I can still vividly recall when President Bush rode over the Hurricane Katrina devastation in a helicopter. From a thousand feet above he would shake his head and make a comment of two. From many of his actions, including this one, he just seemed to not really care or want to be personally involved. He was very much different from his predecessor in that regard. Looking at the tragedy from far above make the people’s suffering seem very remote. I think that is the way he wanted it to be. Yes he was very forceful after 9/11 where he had an enemy that he could attack, real or otherwise, but since Katrina was “an act of God” who would he to take his wrath out on for this one? You simply don’t “shock and awe” God do you?
Actually it was probably a good thing that he did not get down on the ground much as that would have been more of a disruption than anything it would have accomplished. But getting to the point of this post is that some of us currently have only a helicopter view of what it is like to be poor. To many of us, our only interaction with the poor is that we have to step over some of them on our way to work. The Republican money guy Paul Ryan is very much the same in that regard, He just came out with a proposed budget that drastically cuts food stamps and Medicaid again while not cutting our outrageous military budgets one iota. If that is not a helicopter view of the poor I don’t know what is. The sad thing about that is that there are so many in his party who are congratulating him for his “forward thinking”. They seem to say that if we can just forget about the poor then our budget problems would be solved!
Being poor is something many of us just want a helicopter view of. Hopefully it will never happen to us. The statistics say that more than half of us are about three paychecks away from being homeless. With our helicopter view we occasionally send off a check or two for a few bucks to an organization that has a ground level view. We deem that as enough to fulfill our responsibilities in this area. That is good enough for us at least until we become one of “them”.
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 
You should really look up Paul Ryan’s early life. He did not come from money.
Anyway… the farmers love that you don’t want the farm bill cut. That is what was actually cut- subsistence to farmers which is the core of SNAP. Moving SNAP away from farming bills and putting it where it belongs- in welfare- makes tons of sense. When I shopped on a food stamp allowance ten years ago I found I could purchase things like beans you soak before you cook, Orange juice (which was much more like orange drink for the sugar content), and very limited fresh fruit and veggies. As the new changes have come in over the last 5 years- those limitations are moving to a more nutritious venue.
There has to be some ebb and flow here to get the balance right. I just hate when it is put into political spin!
Those Darn Republicans! Especially from farm states! Cutting their own farmers off….
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I think you need to be a little kinder when judging others in their attitudes or actions toward poverty. There have always been poor in every society since the beginning of time. Our poor in the U.S. are wealthy compared to the poor elsewhere. Let’s face it we can’t save the world…but yes, we can all do small things to help others and sometimes it may be just sending a check now and then if that is all we can do. I do that, and because I am retired I can now volunteer 3 times a week at our Senior Center serving lunches to low income seniors. Some like you are more deeply moved and more deeply involved. That’s great. But, we could spend all our energy for all our lives and never be done alleviating poverty. Not everyone is willing to do that. It is human nature to look after our own family first and sometimes that is a mighty challenge in itself. So I say, let’s be grateful for the many services and charities that we do have…which are many…and do what we can reasonably do at any given point in our lives.
And yes, I too am frustrated with the government always choosing to make cuts to the poor and the elderly….because they are easy pickings. Janette is right that the food programs should not be punished because they are tied to farm subsidies.
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Thanks for the comments you two. I don’t think that just because a person did or did not come from money necessarily make them a better person when it comes to empathy. It is by their current actions that I try to judge a person in that area. Paul Ryan’s firmly held beliefs that he is going to cut away our society’s safety net in orderto rescue all those trapped in it is the problem for me. I have heard him say that more than once. If he did propose an alternate way to do it I would be very glad to hear it but the only thing I hear is “let them fend for themselves”.
You are right in that the subsidies for the poor should not be coming from a bill that also subsidizes, for the most part, corporate farms any more than we should be subsidizing the oil companies in getting very profitable oil off of public lands. Both those things need some serious changes.
I am at that point in my life where I don’t have the patience for tolerating attitudes I guess. Especially when the prime motivator for many of these attitudes is simply selfishness. “I got mine so screw everyone else” gets no pass from me.
But maybe you are right that I should once in a while post words about those who are doing their part. Always having the poor is no excuse for doing nothing anymore than the fact that our poor are not as bad as others in the world so they should be grateful for every scrap we give them. The poor, or at least those I know, are not looking for a handout but for a hand up and that like in Janette’s case us usually only a temporary thing.
Enough for now. Thanks for the thoughts…..
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RJ,
I have never been able to understand the Bush administration’s attitude toward those that were in need. I always wondered if it was a result of ignorance and not lack of compassion. Is that possible? I don’t think they were bad people but there was something there that cannot be explained.
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Hi Barb. No, i don’t think any of those folks are really evil. Mr. Ryan I’m sure is a very passionate father and husband. They just seem to have this warped sense of reality when it comes to people without their connected circumstances. His father being a lawyer in the 1970s, I’m pretty sure he had a fairly affluent life even with all the emotional circumstances that occurred as he was a teenage. His self-espoused hero is Ayn Rand. One of her most famous quotes was “If any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to reject.” In my book, that tells you a lot about the basic character of the man.
I think Baby Bush just led a gilded life and doesn’t much care to understand much about those with less affluent circumstances. I remember the comments that leaked out that his mother said after Katrina. It displayed a very different view of her than was previously known. I’m sure he inherited that attitude. Unlike all the Democratic presidents in my lifetime, Mr Bush just doesn’t think he owes anyone anything now that he is an ex-president. But that seems to be a common trait of many who are leaders of that party.
BTW, I love the goldfish story on your blog today….. LOL
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