Digging your way out of the pit of despair


I’m reblogging this, not because I agree with it, but because it has touched a nerve that is always raw for me, both on a personal level and on a professional level, and I intend to expand on that thought tonight…but, I didn’t want to lose my thought.
The first paragraph is highly offensive (to me and many other commenters on this particular post), but the line that really caught my eye is this:
“What [poor people] don’t realize is that you can have something if you want it bad enough.”
That simply isn’t true for some people. Good if it’s true for you, but don’t assume that everyone can dig their way “out of the pit of despair”. Some people get stuck, often due to mental illness, sometimes due to circumstances that are truly beyond their control. This country is amazing in the opportunities available to most to reinvent – I can attest to that, I have reinvented myself at least once (more on that tonight), but some people can’t, and that’s the very reason why “entitlements”/social programs supported by taxpayer dollars need to be protected, and not stripped away.

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4 responses to “Digging your way out of the pit of despair”

  1. "You can have something if you want it bad enough." So, if I wanted my sister not to die of Crohn's Disease, all I had to do was want it? If I wanted my children not to have learning disabilities, all I had to do was want it? My father had a choice years ago – to apply for food commodities or let his children not have food. I'm glad he chose the commodities – I remember being hungry most of the time…. but at least we didn't starve. My mother was depressed because she didn't want it to go away enough?

    As you can tell, it's also a raw nerve with me, also. It's oh-so-much easier to pass judgement from a position of superiority…. and so much harder when you walk those miles in someone else's shoes.

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