Give them a full calendar year. I want to see them confident in January, and sometime around JuneĀ choking back tearsĀ at the Safeway because they are tired, so tired, of eating 25 cent cup noodles, eyeing other peoplesā full grocery carts with a dull bewilderment.
Let me see them despair because they have a persistent nagging cough that wonāt go away and might be turning into pneumonia but the minute clinic is $60, which might as well be as six million dollars, either way they aināt got it to spare - and that doesnāt count the cost of prescriptions. Let me hear them tell people about the muscle cramps they get at night due to eating non-nutritious garbage for months, the weakness from persistent hunger.Ā
Let them know the shame and frustration of only owning one pair of cheap polyester pants for work and one pair of thrift-store jeans, and both persistently have ripped crotches and seams coming undone, no matter how many times they get sewn back up.
Let the women know the particular sort of despair that comes once a month when you canāt afford even the cheapest pads or tampons.
Let them understand the frustration of being charged a $35 fee for a $2 overdraft. Let them watch as the bank holds charges from different days in āpendingā till they all come through on the same day, and the bank charges them four times for a single overdraft because āthe charges all cleared at the same timeā.Ā
I want them to know the particular pain of having to decide between food for the week, or transportation costs to and from work. You canāt have both. Choose wisely.
You do not truly understand poverty until youāve lived it and a month isnāt enough to encompass it. Not even close.
yousharknotpass
stormborns
izzy806
jimmyeatworldofficial
amandla
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