Remember
this: Starve and die...or look for options.
Many
people do not take part in recreation activities such as hunting,
fishing, and camping due to lack of funds. Meaningful experiences
fall to the wayside due to lack of connections, mentoring, time, and
desire.
I
try not to belittle or look down on another person's life without
some reflection on that person. I do give people the benefit of the
doubt. I would expect the same in turn. I don't know their life or
what they have been through. When I see someone raging against the
machine, I try not to get mixed up in the foray of emotions that
causes one to lose the ability to see through bullshit. Neither do I
desire to look down on such individuals, who feels strongly about
their convictions. Their experiences are vastly different. Yet
considered no less or more important than my own.
I
try to scratch out people that think they see a weak spot and try to
pick at the scab. For those I say, “Keep picking. You are going to
get something you will never see coming.” Spiteful people exist due to
boredom and enjoying the thought of hurting someone else. Those weeds
eventually go the way of all things when come uppance arrives at
their door.
I
began thinking about regular people, when faced with some life
disaster, needing to provide for their loved ones with whatever
option is available at the time. The sad reality is there are people
that will not help people in need. They see them as capable. This is
true. The crux of this problem is: you can have a capable person that
can do but that person is not given any opportunities for whatever
reason. Generating opportunities sometimes fail because of lack of
funding or interest from the general public. There are a lot of
variables here. You could see the person doing a lot but not gaining
any ground. Truth be told, everyone is fighting. Everyone has it
hard. Why are we making life even harder?
There
again, enter Life's Purposes, where one individual is suffering and
going through a lot. They pass on the knowledge and the details of
the situation to help others through and steer them clear from danger.
Consider it a cosmic message transfer of sorts. The sender need only
recognize the message through awareness and pass it on to the cosmic
pools of the world until it drifts to the ones needing it.
I
had a brief conversation with someone. Issues arose but I didn't feel
predisposed to vomiting up my life disasters and pollute up someone
with my problems. I consider it not vandalizing someone else's wall
with my paint when they just painted their wall blank. It is a choice
of mine not to dump my trash in the lake of another unless they
intentionally are willing to help me clean up my mess. Most people
are not that charitable.
It
is always up to you and your choices; good or bad.
There
are internet users on social media who feel strongly against public
assistance aka Welfare. Everyone's opinions and feelings are
warranted. To improve a system both negative and positive feedback is
needed to correct overall service success.
After
looking at online posts about Food Stamps and EBT cards, I removed
myself from the resentment I viewed. Without the other person's
knowledge of my use of it, I didn't want to be sensitive to the
conversation someone else was posting. It's water down my back, even
though some people wield it like a leather strap. Some people are
like that. They don't realize how they could be hurting someone else.
The person has an issue themselves. I tried to see where hunting fit
into this picture. After all, it is a source of food.
To
my knowledge in my great state of South Carolina, food stamps and
hunting/fishing licenses do not overlap with one another. These two
services are completely distinct and separate. I lean more toward the
two not, because of muddying up the waters of services.
Let
us look at the EBT/SNAP service.
There
are probably people utilizing monetary contributions from family and
friends to buy hunting and fishing licenses. This kinda thing has to
be turned in to social service. They want to know ever dime that
passes through your hand from whatever source it comes from. Hunting
and fishing's purpose in this is to supplement the lack of food not
covered by how much is allocated to your EBT card. It exists merely
as a crutch to get you over a hump in your life, given that hump
doesn't span years. Sadly, it does.
I
speak from experience.
In
my instance, I was no longer employed at a decent paying job after I
broke my wrist from an on-the-job dog attack. I applied for public
assistance but was turned down. I still posessed current pay stubs but
had already paid my bills. My funds were at zero. I had a child to
feed. I went to my dad's, besides myself. He was sitting on the swing
outside. I told him what kind of pickle I was in. I just had the
sutures removed from my hand and faced a lot of physical therapy. He
pointed to the truck and said, “Get the gun out and shoot a deer.”
