I grew up in a family that was considered “middle class”, my parents worked and provided us with a very comfortable lifestyle. In turn my husband and I maintained the same life for our children. As each child left home to pursue their dreams, we looked forward to retirement. All that changed a month ago when my husband was laid off from him job. Without his paycheck and his health insurance we are struggling like so many others. I have a whole new outlook on ‘being poor”

Things I never considered about people I would see who looked like they needed a bath; water cost money and if you do not have the money to pay the water bill you don’t have the luxury of standing in the shower just to feel the warm clean water on your body every morning. Shampoo costs money, and if you don’t have money for food, you surely don’t have the money to buy shampoo or soap for that matter. We as a society are so judgmental about people and their appearances without knowing their circumstances. 

People whose clothes are dirty do not necessarily choose to look like that. The price of detergent to wash those clothes may not be in the budget that week. It is a vicious circle for the poor, to eat or wash clothes, to pay the water bill or skip the daily shower. My mother used to say, “There is no crime in being poor, but there is no excuse for being dirty” but there is an excuse and a good one. If you can not afford the water, the soap and the shampoo, then you probably cannot afford to bathe every day, or do your laundry every week. People have to eat and people have to have medicine, which is far more important to their survival than to have a clean body or clean clothes. In trying to stay alive they must swallow their pride and forget about their appearances. How truly tragic that must be for someone who once had a job and could pay the bills, take a bath every day and put on clean clothes.

The programs the government provides for the poor are written and implemented by some person sitting in their glass castle with no clue as to if they work. Perhaps they should step down from their lofty tower and spent a month among those who have lost their job and their medical insurance. Maybe, just maybe then those “creators of the system” would understand the struggle and the choices people in our society have to make.