Blood for Oranges
The United States Senate is hard at work again, making sure they screw everyone in the country but themselves. The Washington Post is reporting that $54 billion will be saved through 2010 because of cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, student loans and other programs.
When I was a lad of eight years old or so my family went through a bit of a rough period. My dad had to close his three retail stores due to what he called “Regan-omics” and the only job he could find was through the church (I grew up LDS) at some meat-processing plant. The job didn’t pay very much and certainly wasn’t enough to feed a family of five so food stamps was the answer. I don’t know how it is these days to apply for food stamps but back then it was a real time-sucker and the process was slow. There was a bit of a gap from when he got his last paycheck to when the food stamps would arrive so he did what any other family-provider would do. He sold his blood.
My father sold his blood so that he could have a little money to buy some food for his family. He didn’t get very much money, only enough to buy a crate of oranges, which he’d decided was the best buy out of his options because they were a good source of Vitamin C. My eyes are watering as I write this memory. Perhaps I’m crying because my dad is gone now and I miss him. Perhaps it’s because my heart breaks everytime I think how much my dad sacrificed for his family and never asked for more than a peanut butter sandwich to take with him to work.
The food stamps eventually arrived and we were very grateful. Eating nothing but oranges for a week sure plays havoc on the ol’ intestinal tract. We would have died without those crummy food stamps because a person can only give so much blood and I don’t think my dad had any more to give.
We of course qualified for other things such as free lunch at school and Medicaid for my sick mother and government-sponsored cheese (which, contrary to what everyone always says about it, didn’t taste all that bad). My family wouldn’t have been able to survive without these programs and there are thousands of families across America right now that depend on these programs as well.
Please, please go the polls and express your dismay by voting these useless people out of their six-figure jobs. They are not representing you or your friends or family and the only way for the madness to stop is by voting in good candidates and holding them accountable for their actions.
The price of citrus is high but it should never have to be paid for in blood.