I am alive. I am a life.
And, it’s not my fault. Therefore, I cannot be held accountable for myself. I am your responsibility. You are obligated to see that I have everything I need in life and from life. I didn’t ask to be born. I didn’t ask to be given a rotten set of parents. I didn’t ask for an alcohol gene, a predisposition to drug addiction, a weakness for illicit sex, weak nerves, low metabolism or an inability to get a decent job. All this stuff was just dumped on me without my permission.
Given better circumstances, I would only be too happy to take care of myself. In fact, if I had what you have, I would take care of you too. I am not asking you to do anything that I would not do myself. I’ve shown that I am willing to do my part. I’ve mowed the lawn a lot of times. I shoveled the snow off the sidewalk last winter when it was really cold outside. I’ve even found a way to cook supper when we couldn’t get food stamps on time. So, don’t tell me I’m lazy and I don’t care.
I see you walking down the street, hand in hand with your spouse and acting all lovey-dovey. Don’t you ever stop and think how much that hurts people who aren’t married or who live in abusive relationships? I watch as you flip open your purple-swirl cell phone in front of me and call for an appointment to service your late-model car, knowing that I don’t have a cell phone or a car? I hear you talk about your trip to the mall, plan your vacation and complain that you couldn’t find accessories to match your clothes. And how insensitive are you to tell me you are thinking about building a new home? It’s like you enjoy walking all over me.
You are so wrapped up in yourself, in having birthday parties for your kids, in paying for your new carpet, and in buying your second car (I wish I had just one car that would run) that you don’t know what it’s like to be me. You ought to be ashamed for having all these things and letting me live like a pauper.
Since you don’t put up with any of my hassles, you owe the less fortunate in life a lot. I don’t know exactly how it happens, but I know you are getting rich off people like me. Without us peons, you couldn’t be so high and mighty. We wait on your tables, baby-sit your kids, wash your cars and pay rent for your dilapidated apartments that were built before WWI. Well, it’s not fair and you know it. Simple fairness dictates that I am equal to you. I am sick and tired of you passing me by with your nose stuck in the air, not noticing that I have needs too. It’s not right that you should get everything that life has to offer and I get nothing. Payback time is here and you owe me.
Get a job, you say. Yeah, like jobs are out there growing on trees! Besides, you won’t let me get a job because you won’t give me an education. You won’t let me get an education because you won’t take care of my kids so I can go to school. You won’t let me think straight enough to go to school because you won’t clean up the drugs, alcohol, gangs and crime on the streets. You let me get addicted to crack cocaine and then want to punish me for trying to survive. You want my kids to have both male and female role models, then you rip into me for allowing a live-in companion. You know I’m susceptible to all kinds of bad things, yet you want to blame me for being the way I am. I have attention deficit disorder, bi-polar disorder, low-nourishment because of the potato chips, hot dogs and soda pop I have to buy, plus a lot of other syndromes directly related to the social problems of life that you and all your rich friends in the big-time corporate world created. I don’t even have enough money to get my TV repaired!
I have a right to the same medicine, hospitalization and insurance that you have. I have a right to the same food, clothing and shelter that you have. I have a right to take vacations and own pet German schnauzers like you do. I have a right to shop in the same stores and buy the same stuff that you do. I have a right to the same quality of life, peace and contentment that you enjoy. I have a right to the same respect that you get from everyone else.
Ante up. I’ve got things to do. The lady at the unemployment bureau told me I had to apply for at least three jobs a week or I wouldn’t get my check. And, let me tell you, I work as hard as you do, running all over town submitting these silly résumés. If you turn me down, you are obviously mean, nasty, greedy and selfish.
And you call yourself a Christian?