He gave me the money to go buy a hunting license. You soon find you
don't need to kill more than three to keep you in the protein. My
nerves were so bad at that time due to other things. Deer meat was
the only thing I could eat and hold down, meat wise. I grew some
hybrid collards and mustard then called it a meal.
Here
I interject, in life you go on the idea that everything will work
itself out. You don't foresee a lot of disruptive life issues and
tragedies that come your way. Neither should you be beat up for it by
others who judge and look down on you in a dehumanizing way. This
can come from the very workers you go to while apply for a service and from people in better life positions. The worry
for them is absent. They forget every minute is one step to being in
the position of the person they frown down upon.
One
of my friends rented houses. She came by one day and told me she had
two men renting her houses. One had a job but wouldn't pay his rent,
yet could buy a stereo system. The other had a child, paid his rent
but didn't have anything left over for food. She told me how bad she
felt about it but had to take the rent anyway. Her bills didn't stop
either. I didn't say anything to her. I got a box, walked over to my
deep freeze and started putting food in it. I told her, “Give that
to the one that pays his rent and has a kid.” This guy was just
above the margin given by Social Services that didn't approve him. We
call it scraping the barrel here.
I
thought about the amount that is given on an EBT card. Let us set up
a scenario. Here is a working example. The amount given to a woman
and child with absolutely no income could be $357.00. Divide this by
30 days and allocate $11.90 per day per two people. Divide this by 2
people and you have a final amount of $5.95 day/person. Now subtract
the amount of a 12 oz can of Chicken of the Sea, at full price, from
this amount and see what you have left over. The protein on the can
says 11g. Look up what your protein requirements are for the day.
Figure it out...
Now
keep in mind when you use the $5.95 for yourself, you look at the can
to see what the label says the protein amount is. Otherwise, you
could be wasting $5.95 on sugar and crap food. We wonder why food
that is good for us is so costly and you can't pay for it.
When
you consider a person pays into a system over the course of their
life, while having a life disruption at some point, should not be
begrudged using a service provide they helped subsidize it. Nor is it
right to look down on them and set the scene to insinuate they are a
loser all of a sudden. It reminds me of being in a tribe. You break
your leg on a hunt. You can no longer hunt so the other members of
the tribe drag you to the edge of the village and dump you there. You
are no longer of use to them or yourself. The reality is you are just
sidelined until you heal. This doesn't mean you have no value. It is
a case of wrong tribe with bad mentality.
I
remember reading an account where a certain North American tribe
would have a meeting then go into the tent of an elderly person and
choke them to death. One account was by a elder that overheard what
was about to happen to him. He dragged himself out his lodging
and into the woods. He subsisted on berries and bark for a while
until he could walk a little. He meandered to a local tribe of
different affiliation who cared for him until he was well. All it
took was care and compassion. This man did not have to die at the
hands of others who considered him useless and a burden.
I
recently looked at the application for EBT. On it were questions such
as: Have you used EBT to purchase guns and ammunition, have you sold
EBT for recreational drugs, etc. I just stared at it an thought, “Do
you really expect people to answer this? They would be admitting to a
crime?” Again, maybe the person is mentally challenged and answers
these questions. Stranger things can happen.
There
is the issue of requiring people to give a urine test as a part of
the process to be approved for EBT. The problem with this is you have
to prove the person did sell EBT funds for drugs. They could have
traded sex for drugs. You never know. Of course, this could be a good
and bad thing. The requirement might be to get into a drug
rehabilitation group. This could incur even more cost at someone's
expense. Who would pay for that? Unfortunately, it becomes a sickness
that branches out even further. No one knows how deep it can go but
it keeps going. It is a symptom of social-psychological disease. The
wrong thought can lead you into all kind of mischief.
There
are people abusing the service, either intentionally or for lack of
education on what they should be choosing. I have seen people loading
up grocery carts with every kind of processed food instead of the
nutritionally necessary items. The baby sits in the slot at the
handles with all this junk a la carte behind them. Eventually the bad
choices lead to childhood and parental obesity. On it goes, the
degrading human condition. One bad decision right after another. Why
is this I ask? Maybe no one taught them better, laziness, it is just
convenient to not use brain cells, and lack of education? Who knows
what is going on in peoples heads at the time?
