So it was a beautiful Sunday today, and what did I spend the entire day doing? Writing a research paper for my history of social work class about the future of social welfare in America. I was honestly shocked at how lacking our society is in terms of aid and help for those who need it. It really is a sad state of affairs when the system that is supposed to be designed to help the poor man is actually primarily against him. It seems apparent to me that our welfare system is taking food out of the hungry mans mouths, homes from people who need shelter and sticking it right in the heavily lined pockets of America's wealthy and elite. What kind of systme is that? I honeslt was shocked when i was doing research today. Do you know that there are over three million people in America who are homeless and 1 million of those people are children? Speaking from personal experience, (I being a formerly homeless person myself. I spent 7 1/2 months living in a park) they literally fall into the cracks of the system never to be heard from again. I volunteer quite frequently at many homeless shleter and soup kitchens in my area and so often I see the resolve in these peoples eyes, that they are what society sees them as and there is nothing they or anyone else can do about it. Not only just regarding the homeless, but other societal issues as well. What I find the most disturbing is we as Americans and conrtibuting, functional members of society see these injustices and sit back and do nothing. Not only are we apathetic toward the state of society but rather than being up-to-date informed citizens, we'd rather change the channel and see what Britney is wearing and who is marrying whom, and what actor/singer/model OD'd this week. Society as a whole I can honestly say is going to hell in a very expensive, Prada handbasket and we are all just trying to jump in and ride the media frenzy all the way there. What I can say is I believe this presidential election will determine where this society truly does go. Whether we keep padding the pockets of the rich while seeminlgy sweeping the poor and hungry into the gutter, or taking a stand and being the voice for those who have none. I for one truly hope its the latter, and maybe just maybe the government will actually do what it was originally designed to do.
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