Our Poster Case
David came from Oregon to Florida to pursue an employment opportunity in Miami/Dade county. The opportunity dissolved shortly after his arrival and he relocated to Fort Lauderdale to seek gainful employment and contribute to the life of the community.
Shortly after arriving in Fort Lauderdale, a seemingly minor infection forced him to visit a local hospital for assistance and diagnosis. The examination led to the discovery of a massive internal infection necessitating a month of hospital treatment and months of recovery involving medication and bed-rest. Unable to work due to his condition, his savings were soon consumed by medical and pharmacy bills. Then began the long journey to find assistance for survival.
During his years of adulthood, David has been a model citizen and a productive, tax-paying member of society. Like most of us, David never gave much thought to how close most people are to tragedy due to one unforeseen event.
But, I’ll let him tell his story :
I know how this is now, because I am one of them. After scraping a hard living together for over 22 years, I fell ill. Now that I need emergency help there are no programs to help me. I served over 5 years on active duty in the military with two honorable discharges. I also served our country in the National Guard and the Army Reserves. The only assistance I will receive now is medical help from the VA hospital. I am facing at least 3 major operations and a minimum of 5 months in recovery.
I have covered every avenue that I can find with my limited resources and failing health. I am forced to torture myself through the day with rejections and phone calls while in pain and suffering. Nobody takes the initiative to help you. There are no social workers that come to your home and bring you groceries when you are stuck in bed. There is no caseworker to check all the agencies for possible solutions. I am still searching for help every day, all by myself. So far, there is nothing out there. The charitable organizations are stressed beyond belief and many of them are broke and waiting for funding.
I may join the homeless in very little time. I would already be homeless, sick and starving if my friends had not pitched in to save me this month. When I’m homeless, and only then, I will get some assistance. I have to be completely and utterly destroyed, lose my business and spend all of my savings before anyone will help me. It's not like I am living in my own home, or even own a car. I am not looking to maintain anything but a rented room, my tools and equipment I need to work with when I’m well, utilities and groceries, toiletries and a telephone for emergencies. But not even these basic necessities are available to a veteran or a U.S. citizen in this country. Some of our brothers and sisters out there don’t even get the medical assistance I have. And none of us can have dental help. Toothaches and pulling your own teeth are now becoming an American way of life.
For those of you who know the system, I have applied with Social Security, but our system is slow in approving that type of help due to the overwhelming number of applications and false claims. Presently I am "sick and shut in". Even if I get food stamps, I can't even get to a store to buy groceries. I will have to find someone to go to the store for me. By the way, are any of you aware that you can't buy toilet paper with food stamps? I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. Is toilet paper some precious commodity? I will be forced to beg for toilet paper because the welfare system does not supply me with this basic necessity.
I have a total of at least six months before I can return to being a tax paying and productive member of this society. There are millions of people like me that just need temporary help. Instead of helping us to maintain what we have, so we can get back to work when we are healed, this system forces us to become homeless welfare recipients. It would be more cost effective to help us maintain the little we do have, so we don't have to start over in a few months.
Please help all of us to keep our lives intact and don't force us to sell the tools and equipment we need to make a living, just to survive an illness that is only temporary.
I may be spiraling into ruin and this letter may be too late to save me, but I won't go down without a fight. If and when I ever get back on my feet, I will lobby for a social safety net for the American people, our backbone, with a passion that hasn't been seen in America for quite some time. You can count on that.
David
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