Where
does hunting and fishing enter into the picture?
Thinking
on hunting and fishing, it is costly. A South Carolina salt and
freshwater fishing license is $20. This might be the best route. You
can fish off the hill. If you hang around a boat landing long enough,
you could make a friend that would take you out for thirty minutes on
the water. This promotes social interaction. People tend to talk more
when relaxed and no menace.
A
basic hunting license is around $10. If you get the hunting/fishing
combination license you save $5.00. To get the migratory bird with
stamp and ability to hunt Wildlife Managed areas the fee could be up
to $65-$70. This is due to contributing to conservation efforts in
our state, which is a must. No wild game, there goes your alternative
food source option.
Jobless,
destitute people can't afford this. You can't pay, you don't play.
The option of using hunting and fishing as a food source goes out the
window unless you find charity in someone who is compassionate enough
to give you a hand out. The only light in the dark here is cane pole
fishing without an eye. You can still attempt to pull a fish from the
river.
How
does this figure for dirt poor people who could hunt for their food
but not afford the fees? If a person loses the ability to realize
they can do for themselves because of an obstacle placed before them
with a penalization system, how can they proceed? What happens when
this individual is placed in a position to make a poor decision
merely because the choice of starve or break a law and go to jail is
now in the option choices? What if this person has no one else to
help them supplement food sources? Is there a service in conjunction
with the Department or Natural Resources and the EBT/SNAP program to
work together to get those individuals out in the field to give them
a sense of empowerment as capable individuals who can provide for
themselves and others. This could lead to improvement of self-image
and give impoverished peoples the determination or encouragement to
move past their perceived ideals of self-poverty to a more
self-sufficient human being. Then teach them to pass this mentality
on to others who seeming fall behind or down in the mud.
Should
these two entities not mix? Is there the possibility of a service
being generated separate from the two, yet have the ability to
co-mingle as a prototype as an answer to part of the problem?
You
can see how questions really start generating themselves. When you
have more questions than answers to a growing issue there exist a
potential problem. This doesn't mean there are no solutions. It is the tact
one goes about apply solutions for favorable outcomes.
Charity
in recreational sports, governmental programs, and our daily lives is
necessary. Individuals exist in the world that are dependent due to
disability, somewhat helpless children, the mentally-ill,
self-decided leeches on society, and capable adults that get
assaulted by the responsibility of just being alive then falling pray
to happenstance. You also have big talkers that think nothing will
ever happen to them.
Yet the cosmic finger points at you on this
given day and says, “Kneel. Remember the dirt you come from for you
shall return to it; kicking, screaming, or relieved this life is
over.” Again you might be one of the lucky ones that never see a
tear shed in their life and die with a smile on your face. The problem
with this is: When asked, what did you do for others in your time on
Earth? What
could you possibility have to say for yourself?
These
are just some of the things I was pondering on. I could go into a
long treatise of novella proportion. I only want to make you think.
There are people that just upon reading this piece would get mad as a
wet-setting hen at the mere thought. To those people I only ask:
Think about it in a new way. Doing for someone else very well might
make you have a better outlook on others and yourself.
Maybe
we rely to much on government to guide us or empower the public to do
for themselves and others. There are billions of people on this
planet. Is it so hard to turn to the person beside you and say, “Can
I help you in some way? Relieve your suffering and toil?” Do we
have to wait on a government handout when there are so many people
willing to help those that want to help themselves? Could this ever
become a real thing? Is it just for those few that have compassion
and awareness to the suffering of other things great and small? Why
are there so few of those kinds of people? Or are people not brave
enough to recognize that thing within themselves that manifest the
good the world bore you out the Earth to exist for the sake of
existing?
Being
poor and dying is not the way a living creature should part his life.
Neither is it noble to make someone's last dying thought be from
Langston Hughes's poem “Sympathy” rethought....I didn't even have
a crust of bread or a corner to weep in.
Written
by: W Harley Bloodworth
