A moving tale of our times that SOYMB came across
Shanesha Taylor is poor. Taylor was arrested last week in Scottsdale, Arizona, after leaving her two children, ages two years and six months, alone inside a hot car, the doors locked, the windows open a fraction, something for which there is no excuse. Some people leave kids in the car while they stop for a drink. Some leave them so they can hit the casino. Taylor left her kids so she could go to a job interview. She is 35 and homeless. She had no one to watch them. She was desperate for work. She took a chance. Now her children have been taken away and she’s facing two felony counts of child abuse.
She’s lazy, a taker, a moocher, a scavenger, an animal bred in a culture of poverty with an entitlement mentality and an addiction to suckling from the public teat. So cut her welfare, cut her food stamps, cut her unemployment benefits. This is what the right wing says.
About the double-dealing banks that helped trigger a 2008 financial crisis that nearly crashed the U.S. economy, they say nothing. About the $500 million a year spent on empty military bases Congress refuses to close even though the Army no longer uses or needs them, they’re silent. About the $159 million the military and State Department spent for buildings in Afghanistan that are not and will not be used, they’re mute.
But let an urban legend spread about some joker using food stamps to buy beer, let some indigent seem a little too content in his meager circumstances, and you can’t shut them up. This, they say, is what waste looks like. These people represent all 46 million poor people in this country. They are the face of poverty. The poor have no lobbyists, no cable TV network, no national interest group to speak on their behalf, so the lie stands. Even so, it remains a lie.
Taylor wasn’t a scavenger, wasn’t a moocher, didn’t feel entitled, wasn’t even lazy. She was just a person who only wanted to work so she could provide for her children.
Shanesha Taylor is poor. Taylor was arrested last week in Scottsdale, Arizona, after leaving her two children, ages two years and six months, alone inside a hot car, the doors locked, the windows open a fraction, something for which there is no excuse. Some people leave kids in the car while they stop for a drink. Some leave them so they can hit the casino. Taylor left her kids so she could go to a job interview. She is 35 and homeless. She had no one to watch them. She was desperate for work. She took a chance. Now her children have been taken away and she’s facing two felony counts of child abuse.
She’s lazy, a taker, a moocher, a scavenger, an animal bred in a culture of poverty with an entitlement mentality and an addiction to suckling from the public teat. So cut her welfare, cut her food stamps, cut her unemployment benefits. This is what the right wing says.
About the double-dealing banks that helped trigger a 2008 financial crisis that nearly crashed the U.S. economy, they say nothing. About the $500 million a year spent on empty military bases Congress refuses to close even though the Army no longer uses or needs them, they’re silent. About the $159 million the military and State Department spent for buildings in Afghanistan that are not and will not be used, they’re mute.
But let an urban legend spread about some joker using food stamps to buy beer, let some indigent seem a little too content in his meager circumstances, and you can’t shut them up. This, they say, is what waste looks like. These people represent all 46 million poor people in this country. They are the face of poverty. The poor have no lobbyists, no cable TV network, no national interest group to speak on their behalf, so the lie stands. Even so, it remains a lie.
Taylor wasn’t a scavenger, wasn’t a moocher, didn’t feel entitled, wasn’t even lazy. She was just a person who only wanted to work so she could provide for her children.
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