Haunted......

A few days ago, on my Facebook page, someone posted a video of a Ms. Hutchinson from West Virginia. She was testifying before a Congressional panel charged with changing poverty guidelines in the United States. The basic video was called « This is what being poor in America looks like. » She speaks for less than ten minutes while she « schools » the committee on what life is like for her and many of her friends and neighbors. Keep in mind she has a bachelor degree and works two jobs to raise her family. While talking about how difficult it is to make ends meet on her salary she also reminds the committee members that they are allowed an approved allowance of $40,000 for office furniture and their salaries float around $174,000 per year.

I have listened to her several times....and while I haven’t fact checked each of her statements I was curious enough  to do a little google research on my own....about my part of the USA. Ozaukee County, Wisconsin....just north of Milwaukee on the shore of Lake Michigan. I was thinking about home as I sat in our rental for the month down here in Greenville, SC. We drove down in our nice car, spent several nights in motels coming and will do the same on the way home, spent more than $2000 for the rent and enjoyed our time going to museums, out for meals, to the theater and sipping $5 cups of coffee. I won’t say I feel guilty about any of this knowing how hard we worked to be able to enjoy our retirement years.

But Ms. Hutchinson’s comments, once again, reminded me that luck played a part too. Where I was born, the parents who raised me, the schools I attended, the man I married, the jobs we had. Step by step the American dream rolled out in front of us as we walked along its path. We never worried about paying the mortgage, going to a dentist, affording medication, feeding our kids. Never.

According to a few recent figures I found the median household income for Ozaukee County is $80,526 while the US poverty level puts an income for a family of four at $26,200. $26,200. We certainly wouldn’t be fleeing Wisconsin’s winter for a month if we were anywhere near the poverty level.

It makes me very sad, amidst the divisive noise of the 2020 election cycle that 40.6 million people in America now live in poverty. 40.6 million people who wonder how to feed and house their families, which bills to skip for a month, which medications to drop. 40.6 million people.

The American Dream rolled out in front of Dave and I as we began life as husband and wife. As Ms. Hutchinson stated « Povery rolls off the backs of parents right onto the shoulders of their children no matter how hard they try. »

I don’t know what decisions the committee (Republican) made but at the end of her remarks Ms. Hutchinson was rewarded with a standing ovation. That won’t feed her family....but I hope it fed her soul.