Letter to John Edwards (his campaign, anyway)
Today, I got a letter from John Edwards' campaign highlighting his desire to expose and eventually diminish poverty in America. This letter asked for responses with stories regarding constituents' experiences with poverty. This is what I sent him:
My name is Amanda, and I am an impoverished American woman.
I got my GED at 16, voluntarily putting an early end to my promising high school career. I came from an upper-middle class family. I married that same year and entered the work force. I have no children. I live with a room mate (Leslie, a single woman with no children) and my partner Nicole (still no children). Nicole has a high school education, Leslie has a master's degree.
Last year, I made $12,830 before taxes. Almost half of that was unemployment benefits. Despite the fact that I've had a notably successful career in customer service, I cannot find any work in my field. I was once worth $22.50 an hour plus benefits, and now I work part time as an inventory counter for $9.00 an hour with no benefits. I consider myself lucky to have this job, and I think that is a sign of how far the economy in this country has fallen. The boys on the NYSE might say otherwise, but the state of the worker in America does not match up with their inflated facts and figures.
My room mate Leslie earns around $12 an hour in her office job, with minimal benefits. She does not use her masters degree in her position, and getting it earned her 70,000 in debt.
Nicole is in the best potion of of the three of us. She makes $10 an hour, and has some benefits. She is a factory worker. She has no serious debt to speak of, aside from a small amount of manageable credit card debt and her car loan.
As a household, the three of us fluctuate between just above and just below the poverty line. That's using the indicators based on two wage earners and one child.
We live cheaply, keeping our utility usage as low as we possibly can, shopping for food at discount stores, shopping around for the best gas prices (our household's biggest expense), reselling what we cast off that is still usable, and going without things like restaurant meals, name-brand merchandise, trips to the movies, cable television, and visits to far-flung family. Still, some months we have to juggle late payments, borrow funds from one another, even forgo all but the most essential foodstuffs.
In the eyes of the community, we are all single, individual entities. None of us could make it without the others, but we are not considered a family. To outsiders, I'm the only one "below poverty level". If we were to be taken as a unit, however, we would all qualify. Because there are no children in our home, we cannot take advantage of the many programs designed to give a hand up to three person households. We pay more taxes than the people that can use the programs that our tax money pays for.
We pay and pay and pay into the American system, and that contributes to our situation. We see very little return on that "investment". Legislators and politicians have never, in my adult life, had any word to say about our class: the young, single, childless, poor workers. It's all "family" this, and "family" that, meanwhile the only things that these people do that affects my family is to take away our rights. All three of us have seen our reproductive rights eroded. The services that we do use (the libraries, emergency services, public parks, the road system) have gotten less and less funding each year. My partner and I have seen our (already incredibly limited) rights to declare ourselves a couple and a family unit disappear. We cannot afford to up and move to a state that recognizes us. We can't even afford to move to an area that would better support us financially. We pay the salaries of people who take our money with one hand and our rights with another, then turn around and hand our money to other people who are in better situations than we are.
Where are the champions for my family? Where are the lawmakers that will recognize the contributions made by my family and represent us accordingly?
I don't know which of the upcoming presidential hopefuls would be the best champion for my family's rights. I have high hopes for Mr. Edwards, which is why his campaign is the one getting this letter.
My family may be invisible to Washington, but I will not be silent.
Amanda Sparks
registered voter
My name is Amanda, and I am an impoverished American woman.
I got my GED at 16, voluntarily putting an early end to my promising high school career. I came from an upper-middle class family. I married that same year and entered the work force. I have no children. I live with a room mate (Leslie, a single woman with no children) and my partner Nicole (still no children). Nicole has a high school education, Leslie has a master's degree.
Last year, I made $12,830 before taxes. Almost half of that was unemployment benefits. Despite the fact that I've had a notably successful career in customer service, I cannot find any work in my field. I was once worth $22.50 an hour plus benefits, and now I work part time as an inventory counter for $9.00 an hour with no benefits. I consider myself lucky to have this job, and I think that is a sign of how far the economy in this country has fallen. The boys on the NYSE might say otherwise, but the state of the worker in America does not match up with their inflated facts and figures.
My room mate Leslie earns around $12 an hour in her office job, with minimal benefits. She does not use her masters degree in her position, and getting it earned her 70,000 in debt.
Nicole is in the best potion of of the three of us. She makes $10 an hour, and has some benefits. She is a factory worker. She has no serious debt to speak of, aside from a small amount of manageable credit card debt and her car loan.
As a household, the three of us fluctuate between just above and just below the poverty line. That's using the indicators based on two wage earners and one child.
We live cheaply, keeping our utility usage as low as we possibly can, shopping for food at discount stores, shopping around for the best gas prices (our household's biggest expense), reselling what we cast off that is still usable, and going without things like restaurant meals, name-brand merchandise, trips to the movies, cable television, and visits to far-flung family. Still, some months we have to juggle late payments, borrow funds from one another, even forgo all but the most essential foodstuffs.
In the eyes of the community, we are all single, individual entities. None of us could make it without the others, but we are not considered a family. To outsiders, I'm the only one "below poverty level". If we were to be taken as a unit, however, we would all qualify. Because there are no children in our home, we cannot take advantage of the many programs designed to give a hand up to three person households. We pay more taxes than the people that can use the programs that our tax money pays for.
We pay and pay and pay into the American system, and that contributes to our situation. We see very little return on that "investment". Legislators and politicians have never, in my adult life, had any word to say about our class: the young, single, childless, poor workers. It's all "family" this, and "family" that, meanwhile the only things that these people do that affects my family is to take away our rights. All three of us have seen our reproductive rights eroded. The services that we do use (the libraries, emergency services, public parks, the road system) have gotten less and less funding each year. My partner and I have seen our (already incredibly limited) rights to declare ourselves a couple and a family unit disappear. We cannot afford to up and move to a state that recognizes us. We can't even afford to move to an area that would better support us financially. We pay the salaries of people who take our money with one hand and our rights with another, then turn around and hand our money to other people who are in better situations than we are.
Where are the champions for my family? Where are the lawmakers that will recognize the contributions made by my family and represent us accordingly?
I don't know which of the upcoming presidential hopefuls would be the best champion for my family's rights. I have high hopes for Mr. Edwards, which is why his campaign is the one getting this letter.
My family may be invisible to Washington, but I will not be silent.
Amanda Sparks
registered voter