Every day I find myself reading an account of some difficulty taking place in the life of someone I know. Some are based on the loss of relationships, whether that’s a break-up or a loss of a loved one, but more often than not, the difficulty is being told by someone struggling to get through another day.
We’re into our fifth month now of the COVID-19 shutdown, and I know that our mental health is suffering to some degree. For some, managing mental health concerns while juggling all of the other pieces is becoming difficult. I have reached out to a few people because their social media posts have left me thinking that they’re simply not okay. Some things are within our control to fix while others aren’t, and it’s a fine line at times.
In the past week, I have read a few accounts of people reapplying for SNAP benefits (food assistance formerly referred to as “food stamps”) after being removed from the program due to the extra $600 a week award for unemployment. I remember the stress of filling out that application. The paper one was intimidating to me, and the online one seemed to require a lot more to understand and to get through. Then it’s the waiting for someone to get back to you.
All of this while you’re hungry and struggling to make it through. It’s no wonder our mental health is taking a hit. First, we are hit with this once in our lifetime pandemic, which resulted in almost every aspect of our lives changing overnight. We went from being low-wage workers to being labeled as essential. We went from working to not, just like that.
Need for Food
I heard last week that one of our local feeding sites had seen an increase of three times its norm, and that was one week after the end of the $600/week unemployment increase. I saw time and time again that a lot of small businesses were suffering because their employees didn’t want to go back to work because they were making more money laid off during COVID. Well, hell yeah, they didn’t want to go back to work. Usually the lowest paid jobs aren’t the sexiest and require a lot of physical effort. Waitresses come to mind, as well as home health aides and cashiers.
I don’t blame anyone for taking advantage of the government’s admission that people weren’t paid enough to survive, especially when they were putting the health of themselves and their families every time they showed up on the job.
We hear a lot about low work force participation. Everyone needs to “get off their lazy butts and get a job,” right? I mean, who cares that people are made to choose between working and surviving? To read the comments on the local news articles, laziness is the only reason people aren’t working. They don’t take into consideration that it may be a lack of transportation, education, experience, medical conditions, etc. that keep people out of the workforce.
And let’s not talk about how the state’s lack of childcare options plays into unemployment rates. How do you work when there’s no one to help with your kids? Especially during COVID-19 when jobs AND childcare centers were shut down and then only available to essential employees when they reopened? The counties with the state’s highest unemployment rates also have no childcare centers.
Independence
Do we think that’s a coincidence? We do a great job of preaching to people about why they need to be self-reliant yet fail to push for the changes that will help them reach that level. Maybe we should all start pushing for necessary building blocks so all of us can achieve independence from the safety net. I will never for the life of me understand why both sides won’t push for an equitable system.
I mean, the left believes in the safety net as a means to reach self-reliance while the right wants to cut it so people become self-reliant. Both sides want the same thing but can’t agree on how to get there. So why aren’t people on both sides having the conversations and coming up with action? Instead of fighting with each other about what the other has, why don’t we use that energy to organize across race and class lines so we can build some momentum and make this a state in which opportunity means upward mobility?
Pushing for a state without such a high poverty rate will benefit each and every one of us, so why is it so hard for us to come together? If we raise the bottom, the top floats.
We’ve had our fragilities as a state on display. Now let’s work to glue ourselves back together.
Onward,
Amy Jo
