Why It Matters That Hillary Supported Welfare Reform

[JDPriestly]

10. Somehow, the damage the bankers did to the world economy when they cheated their

customers bothers me more than the damage that an unemployed mother of a couple of kids does when she receives welfare money and stays home with her children.

It's a matter of values. I'd rather break up the overly large big banks and save the world economy than worry about people who might be abusing the welfare system.

I worked on a homeless project for years.

The other day, while campaigning for Bernie, I met a young man who could not fill out his voter registration card. Couldn't even print his name without falling apart. I asked him if something was wrong and he told me how sad he was. We were right next to a church, so I took him inside. This young man was jobless, homeless, had no family and was very uncertain about who he was or where he was except that he had been in foster care since the age of six, had been in juvenile hall and had been treated for a disability (I would guess a mental illness) at what we call the Regional Center.

Fortunately because of my background, I understood what being in a foster home, in Juvenile Hall and at the Regional Center meant. I'm not now qualified to give him much help, but I got him in touch with people who could help him.

I realize that those who are well set up in life, people like Hillary Clinton (who worked on children's issues when she was young and should know better) and Donald Trump do not understand just how both common and complex the issues of homelessness and need in our society are.

I do expect understanding from people who bother to come to a website like Democratic Underground.

Life is not such an easy path for many of us. And those of us who have been given the gifts of understanding, of the ability to learn and to take care of ourselves should live in great awe of those gifts and of the undeniable fact that they are merely gifts that we have been given, that we did not work for, that were our birthright through no merit of our own.

When you reach out to others with compassion, you can only feel humility and wonder at your own good fortune.

Welfare was a good program. In Los Angeles we face a flood of homelessness and joblessness. And it is much worse in third world countries. Have some compassion and understanding, please.