Yesterday, as I was driving home, I saw a man with a sign on the street corner.. I know that wherever we live there are more and more people on street corners asking for money... With the economy the way that it is, it's incredible that we haven't thought of a way to help our own country out.. This one in particular really hit home.. His sign said "Unemployed Teacher trying to sell my flowers to feed my family".. This gentleman was dressed in his grey pants and a white shirt.. It had been raining all day, so I wonder how many times we got soaked today??? I looked at the flowers, and you could tell that they were picked from someones garden.. They weren't the usual roses that people are selling.. and his container was a milk jug cut in the middle to hold the flowers and the change that he would collect.. I was looking in my wallet for money... I never seem to have any, since we live in a "debit card" society... I found a single dollar and I just gave it to him.. He immediately tried to give me a flower.. I didn't want a flower.. Hell if I could get him a job I would have.. The part that hit me, was the fact that any day this could be me.. With a sign that says "single mom trying to feed my family"... All of a sudden I started to cry, and my son was in the car with me.. He didn't understand why I was so emotional..
I explained to him that we never know when it could be our turn to be there asking for money.. We go through life thinking that this could never be us... Looking at the people on the streets trying to get by... I explained to my son that my job is not promised.. That we need to be humble and not take for granted what we have... That we should be thankful that for now this isn't me and that we need to help our fellow neighbors out... My kids and I have never had money, so we don't know what it is to have whatever we want when we want it.. I have always had to play monopoly with my bills and try and make ends meet.. I do realize that no matter what, we need to be thankful for the little that we have.. and never feel "entitled" to anything.. I wished that as a country we would try and help each other out more..
Yes it's hard and sometimes we just don't want to have to deal with the issues, but at the end of the day we are all in the same boat.. There is no longer a "high, middle and low class".. There is only "high and low"... If your fortunate enough to have financial freedom then that's great.. For the rest of us, that are sitting here day after day wondering where we are going to get the money to pay rent, gas, food or the basic essentials it's never going to be the same.. I wish that we could help ourselves before going to help other countries in need.. What happened to making sure that our families don't go to sleep hungry or in their cars?? What happened to making sure that kids are healthy, that the parents are healthy and that there is help for those that need it?? I apologize if I'm getting political, but seriously we need to help each other out... Especially before we help others.. Why is it that we are continuously sending aid to others countries and we are struggling here??? Is it not as important to make sure our families aren't sleeping at the Walmart parking lot because one or both parents lost their job??? What is it going to take to get us to realize that we need to help ourselves first and make us a strong country.. I don't care what your political platform is, we all know or have seen someone that is struggling.. It could even be us.. Are we really so blind that we rather just chuck it up to the "oh well its someone elses fault" and wait for someone else to fix it?? Why aren't we taking a stand and finding ways to help others???
Look around and take notice.. Look at the kids that are suffering, the parents that are at their wits end, the older people that are left alone.. This isn't going to get any better unless we take a stand.. I know that many promises have been made and many few have been kept.. It doesn't matter whom you want to win or loose.. We are all loosing ourselves by letting others go without... I hope that with this particular blog it makes you think.. and hopefully, we can figure out where and how we can make a difference...
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