Poor white trash

I’m hungry Mama

It was cold, cold enough to snow, but I don’t remember there being any snow on the ground. We were standing in line outside a warehouse on the north side of Nampa Idaho. I remember thinking that we stood there forever…but that was the perspective of a four year old boy, could have been an hour, maybe more, maybe less.

I do vividly remember how the people driving past us would slow down and stare. There was one man in particular, he was driving an older pickup truck, late seventies model, who slowed way down and glared. It scared me, the anger and hatred on the man’s face as he looked at me and the other people in line. What had I done for him to be so angry at me?

“Mama I’m cold.”

“I’m cold too, be quiet” she snapped

As we got a bit closer “I’m hungry Mama.”

“We’ll eat when we get home.”

“How much longer Mama, I’m hungry?”

“If you don’t be quiet you won’t get anything to eat,” she snapped grabbing my arm, “be quiet!”

As we got closer to the building I could see a truck bay open and people were standing on the dock handing things out.

Finally we reached the dock and a man handed my mom a box, the next was a woman and she handed mom a block of butter and on down the line we went. By the end of the line we had a block of butter, a large block of cheese, a jar of honey, a can of peanut butter, some flour, rice, two loaves of white bread, and a large bag of powdered milk.

As an adult I still remember how good that cheese from that huge block tasted…we had no food. We were at the point that without help we would have been in jeopardy of starving. At that point we would have been considered poor white trash.

Having heard people who, having never been in the position where only the charity of others could keep you alive say shit like “they are just lazy” or “fucking freeloaders, we should let them starve”  “fucking welfare brats, they should never have been born if they couldn’t feed um themselves, they’ll only grow up to live off of welfare leaching off us hard working people…it’s a fucking shame”  “I work my ass off so they can live high off the hog” having heard things like that for years I can only imagine what that red necked ignorant fuck in the old truck told his friends. I don’t have to imagine it, I have already heard it, I still hear it from fox news, and from some conservative people I know.

That night I felt like I was living high off the hog; I was four, and for once I didn’t have my mom snap at me when I asked for more because I was hungry. For once in a long time I went to sleep with a full belly. Yes, drinking powdered milk and eating government cheese is living high off the hog when your starving

In school I worked in the cafeteria so that I could have food for lunch. The other students treated me like shit because they knew the reason I was washing dishes. My family was poor.

Society treated me as less then because I was born into a life in the lower socioeconomically then the vast majority of people.

Let me tell you this you red necked ignorant hillbilly fucksticks , and you conceited pieces of crap that talk about welfare queens as you try to cut social programs…I have paid off every fucking cent that the government invested in me times thirty, and by the time I die I will have paid it off a thousand fold. For every ten people that abuse the system there are a thousand that use it as a hand up to greater things.

While you ponder that do the math…if you can. I pay thousands a year in taxes…I work hard, I help people in need, I donate when I can…

I was a good fucking investment…so for the man in the old truck that looked at me like I was less than dirt, fuck you, I will contribute more to society than ten of your judgmental asses could… do that math

Chris McQueeney  AKA  Wander  8/29/12    10:34 P.M.