Go to College, Work Hard, and Then Deal With Systemic Discrimination.

I can't stand the way the world works. I've been sitting in my apartment with loud pounding on the walls all day from construction. I haven't been able to rest at all, let alone take my required nap of the day. The noise just stopped, but I am raging too hard from all of it to go to bed. I moved here for peace and rest and to get better, and I'm just getting sicker and sicker.

Also, what is it with people posting these memes trying to justify social services with something like "70% of people on food stamps work full-time jobs," or whatever percentage of houseless people have jobs, or "the majority of people on food stamps—or Section 8—are white." Who cares? Basic needs shouldn't be justified. They should just exist for those who need them. And the people you're trying to justify it to really don't care, even though a lot of them are in these programs and don't even know it because the programs have different names in different states!

Just give people what they need! Do you know how many hoops I have to jump through daily to get the most basic needs? I don't, because I lost count. I will tell you that I have a SNAP (food stamps) renewal interview scheduled for tomorrow at 10, Monday at 2:45, and Tuesday at 2:45. Yes, I know that doesn't make sense. Also, to keep my Medicaid waiver benefits—meaning income and food for my household—I now have to wait for an outsourced company that knows nothing about me, or even the most basic medical conditions, let alone mine, to decide whether or not I can continue receiving benefits.

Oh, and I love the people who think we are living it up on Section 8. Do you know how hard it is to even get qualified? Then you have to actually find a place that works with the housing authority and have the income level approved. Also, forget finding something actually accessible unless you're 55–65 and older. After that, it's a ton of paperwork. Then you move in and everything is dirty. There's crime everywhere. You are treated like garbage. It is hell.

And let's talk about basic Medicaid. In Florida, I apparently wasn't eligible, and the doctors that worked with Medicaid were the worst of the bunch in my opinion. In Indiana, I do qualify, but even though I easily qualify here, it took them over four months to approve me because they kept saying they didn't have certain documentation—when they did—and we even had receipts. I had to get a congressman involved to finally get it approved. I was bedbound and extremely sick, stuck in a state I never planned to visit, homeless, and still I had to wait over four months. And now they have the nerve to be considering that my husband should work another job, at least 20 hours a week on top of caregiving for me 24/7, just so he can keep his Healthy Indiana Plan Medicaid? Ridiculous. They already pay him almost nothing and are insanely decreasing our food benefits on top of that.

My point is: can't we just say we need help and get it? Most of us are ashamed to ask in the first place. It's shameful in this country to get help and assistance, but some of us can't hold off, so we do what we have to do to survive. And shame is a silent killer. Every day I feel like a worthless burden because I can't contribute really anything to society anymore, and I take what I can get. I hate asking for help, but I desperately need to. Others like me become hopeless and end up dying by suicide because the feelings of shame eat them alive. Some days I even feel that way.

Can we just stop the arguing and the wars and the poverty and the hate and the suffering and just create a world where people have what they need? We have plenty of money to do this, yet our leaders are so greedy it doesn't matter. We lose every time.