“Get A Job!”

Recently, I read on The Next Door site a request from a family in desperate straits. This woman was asking for food donations because she had nothing to feed her family with. It was around the holidays. She got several responses most of which were supportive. Some even asked her to respond by private message where they could drop off food. 

Unfortunately, there were two responses that were accusative and judgmental. One said, “Get a job!” Another told her to basically get off her butt and go to work. I could not help but to respond to these condemning messages. I asked these people why they were so judgmental and intolerant. Who knows what life circumstances this family was going through? Who are we to condemn struggling people?

Sadly, this is the answer most conservatives give to those who have had life’s terrible blows given to them. Get A Job. Save your money and lift yourself up by the bootstraps! As if these people weren’t trapped by circumstances beyond their control. I am infuriated by this attitude.

I guess I have an intolerance of intolerance. Over the last several years, I have had some life experiences that have resulted in these views. I have come to realize that these beliefs are a part of who I am. They make up a central core of me.

When I see a Youtube of an abandoned kitten, I feel pain and anger. I want to do something. When I see a homeless man, woman or child holding a sign offering to work for food, I think that there but for the Grace of God go I. I cannot accept those who blame the homeless person by saying, “They are just lazy.” We don’t know what their life experiences were. I get angry at judgmental and intolerant statements.

This is who I am. 

When I see Christian mega pastors, begging for money to buy their second or third jet, waving their Rolex-laden arms, I am filled with disgust. I want to yell at them saying, “Sell your Rolex; trade in your Lexus; cut your salary; save like the rest of us; why are your trying to extort the last nickel and dime from the widows and orphans in your congregation?”

This is who I am. 

When I hear of Christian Nationalists want to impose their values and beliefs on me, I say to myself, that God would never allow these people to speak for Him; You hypocrites, you Christian Nationalists are like whited sepulchers; beautiful on the outside but filled with crumbling bones and rot on the inside. I want to puke. 

This is who I am.

I am a liberal. Yes, I claim the “L” word. This is who I am. When you take that word and throw it down in the mud, I will pick it up, wipe it clean, pin it on my chest and wear it proudly.

This is who I am. And I will continue to speak out against unjust and unfair judgmental statements against people who suffer from life’s misfortunes.

This is who I am.