OpEdNews did put up my piece:

[EFerrari]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_elizabet_070120_hunger_on_48th_avenu.htm

[CrazyOrangeCat]

1. K&R

:cry:

[panader0]

2. Nice work expat!

By the way SF is my home town.

[EFerrari]

3. Cool.

:)

[mntleo2]

4. I Am An Activist With Poverty

...and I can tell you this is a results of Wefare Reform. We tried to tell everyone. We tried to point out that corporate welfare even then, was literally thousands of times more of a burden on our tax dollars than poverty (welfare at that time was 4% of the budget, now it is 2%). WE tried to tell people what the results would be for millions of families. But N-o-o-o-o! Why not pick on a low income single mom instead of the greedy and heartless multimillionaire who was grabbing every tax dollar they could so they could sit by the pool and let the money roll in while mothers were forced to leave their children behind and work for these same millionaires for nothing?

You know what happens to these mothers after they can no longer get welfare? When I worked for transitional housing, it was mothers who had worked their butts off for nothing whose kids were now grown and they had no resource to turn to. Now they are being kicked to the curb with nothing to turn to, because they their health is gone, they have no retirement, no house to sell to live on because they have, well worked their butts off for nothing with psycho bosses who could give a rat's ass that their child is in the hospital, that their paycheck did not cover the rent and now the whole family is homeless, that she had to flee her home because she and/or her children were almost beaten to death and that is why she is forced to work this job, or that the mother herself is developing medical problems from bad workplace ethics, hazarded workplace issues or they are just plain worn out, 'that's not our problem, just quit complaining, get your apron on and get to work!'

I saw pregnant mothers working at a cabinet shop painting and staining cabinets with sprayers and no mask to protect them or their unborn babies with a health "benefit" they could not even afford because the deduction was too expensive, I saw mothers working in rat-infested fast food kitchens, I saw mothers working for some boss who loved to use what little power they had, manipulating situations that made their workers crazy, I have seen mothers trying to get to work at 5 AM and have to leave their small children alone because there was no childcare at that time, I saw it all.

Until we can actually be a country that cares about the coming generation more than some McJob, that values raising the next generation and does not leave the parents who raised them in the gutter and that sees things like alcoholism and drug addiction as illnesses indicative of the sick society we have, we will see what you see more and more.

Here is the organization I volunteer for and it needs financial backing, it is a 501C3 and is tax deductible: http://www.wroc.org . It is one of only a few organizations standing up for low income mothers who need support actually BEING mothers, and who would like to see them not discarded after they have raised their children.

Thanks for your article, your voice is badly needed. It is about time we started to look at who the REAL welfare queens are, corporate CEOs who are taking far more of our resources than low income people!

Cat In Seattle

[EFerrari]

5. Thanks for the link and thank you for your work, Cat.

:hug:

[mntleo2]

6. You Are SO Welcome And I Need To Add for These Women

...these older women that I speak about. Even often times even with a good education, say with a Master's degree, they are unable to find work because of ageism. It is amazing how many well educated women are in transitional housing! Right there this should indicate to everyone that ageism, especially ageism for women, is happening. Worse, if they don't have that degree, even with 20 or 30 years of on-the-job experience, they find it almost impossible to find work that will support them.

By the time the System is through with these women and after they have been informed over and over that they are no longer needed, often these older women are broken. Broken from years of giving without even earning a livable wage much less the honor they deserve for sacrificing so much and getting so little back and they are in bad health and they are wearing out all right, but if you give them a job they will usually do it and do it well. No they won't give you that bright fake smile anymore that corporations love so much in younger women, no they won't be so apt to tell them what they want to hear, no they have learned not to expend useless energy only to get axed, and yes these women see the games and often refuse to play them ~ this is their downfall in the corporate world. Still their experience, their steady hand on the wheel, their insight could be of value if it WAS valued, but it isn't.

Right now we see one such women in Nancy Pelosi ~ and she is one of the lucky older women. Even so, she has to look young, to bounce her grandchildren on her knee while legislating, and is often lambasted for telling it like it is instead of pretending it is what it is not, like a "real" lady should do. I hope that, not only as a woman, but as an OLDER woman, she can help our society to value older women more. Older women have a lot to offer to society and getting PAID to offer it is a way of empowerment and respect and not only would energize each woman, but what they have to give would energize all of society.

But right now, few ever get the opportunity, sad to say.

Cat In Seattle

[EFerrari]

7. Older women are the glue. We hold this joint together, don't we?

There's a strange way in which our culture is self destructive -- in devaluing the very element that helps make it possible.

The average DUer is an "older woman", btw. :)