I Guess It's A Judgment Day

On my walk this morning I saw Bubba-With-One-Leg-Who-Did-Not-Shoot-Himself, not to be confused, of course, with Bubba-With-One-Leg-Who-Did-Shoot-Himself.

He was coming back from the convenience store by the truck stop and he was holding a tall-boy in a brown paper bag but he had not opened it yet. I am not judging. For all I know, he rewards himself for getting out and walking (with one leg, y'all!) by buying a single beer which he takes home and enjoys with his supper.

I have never understood those people who refuse to give the homeless money because they "will only use it to buy booze." Don't get me wrong, Bubba is not homeless. But you know what I mean. It's that judgement thing. I have often thought that if I were homeless, I would want to drink as much as possible. It's not like you can go out and buy a new sofa to improve your living arrangements.
Oh, of course it's more complicated than that but who am I to tell another human being what they should or should not do with any money they manage to come up with? Even if I give it to them. If I give money to someone on the street, it's a damn gift and there are no strings attached.
Panhandling in North Florida in the summer is as hard a job as I can imagine. Standing there in the sun holding up a sign that says, "Homeless, God Bless," can't be an easy task.
Frankly, I imagine the folks holding up the sign would far rather be working in an office but that's probably not an option for them.

Elizabeth wrote an incredibly moving post yesterday which you can read here if you haven't and it's gotten me thinking about all sorts of things that people judge others on including disabilities and it just seems so sad that some people cannot seem to accept that fact that others may indeed need help through no fault of their own. Some people we can look at and see what they are struggling with and others, we just can't. I remember talking to a woman once who was a Republican and I asked her why. She said, "Because my husband and I have worked very hard for everything we have and we just don't want to be taxed to death so that others who haven't worked so hard can benefit from our money."

I pointed out to her that even though she and her husband did grow up in large families without much money, they were born healthy and born white and born of a families who expected them to get an education and who supported them in that in every way they could which in many ways is being born privileged. Hell, I know for a fact that I was born on second base (at least) despite a lot of shit that happened in my childhood and from an early age I recognized this fact and also that some people were born who would never, ever get a chance at bat no matter how hard they worked.

Well, as I said in a comment to Elizabeth's post, I think that perhaps the main difference between what we call liberals and what we call conservatives is the ability to empathize with other human beings whose situations are not like our own.
So, in fact, it may be all explainable by neurological science because I hate just having to think that some people are simply greedy assholes who truly believe that their success in life is positive proof of their superiority and the fact that God Loves Them More Than He Loves The Poor And/Or The People Who Were Obviously Put Here On Earth To Serve Them For Low Wages With No Health Care Benefits.

And in the you can't make this shit up category, I just watched a video where Ann Romney says they will not be releasing any more tax returns because every time they do, the media just uses them as more ammunition.

Huh.

The sense of entitlement on that woman's face makes me want to scream. Not only do she and her husband think that they have theirs and that they deserve it (which, to be fair- perhaps they do),  they also believe that we, the people whom Mitt wants to be president over, do not deserve or need to know how much it is or what they DO pay in taxes. Because?

Oh. It might make us mad.

You think?

I think we should be mad. I think we should be horrified and appalled and furious at what the fabulously wealthy have created for themselves in the way of tax avoidance.

God. How did I get from Bubba and his single tall-boy to Ann Romney?

Oh yeah- judgement. Seems to me that the same people who are the most judgmental are the very same ones who believe that they and their actions are beyond judgment.

You know what I think? I think that Mitt Romney would do himself the greatest favor in the world if he got off his Mormon highhorse and sat under a tree or a bridge with some homeless guy and shared a six-pack and listened to whatever the hell that guy had to tell him.
Now wouldn't that be something?
Or if he spent an entire day helping a mother take care of her severely disabled child.
Or if he worked in a Welfare office for a day. Or an emergency room in a poverty-stricken area.
Or if he was sent out in the world on foot with fifty cents in his pocket and told that he had to figure out how in hell to live for a week as an anonymous person who wasn't carrying a driver's license that said Mitt Romney.
One week.
Or if he had to do what a single mother without an education has to do to support her kids for a few days while taking care of the kids, too.

But he'll never do any of those things and neither will Paul Ryan. They have plenty of advisors and they sure don't need anyone like me or Bubba telling them about our realities. Which to them, are not really real at all. And they like it like that. Because in their ignorance, which is their bliss, they can just spout any bullshit they want and as lawmakers, they can take that bullshit and turn it into law.

I'm done.

Sorry.

Love...Ms. Moon