As I contemplate how to pry a few dollars from these systems designed to humiliate and degrade my clients, already struggling with being social outcasts, chronic illness, drug addiction and mental illness I sigh audibly. I read of billion dollar bailouts and disappearing pallettes of cash as I ponder how to help a family with $400.00 so they will not be homeless in three days. I am so very tired.

Hey, I really really like this clip! I got one just like it. I'm glad there's 2 of them. I hope I see more. Seldom do you see a Social Worker in a position to be able to tell the truth about the system. They can lose their jobs, get audited by the IRS and/or have all kinds of terrible things happen to them, just because they tell the truth. People who haven't asked for help have no idea what it's like. Social Services does not exist to help people, they exist to keep people from getting help.

"Of course they called on God, but he went his way
down among the lost people like Dante, down
to the stinking fosse where the injured
lead the ugly life of the rejected,

and showed us what evil is, not, as we thought,
deeds that must be punished, but our lack of faith,
our dishonest mood of denial,
the concupiscence of the oppressor." W.H.Auden

I thought this may be relevant, part of a poem I was reading yesterday.

What to do? The bureaucracy makes it so difficult to navigate for the benefit of those in need and yet without it lies the old path of hoping that others will contribute. I do still think it's important for citizens to see the rest of humanity as their responsibility. This is still the most efficient way of providing help while preserving dignity. Perhaps the idea of national service is a good way to get folks headed down the right road.

I'm so close to being the person on the bench.