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GUEST COLUMN: In My View — A Face of Welfare

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I believe that no one chooses to be poor. I believe that poverty can be generational, cyclical and indeed, unavoidable for a lot of people. I believe that conditions beyond one’s control can render just about any one to become poor at one time or another.

I grew up in a blue collar, middle class family in the 1970s. My father worked for General Motors on the factory line. My mother stayed at home with us. My father had a fourth grade education, my mother, a ninth grade; both came from very poor families who needed the children to quit school and earn money any way they could to help support the family.

My father worked a full-time job, but with five kids to feed, there was never enough money for new clothes or food, let alone toys or other “luxuries.” Most of our meals were bowls of pinto beans and vegetables raised in the garden.

And, then the shoe dropped. My mother, who had an insufferable childhood, began to quickly spiral downward from an undiagnosed and untreated mental illness. The paranoia, depression and suicide attempts began to take a toll on the marriage and my father left and a divorce soon followed.

Although my father paid child support, it was not enough to make ends meet. My mother applied for welfare and food stamps. Due to her mental illness, she would spend weeks, sometimes months, at a time locked up in her bedroom. The five of us children would take on all manors of the home: shopping, cooking, cleaning, child care (my youngest sibling was just 2 years old), finding odd jobs to earn money for food, etc.

After living this way for three years, Child Protective Services were finally called by a neighbor and we were permanently removed from my mother’s care and custody. My siblings were placed amongst extended family; I was placed in a foster home.

My siblings and I were lucky enough to not only finish high school, but to complete four-year college degrees, the first kids to do so from both sides of the family. All of us qualified for government assistance (Pell Grants, etc.) to complete our education, due to our circumstances. These critical funds enabled us to achieve success without being crippled with debt after college. We all went on to work full-time jobs, pay taxes and contribute to society, thanks to welfare. My youngest brother is a Ph.D. scientist working to discover a cure for cancer.

After college and graduate school, I worked for 20 years in the public sector as a social worker, dedicated to help those who needed the help the most. I know first-hand what it is like to need a helping hand, and how welfare was a lifeline to us, and how it is to so many Americans struggling today.

My mother continues to receive welfare and food stamps, and she continues to suffer greatly from a difficult-to-treat mental illness, and now she is dying of cancer. Does this make her a “welfare queen?” I think not. I believe my mother was dealt a bad set of cards from birth. I believe she would have chosen another way to live if she could have.

I believe there are so many life stories like this in America, so many people struggling to make ends meet who need that lifeline to stay afloat and keep their families intact. I do not see people needing help to survive as “takers.” I do not believe most people are “just too lazy to work.” I believe that circumstances such as: inadequate education, poor parenting, mental illness, health problems, accidents, deaths, low-wages, discrimination, lack of role models, child care, transportation, etc. all play a role in poverty. Welfare, in all its forms, are critical lifelines. Bootstraps are not.

Carolyn Leech Franz
Bend, Ore.

Editor’s Note: Carolyn Leech Franz grew up in Cleveland is the adopted daughter of John and Pat Leech, of Newbury Township

 

 

 


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