ASHAMED ....

 

Given that today it was announced that the Red Cross would be delivering food aid across the UK, it felt like the right moment to share this page I made a couple of weeks ago.  It needs no explanation, but I just wanted/needed to share my huge sadness at what is happening under a government which doesn't seem able to understand the needs of ordinary people .... or is unable to grasp the concept that not everyone has savings to fall back on.

This was one of those times when I shamelessly used an interesting piece of paper rather than working up an artsy background.  Its allowed, and don't let anybody tell you its not real art if you don't make every bit of it yourself ...

It needed very little but I added a few bits and bobs, including these words I'd cut out from an Oxfam leaflet.

Then I just wrote what was on my heart.  We do what we can to help, our church makes heroic efforts to collect for the food bank, but it isn't and can never be enough.  Its still a tragedy.

Then the odd doodly line with a white pen and it was done.  I cried when I'd done, but felt better for expressing it.  Every time I sit down to eat I think about those who can't .... the ones right here at home in this rich, western country.  And I feel ashamed.

You see in our early married life there were plenty of times when we weren't sure what we were going to eat the next day, or we lay awake wondering how on earth we could pay the bills.  I've been there; its terrifying.  We support the food bank run with real heroism by our local Salvation Army, but it shouldn't be happening and it makes me terribly angry!  Maybe you'd noticed.

Fear and Loathing ...?

 

Great title innit?  This page came about when I found these words in my box of media clippings, and just knew I had to use it.  I should  probably issue a Health Warning at this point that if your politics are not broadly central to left, you are unlikely to enjoy what follows and should turn away now. 

I'd already made a nice purple background and even used a few stencils - another thing I struggle to love, maybe because I prefer drawing/doodling.  Anyway, having met my personal challenge to constantly try to work outside my comfort zone, I felt free to do whatever I liked with the rest of the page.....

And what came POURING out were my feelings about the unkindness of the present coalition government and its policy of protecting the rich and penalising the poor.  Got some things off my chest here, particularly concerning the so-called skivers and shirkers ... I loathe how we are increasingly hearing the language of the Workhouse, and the re-emergence of the horrible idea that people are only poor because they are shiftless and lazy.  Heck, don't get me started, I'm afraid this is going to turn into something of a rant.  You have been warned.

The Christian faith I live by has (or should have) an inbuilt "bias to the poor", and it is a given that you help those in need without judgement or precondition.  Whether we're people of faith or not, its been said that the measure of a civilised society is how it treats its most vulnerable members ..... well I rest my case on that one.

So the purple page led to some purple prose on this occasion, which gave me a chance to air some of my despair at the things being said and the policies being enacted.  I'd like to send the Cabinet to spend a day down at our local Food Bank (run by the Salvation Army) which our church supports.  I'd like to say to those who bang on about welfare rates being too high, or how they aren't going to support the feckless through their taxes .... hang on a minute, I live on welfare!  I don't have a choice because I've been disabled by a chronic condition.  Before that I worked and paid into the system for many years, and at quite a high rate.  Now I am unable to work but still do the best I can to continue to make a difference in society, and I'm not getting anything for free or that I'm not entitled to.  Its not YOUR taxes that pay my benefit, but mine, the ones I already paid, the insurance scheme I contributed to all my working life.  Remember too that things don't always go the way we hope, and redundancy or foreclosure can happen to you too, so think hard before you consent to welfare being cut or programmes dismantled.

OK, I will crawl back into my box now and mutter quietly to myself.  I might recommend you leave me there until I recover my normally sunny and optimistic temperament.  It may take some time.  I leave you with one thought - which is that its been calculated that the average person is 3 pay packets away from total meltdown.  That is, once they'd missed those three they'd be seriously struggling - unable to pay their rent or mortgage, their bills, and what about those credit card debts?  Don't JUDGE people on welfare - most of them are just like you, going through a bad patch.  Keep paying your taxes and pray like hell that when/if you ever need support it will still be there to help you through.