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Freedom From Food

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Mary MacElveen

After the terrorists attacked us on September 11th, 2001, George W. Bush was quoted as saying, "They hate us for our freedoms". We have all heard that time and time again. After reading an article written by Emily Gersema of the Associated Press tonight, it is all too clear that some are feeling the freedom from food.

According to her heart wrenching article, "About 12 million American families last year worried that they couldn't afford to buy food", my question is this, just how can this sit right with the American people? Our congress just approved an $87 billion dollar package to help rebuild Iraq; meanwhile millions of Americans are going to bed hungry. That is some freedom, Bush.

She also cited within her article, "It was the third year in a row that the department has seen an increase in the number of households experiencing hunger and those worried about having enough money to pay for food." If you can count correctly, that is the amount of years that Bush has been in the White House. So, this problem exacerbated under his watch. So, how did those tax cuts work out for these families? Those tax advance checks that some of us received did very little to solve this problem. And as we all know those on the lower income level did not even qualify for these checks. They are the very ones that needed it.

The other day, the economy rose by a rosy 7.2 percent. Yet, it does very little for those who are going hungry in this country. Are they the benefactors of this good news? How can a country be free when there are so many finding themselves in desperate situations?

Right now, we have a hands off president that is doing nothing to face this problem head on. No, he is out there raising obscene amounts of money for his campaign to insure that this blight on our nation continues.

According to this article, "estimated that 3.8 million families were hungry last year to the point where someone in the household skipped meals because they couldn't afford them" This sounds very similar to those seniors who still have to skip taking life saving drugs because they cannot afford to eat and take medicine at the same time. Yet, the senate just approved themselves a salary raise and I find that to be unconscionable when there are many suffering in this country. I remember when the congress afforded themselves a pay raise, my congressman, Tim Bishop donated his salary raise to a charity. Many were angry with him for doing that, but that is what leadership to me is. Putting one's money where their mouth is.

There is something so wrong where the land of the free people are finding themselves free of food and lifesaving drugs.

Now try looking at these stats reported in her article and you will find undeniable proof that the well being of our citizens has suffered since Bush seized power. The first statistic is, ".more families are unsure if they can afford to eat or don't have enough food in their cupboards. Last year, 11 percent of 108 million families were in that situation. That's up 5 percent from 2001 and 8 percent from 2000." The other statistic is, "Some 34.6 million Americans were living in poverty last year - 1.7 million more than in 2001, according to the Census Bureau." I would like to ask those who support Bush, just where is the compassion in his presidency. Judging by these stats, I just do not see it.

Here is a bothersome quote found within this article, "Food is the most elastic part of the budget, meaning that's what households will compromise on when they have fixed payments such as their rent and their utilities," Doesn't one have to eat in order to get the energy to work so that they can pay rent and utilities? How many lost days from work are felt when someone is too weak to work? Also, are they not docked that time thereby stretching that budget even thinner? These are all relevant questions and we need to address them in order to get these families food to eat.

We have all read how many people are without jobs, without health care, without prescription drugs and now this latest one. People without food, and the only freedoms I see are freedoms from food and other necessities in order to survive.

Source Link: Number of Hungry Families in U.S. Rising [LINK]

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY