong move. If you are not one of the wealthy few then you are the other group of Republican supporters known as the "undereducated". Meaning that you have been provided with only enough information to make it appear as if Pres. Obama is bad and the reason for all of your woes. They know that you are sure on two things: 1.) Your religious beliefs 2.) That you must literally take up arms to defend your family from an evil world. So what they do is play this to their advantage saying that Pres. Obama "is a Muslim", and he's trying to take away your 2nd Amendment rights, knowing that you will take their word for it without seeing for yourself. They throw around the word "patriot" to make you feel like you are fighting a war for your country and they want to convince you that Pres. Obama is anything other than an American. They want you angry so that you cannot think rationally. They want you to just do as they say and not think for yourself. Look at the facts, think for yourself.
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