I broke free from the clutches of Corporate America and am now in the bowels of County Government.   Big difference but same ole shit.   With the holidays approaching it is customary for each department for this particular county to adopt a family for the holidays.   We are currently in the process of selecting a family to “adopt” through the Human [DISS]Services Dept. It is their job to recommend a “needy” family.  What’s pissing me off is what these people here constitute as needy.   For the last 3 days I have had to endure long, drawn out ass conversations about how last year’s family wasn’t “needy” enough.   Now, mind you I wasn’t in this position last year but the complaints go something like this:

“We had to maneuver around their 60” big screen TV just to bring gifts in”

“You should have seen her hair and her nails – they looked freshly done to me”

“They even had a Christmas tree and gifts”

“She even had a car, a pretty nice one too”

“They didn’t look needy to me at all”

“They already had presents under the tree!”

“This year we’d better get a family that actually needs our help”

Not to generalize, but each of the above comments came from the mouths of Georgia born & bred, republican voters whom range in age from 35 to 54.   Please believe I’m not making a blanket statement here, because I have heard the same bullshit from Black people on the West Coast.

People act really funny when it comes to charity.   It’s like they want the recipients to be destitute; homeless, dirty, and poor – but if the recipients aren’t does that mean they don’t need or deserve the gift of charity?   Based upon the comments from my “colleagues” – the answer would be “No”.

I felt it was my obligation to point this out to this group of County Grinches, that with this unstable economy, we are going to see a sharp increase in family’s that need some type of assistance that possess some of the luxuries that we, as taxpayers, enjoy as well.  Who says this family was not working class and fell on hard times and who says that you have to sell a 60” television set because some group of self-righteous Civil Servants donated some Barbie dolls and remote control cars?  Where is it written that you can’t own a car, a nice one at that, if your income, or lack there of, qualifies you for some Christmas programs?  They can tell I was pissed and I still am – not because I’ve been on both sides of the fence – but because I know how easily things can go wrong and shit can fall apart.  I know how easy it is to be doing really well for yourself and your children and a case of the Chicken Pox can put you back at ground zero.  But me knowing from first hand experience isn’t going to change shit and I don’t know what will. All I could do was to remind them all that we could all lose our jobs on any given day. How long would our families be able to live off of what we have managed to save or do we spend money because we know we will get paid again?  Why do we always target poor people as the thorn in our sides?  Little do these yokels know, the amount of tax money they individually pay to welfare recipients– wouldn’t buy a hungry child a happy meal.  They ought to look to Washing to the answers for where their tax dollars are going.  Our tax dollars provide funding for a lot of covert shit more so than welfare aid.  For too long, people have been harping on people that receive assistance as being frauds and shit.  The frauds are making the laws, declaring war, and building missiles.

I’m not trying to conjure any sympathy here for any particular group, nor am I trying to conjure a bad image about people who want to genuinely help those that need it.  I am well aware that the holidays are wrought with people that purposely set out to receive assistance fraudulently.  But what I am saying is that, unemployment is sky high. The Corporate Giants are crumbling and working people are finding themselves in some very frightening situations.  Job security is damn near a humorous term and things aren’t going to get any better any time soon – if at all.  People need to wake the fuck up and realize they aren’t that far from the soup line their damn selves so they’d better be careful about the restrictions that they put on their giving.  I wish I could reach out and help more people but I simply can’t – so this year I’ve decided to help the single mothers in my family with their Christmas expenses.  But I also know how we as single parents tend to overcompensate during this time of year due to the absent parent not being in the home.  It took me a long time to realize that I can’t replace a father with a Sega Dream Cast, not that I was consciously trying to, but I did have to reflect at why I wanted to give my children everything that I thought they wanted.

I don’t condone buying any child $50 jeans and $100 tennis shoes unless the child can work to pay for these items because children grow too fast.  Giving expensive gifts to children so they can be like their favorite rapper is ridiculous.  It is a very rare occasion that my kids watch music videos, but I am quick to remind them that true fashion comes from originality and from using what you have available to it – only not in the conventional way.  Creativity and self-expression is what fashion is really all about – not copying. 

So with the holidays fast approaching, don’t place restrictions on your giving. If someone does receive some type of assistance they don’t deserve- don’t trip – because we all reap what we sow.  The face of poverty, hard times, and need is changing very rapidly.  As the economy gets worse, we’ll see how many company execs blow their heads off, or takes the lives of innocent people simply because he can’t fathom living like the rest of us.  It’s all in your head people – money is not everything - you’d better have something else to put your stock (no pun intended) in because soon it won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on. 

It’s funny how the holidays seem to bring to the surface shit we have been trying to hide all year along: prejudice, jealousy, stereotyping, and greed. 

Happy Holidays America

BitterBitch

The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of Playahata.com.