As a journalist, governmental chaos keeps me busy. As an expert on poverty and homelessness – who spent a third of her career in homeless shelters – comments from the oval office are jaw-droppingly clueless and beg to be challenged.
I don’t know about you, but I’m at my limit with the condescension. Granted, not as sick and tired as I am of the extreme rendition of persons from the United States to El Salvador. Not as sick and tired as I am of U.S. armaments slaughtering children in Gaza. Not even as sick and tired as I am at the wrecking ball that has been taken to every useful part of the American government, from international humanitarian aid to the national parks, to keeping the jet fighters perched on the sunny side of aircraft carrier decks.
But oh, my aching back, the daily insult to my intelligence really does give all that a run for its money. Waltz got a promotion, tariffs aren’t taxes and anyway, they’re paid by other governments, eat your vitamins you won’t get measles – or my new favorite, kids might have to get by with just two dolls.
Here’s exactly what Trump said when he tried to dismiss the economic pain his tariff policy will have on Americans:
“You know, somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”
What did we expect? Hire a billionaire for a job, get cluelessness about poverty. As Bernie Sanders, reality’s one true town crier reminds us, 60 percent of families in this country are living paycheck to paycheck. And to those folks – giving a kid two dolls was already a luxury.
Feeding America published a paper on 8 Impossible Choices – explaining that choosing between food and other necessities is a regular occurrence in American homes. And they’re talking about essentials like medicines, utilities, housing, transportation, etc. Not a third – or even a second – Barbie doll!
According to FOX News, more than one-third of American families consider hosting Thanksgiving to be a financial hardship. And that’s a holiday without presents! The choice between gifts and food becomes even more difficult just one month later.
But that’s a poll of persons with homes. Let me tell you a thing or two about kids in homeless shelters for the holidays.
When I was operations manager at Cumberland County, Pennsylvania’s largest emergency shelter, we had a rule for kids: No toys. Oh sure, we tried to build a little play area in the corner of the resource center kitchen, but it kept getting in the way. Old folks with their canes or walkers couldn’t stop bitching about the clutter and the racket. (By the way, while I protected the kids from their cross tempers, I never judged the old folks too harshly for complaining. They were elderly and homeless, their lives already painful).
And we had no outside play space – unless you counted the smoking area between the chain link fence and the side of the building. When parents smoked, they had to take their kids with them because we couldn’t guarantee the child’s safety if they were left inside alone. Hanging with the parents out back – good times! There was always plenty of secondhand smoke and thousands of cigarette butts to build curbing for those little toy trucks.
Sure kid, drive your match box in that mixture of loose dirt and ash.
Each family had a locker for personal items. The lockers were hand-me-downs from a local junior high. Everything the unhoused family owned had to fit in that one locker. Jackets, phone chargers, shampoo, toothbrushes, underwear, socks, you name it. Two dolls? What a laugh.
The real irony of it all? Nice church folks and equally decent other people would contact the shelter to see what they could get our kids for the holidays. If you want to know the truth – bicycles and bike helmets are the very best thing you can give – besides being a form of transportation, the big part can be kept outside and the helmet might save their life.
Other than that, the kids in our shelter didn’t need a toy we wouldn’t let them keep. They needed a home. They needed people to vote for candidates that talked about healthcare and housing as human rights. They needed the rest of the townsfolk to be less selfish.
So, ask yourself, “Did I vote for a candidate who would put the needs of others first?” If the answer was no, then maybe that’s why you and yours can’t have more than two dolls this holiday. But get this straight … Poor kids? They and their parents weren’t planning on presents this year, anyway.
