Welfare Is Stepping Stone

Wed., March 12, 1997

Jacqueline Bot Special To Opinion

I’ve been on welfare about a month now. I had worked for the past 15 years, but I got laid off from my job. On top of that, my husband was deported.

So now, to make it, I have to get help from the government, and because of that I’m getting all these comments about “we, the taxpayers, are supporting your children.”

Maybe people wouldn’t say that if they knew what really happened.

In 1993 my husband, who is Romanian, and I lived back East with our son Lee and daughter Chasity. That January our house burned down and authorities thought my husband had done it for the insurance. Before the year was out he was convicted of arson and received probation, but we had to move here to get away from the things people were saying about us.

I got work at a nursing home and he was working as an electrician. A little over a year ago we began buying a house.

Late last year, however, the nursing home was shut down and I was out of work. Then, in January immigration authorities deported my husband based on the felony conviction. He was sent back to Romania, a country whose political regime is so communistic I refuse to take my children.

Soon we will have to give up the house we were buying - I can no longer make the payments - and move into a shelter.

I’m not the type of person to sit around and just collect what I can. I’m fighting to get into the jobs program so I can support my family, but they are only taking two-parent households right now.

As a single parent I want to make a life for my family, too.

Right now I just want to get the education to qualify me for a good enough job that I never have to be in this situation again. Last week, though, a man in the welfare office treated me as though he were paying my welfare out of his own pocket.

I am so tired of hearing how awful I am because I have to be on welfare. It makes me so mad I could scream!

Trust me, welfare is not a life. I think after 15 years of working I earned the right to get unemployment and a little help for a short time so I can get back on my feet.

I didn’t ask for this to happen, and I’m working hard to get on with my life. So before you judge someone you should know the truth.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.

Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.

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