Reply #135: Exactly, Lydia

[Left Brain]

I guess what really surprises me most on this thread is the inability for professed liberals to put themselves in other peoples' shoes regarding this issue. The "I judge everyone else by what I do" way of thinking is so much more the M.O. of teabaggers. It maddening to see such a pronounced lack of empathy.

For the folks patting themselves on the back because they fix meals in advance and have a crock pot, have a garden/tend to a community garden, believe people who eat fast food are lazy, and seem to have all the solutions to the fast food issue in general, I would ask you to walk a mile in any of these shoes before you pass judgment:

- You and your family live in your car, or in a tiny apartment where you have no storage space, no freezer, no big fridge/oven. It's the most you can afford. Where on earth are you going to store a month's worth of supplies (let alone a week's worth) such as canned goods, fresh meats, veggies, and other perishables? That's what it means to be poor.

- Your budget is so tight living on minimum wage that it falls short most months. You don't own a crock pot, and you don't even have the means to purchase a used one from Goodwill. That's what it means to not have the means.

- You're a single parent working two jobs to keep a roof over the heads of yourself and your two small children, minimum wage, no child support, and you're anemic. Where on earth do you find an ounce of extra energy to make meals in advance, even if you could afford a crock pot and storage supplies and had adequate fridge and freezer space at your disposal? The poor face limited choices like this every day.

- What if you have no yard, no patio, no green space, and between juggling two jobs and tending to your children, there's nothing left of you to give to a community garden? Better yet, what if you do have the time and energy to devote to a community garden. You may be able to pick and use fresh veggies daily for you and your family in the summertime and fall, but what about the winter? You have no canning supplies (or know-how), limited storage space, no freezer space, and certainly no money to acquire these things. Solutions to being poor aren't as cut-and-dried as one might think.

These aren't outlandish, pie-in-the-sky scenarios. I talk to people -- families -- every day who live under these kinds of pressure. They live hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck. Heck, lots of people do, not just poor folks. It's not a crime. Not yet, anyway.

People are just trying to survive the best and most feasible way they can with what they have. Society has given many of them few viable options. For god's sake, let's not judge them for making the best of the limited choices they do have.