Is It Acceptable To Test Chronic Pain Sufferers

[daredtowork]

58. I'm tired of stories about "people sell their benefits"

This is why people on General Assistance welfare can't get funded bus tickets in Oakland. Supposedly they will sell bus tickets for drugs. So how are they supposed to get around then? They have $0 direct cash income to buy bus tickets - all the General Assistance money goes to their landlord for shelter!!!

How do they get to required appointments? How do they get to services and nonprofits that might help them? How do they get to the Dept. of Rehab? How do they get to job interviews? How do they get to the grocery store? How do you get to medical appointments? How do they get to Social Services itself?

The next time you see someone begging for money for a bus ticket in Oakland, CA, it's because THEY ACTUALLY NEED IT!

In Oakland, CA, the only way you can get a subsidy for public transportation is if you are disabled and you register with the Department of Rehabilitation and signify you are making progress toward working again despite being disabled. Then you can get a small subsidy for public transportation.

But if you are merely destitute, not only do you get General Assistance welfare (a LOAN that GOES TO YOUR LANDLORD) for only 3 months out of the year... you get NOTHING to help get from place to place. NOTHING to get to places you are required to be at!

THIS IS F'ING GOSH-DARNED CRAZY AND NO ONE IS NOTICING OR DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!

Some over-caffeinated astro-turfer just peppers the Internet with "they are selling the bus tickets for drugs!" and now people on welfare can't get anywhere they need to go.

What are their options now?

Begging. Prostitution. Criminal Activity. Gang participation. And for heaven's sake - I'd be seeking the relief of drugs, too, if you left me on the streets in that condition!

Oakland, CA, you are producing these problems and sneakily hoping the result is that these people are driven off or kill themselves. It is an indirect form of genocide. And it all starts with these f'ing troll posts about "selling drugs" with whatever few resources are left.

THE PROBLEM IS ASSUMING THAT ALL POOR PEOPLE ARE POTENTIAL DRUG ABUSERS/SELLERS! TRY TREATING THEM AS POTENTIAL GOOD HUMAN BEINGS FIRST AND THEN SEE WHAT HAPPENS!