APOLOGIES DON'T HELP
Milwaukee welfare Warriors*THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN PUBLISHING FACTS AND MYTHS
about those of us who receive government child support. May we
ask you to go one step further in your support of our families?Popular lists of "facts" about welfare are defensive: We only have
two children, only stay "on" welfare for two years, only receive $370
a month, only use up 1 percent of the federal budget, only need help
temporarily to get us on our feet, would "work" if only we could
afford childcare/health care or could find a job, are mainly white
adults, not teens, and mainly children.These apologetic "facts" present statistical truths about welfare.
However, they omit two profound realities of welfare:| 1. AFDC is a public child support program. | |
| 2. Most single-mother families on welfare are victims of abuse and/or abandonment. |
No other moms are called dependent or made to feel like parasitical, apologetic criminals for receiving support for their children. Widowed moms, some divorced moms, married moms all expect and receive support -- from both the government (tax deductions, Social Security) and the biological fathers. Neither they nor their children are accused of being social deviants or mentally defective (low self-esteem, etc.) because they receive economic support. Nor are they labeled "ârecipients" -- an insulting, passive, one-dimensional label of the complex being a single mother on welfare is.
And what about those of us with three, four or five children, or those of us who are teen moms? What about the moms who can't
____________________*
This piece represents a letter written by Welfare Warriors in their fight for the
lives of mothers and children: Welfare Warriors, 4504 N. 47 Street, Milwaukee, WI
53218.
-367-
