toastykitten

I only read one page of the TWoP forums on 30 Days and already I'm pissed. People bitching about why the Gonzales did not make X, Y, or Z choice, like immigration law is actually on their side, or that they actually have to make a living from day to day and can't be expected to make the most ideal choices everyday.

I thought the episode was really thoughtful, and man, I felt for Armida, and watching her family go through a lot of the same shit we went through sucked. But as soon as I saw one of the kids playing on the Playstation, I knew people would bitch, "How can they afford a Playstation if they're poor? Why did they buy such an expensive toy? Maybe they're not really poor!" Because poor people don't have a need to escape, poor people always need to make a correct financial decision in favor of less stuff, because poor people just aren't like normal middle class people. They fucked up. It's always because they fucked up.

It happened with the minimum wage episode, too. I feel like pounding a sledgehammer into these ignorant asses: POVERTY DOESN'T LET YOU HAVE CHOICES.

Morgan Spurlock's commentary on the episode.

Donate to Armida's college fund.

I want Bush not to have spent four days dicking around while the conditions deteriorated. I want him to have acted sooner, not because it was his obligation as president and it would reflect badly on him if he didn't, but because people were dying, and everyone I know who could think of something to do did it. There were a million things he could have done besides sit around making happy speeches about how everything would be fine. The stupid comment about Trent Lott's porch doesn't infuriate me because Trent Lott can't miss his porch. He has as much right to be sad over his losses as anyone. But the lighthearted way in which Bush delivered those remarks was absolutely chilling.

I'm astounded by the sheer volume of reaction to last week's post -- not so much because of the outpouring of emotion (both supportive and scornful, here on LJ and via email), but because it actually seems like I was telling people something they didn't already know. What? Poor people? We've got those here? And they have problems? Holy shit, you jest!

So, yes: I grew up poor. Now you know. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of the fact of having been poor; it is what it is. But I will note that having been poor in some sense never leaves you. I was and am appalled that so many people were basically abandoned to the hurricane and the floods largely because they were poor; in another place and time and under not dissimilar circumstances, that could have been me as a child or people that I knew. The state and local governments failed them by not helping to get them out of harm's way or adequately preparing and organizing the shelters they did set aside; the national government failed them in its criminally disorganized disaster relief. You don't have to have been poor to be outraged at what happened with Katrina and its aftermath, but if you have been it provides an extra dimension of horror.