Damn hungry

Many years ago my brother and I took a vacation to the West Coast.  We spent a few days in San Francisco, and on one of them, as we drove into the city itself, we passed a young African-American man standing on the median at an intersection holding a cardboard sign on which he had etched in black magic marker, "HUNGRY, WILL WORK FOR FOOD."  As we were leaving the city at the end of our day, we passed him at the same intersection, and he had turned over the sign and written on the other side, "DAMN HUNGRY!" 

I know I must sound like a broken record, but a recent study on the growth of hunger worldwide showed that 24%--24 fucking percent--of Americans answered "yes" when asked if there had been times over the past year when they didn't have enough money for food (if you note the chart at the link above you'll see that we're not alone, though other countries didn't fare quite as bad).  What makes this number even worse (to me) is that they didn't ask this question of five-year-olds--I mean, undoubtedly these questions were asked of people who were also parents or spouses and the number of people who went without food for a lack of money in the richest nation in the history of civilization was actually greater than 24%.

And just as I thought when my brother and I passed that African-American gentleman so long ago, there is something inherently fucked up about that many Americans going without food, especially with the report coming on the heels of the big three scandals for the Obama administration.  The true scandal is that currently both the House ($20 billion) and the Senate ($4 billion) are considering cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka food stamps).  It's not surprising that republicans would be supportive of such cuts--the party thinks its main function in our society is to fuck over the poor and the middle class while fellating the wealthy.  But there are Democrats--including Michigan's Sen. Debbie Stabenow--who are also supportive of such cuts.

All of these so-called "Democrats" should be slapped silly.  With our economic recovery still on shaky ground for the poor and middle class, with nearly a quarter of Americans not having enough money for food in the past year, the last thing we should be doing is giving corporate welfare to Agribusiness while cutting aid for the needy.

After all, I'm pretty sure Jefferson would consider eating an integral part of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Peace,
emaycee