PAD Challenge Day 23: Social Services
PAD
Challenge Day 23: Write a Social (blank) poem.
Social
Services
It
was my first full-time
job
in the summer of 2002.
I
was only sixteen, a rising
junior in high school.
My
mother signed me up for
the
NC Youth and Development program.
The
agency and position, my choice.
I
believed that it would teach
me
more about the city
I
was growing up in.
And
it did.
With
my own eyes and ears,
I
saw the different worlds that
everybody
talked about under one roof.
This
time, there was no he said, she said.
No
ABC, CBS, Fox or CNN news to
lend
my lens and ears the
bad
news and good news of the day.
No
Fayetteville Observer for me to
pick
up at the library on Saturdays.
Knowledge
of the All-American City
came
from my 9-5 on Mondays through
Fridays
from June until August
I
was only a receptionist.
But
my experience went beyond
answering
and transferring phone calls,
greeting
and checking civilans
in
to see their social workers.
I
became an eyewitness too.
An
eyewitness to the crisis
in
the city of Fayetteville.
From the temporary assistance needy families,
struggle of Women, Infants, and Children,
lack of childcare and the malnutrition,
lack of transportation and affordable housing
to limited emergency
food stamps
and the supplemental nutrition assistance program.
and the supplemental nutrition assistance program.
Portable
fans distributed to
non-air-conditioned
residences.
Infant
mortality. Lead poisonings.
White
lies. Brown noses. Scrapegoats.
The
drug abuse. Alcohol abuse.
The
Child abuse and rape cases.
Domestic
violence and more rape cases.
The
HIV and AIDs epidemic.
The
disability. The mentally ill.
The
disorganization of Medicaid
and
the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Discrimination.
Bias. Politics.
Racial
inequity and inequality.
The
denied. The eligible.
The
qualified. The unqualified.
The
unfit parent. The foster parent.
Missing
children on flyers in the hallways.
The
availability of jobs, but a
steady high unemployment rate.
steady high unemployment rate.
The
attitudes. The confusions.
The narrowminded. The absent minded.
The narrowminded. The absent minded.
The
anger. The arguments
The public vs. The state officials
The committment to social change.
Unfortunately, in summer 2003,
Unfortunately, in summer 2003,
I came back to eyewitness
the same people, place, and things.
the same people, place, and things.
D’ElegantOne
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