Can you imagine what it's like?

[MissMillie]

To be so sure that all poor people are poor because they're lazy, or because they're on drugs or alcohol, or because they're stupid? Can you imagine what it's like to believe all these things and to believe that because these things are all true that there should be no help or safety net for poor people?

Do you think that the people who think this way do so because it's a way of defining themselves as "hard-working," or "smart" or in some/all other ways superior? Is it possible that the only way they can feel good about themselves is to put other people down?

I remember my mom telling me about how as a little girl she had only one dress to go to school. Every day she'd come home and take it off, and it would get washed and ironed for the next day.

I can't imagine ever thinking of my grandparents as "stupid" or "lazy". They worked hard, and they were smart enough how to figure out how to make ends meet when often they didn't have any "ends."

What small, insignificant kind of life does a person have to have in order to say (either to themselves or publicly), "I've got mine and I get to keep it all. It's not up to me to make sure that anyone else gets their basic needs."?