...it was a nice day for a bus ride, anyway.

I got on the bus early, went all the way out of town, to the county municpal centre, and...my social worker wasn't in today. Damn. Two plus hours thown away for nothing, and I'm already knackered by half-past 11 in the morning. Well, the receptionist behind the bullet-proof glass at the window was nice, and set me up for an appointment tomorrow. But, it will make for a long day, trekking all the way to Lake George, then having to work tomorrow night...but, no help for it.

I can see why they need bullet-proof glass though. One fella was quite put out that he had to wait to see someone, he'd been waiting three hours, but that's the risk you take with no appointment. I guess he was agitated 'cos he had no food and no place to stay. There was girl with him, and she looked pretty strung out, hunched over in her seat, rocking back and forth. One of the security guards there, was making snide remarks under his breath to another man, about the couple, saying "none of these people would need assistance if they'd stop buying drugs."

Unfortunately, some ingorant persons tend to lump people on benefits all into one category...and not one that's benign. They don't have a clue, and don't want to. They don't understand that without benefits, some pensioners, disabled person, and people unable to find employment, suffer terribly at times. The reality is, that without any assistance, could conceiveably either starve to death, freeze to death, or die from any common ailment that goes untreated for lack of health care benefits.

Apparently, this bloke is one of them. Hopefully, he'll never lose his home/money, or become too sick to work, and need to ask for help. He probably wouldn't be able to handle poverty very well. Sorry, but it makes me so angry, when stupid people think that everyone on benefits doesn't want to work for a living. Some people treat the fact that they have a job, as a badge of honour--like they are in a specially privledged class of their own-- and that those who aren't blessed to be able to work or are unable to find work, are substandard human beings.

Sure, there's always going to be people on the dole who don't actually want to work for a living---just like there's always going to be slackers who work for a living, that don't want to actually have to work for a living....you've all met them, at one time or another, in the supermarket, in the local council/town office, at the shop, restaurant, in the office, etc.

Frosts my britches it does, when some berk harps on about people on the dole all not wanting to work....why the hell don't you just put us all in concentration camps then? Worked for Hitler. Just for the record, I've never done drugs in my life, not even weed...not that I'm judging those who do or have done, it's just that it's not my thing. I prefer to be me, to be independent of thought, and not cloud my mind or change my behaviour, with artificial stimulation...or, maybe I'm just too chicken to try that stuff.

Right now, one out of every 18 Americans are stuggling to have enough to eat. That's not a pretty picture. Locally, one of the local food pantries has had to expand their stock of food so much, that they've run out of space and need to find a new location. Many local food pantries are finding demand so high, that they've had to stop issuing people with enough food for a week, and cut down the supplies they give out to last only two or three days. Most pantries only allow people to come once a month, but some are scaling that back to once every other month...or, in the case of our local Community Action Agency, once every two months.

People who never needed assistance before, are flooding the system, and yet, some people just can't manage to pull their tiny little brains out of their arses, to see things as they are....it's easier to feel better about yourself, when you scorn those less fortunate than you, when one refuses to acknowledge that the person standing in the bread line, could easily be them.