Yall ready? Let’s make some people mad. If my tax dollars are feeding someone who can’t afford groceries? TAKE. MY. FUCKING. MONEY. If my tax dollars are helping someone access addiction treatment? TAKE MY DOLLARS. If my tax dollars are putting a roof over someone’s head? TAKE MY GOLD DOUBLOONS Because if the worst thing that happens is someone vulnerable has an easier time surviving? I can live with that shit. You know what I can’t live with? The mentality that because YOU struggled without help, everyone else should have to too. “I worked for everything I have.” Lol ok. Congratulations. “I never got any handouts.” COOL. “I had it hard, and I turned out fine.” DID YOU THOUGH? Because here you are, FURIOUS at the possibility of someone else having an easier life???? What the FUCK are we doing? We talk about equal opportunity as though everyone was standing at the same starting line. NO BRO. THEY WEREN’T Some children grew up with two PARENTS. Financial stability. Food in the fridge. A safe place to sleep. Bills paid. University paid for. Savings accounts with MONEY in them. Others grew up in poverty. Intergenerational trauma. Racism. Violence. Addiction. Gang involvement. Exposure to sexual exploitation. Housing instability. Some grew up with a single parent working two fucking jobs just to keep the LIGHTS on. Some didn’t have a parent at ALL. Some worked after school to help put food on the table. Some were raising their younger siblings while they were still kids too. And THEN we send them all to school. Give them the same assignments. The same expectations. The same consequences. And call it EQUALITY. Get fucked. I spent fifteen years working in education. Another five or ten? in childcare before that. I KNOW kids. I KNOW developmental theory. I got the university education. I read the fucking textbooks. And do you know how often I saw children labelled as some behavioural shit when they were actually struggling to survive their circumstances? EVERY. FUCKING. DAY. The kid sleeping in class? Lazy. The kid stealing food? Thief. The kid who can’t sit still? Problematic. The kid who swears at the teacher? Disrespectful. But did anyone stop to ask WHY? Did that child even SLEEP last night? Did they EAT? Did they witness VIOLENCE before coming to school? Are they SAFE at home? Is anybody taking care of THEM? Because sometimes what looks like defiance is survival. Sometimes what looks like laziness is exhaustion. Sometimes what looks like disrespect is a nervous system that doesn’t even KNOW safety. And sometimes that kid isn’t a bad fucking kid. THAT KID IS HAVINF A BAD FUCKING TIME! Actually more often than not. THOSE kids were my faves. They were REAL. The little shit ass kids. The ones who sass me. The ones who talk back. I LOVED that. I got to KNOW them. They didn’t pretend with me. I saw them for who they WERE. But HERE’S what really gets me. Those children grow up. They turn eighteen. And suddenly?? The compassion disappears. Now they’re LAZY. Now they’re ADDICTS. Now they’re CRIMINALS. Now they’re FREELOADERS. Now they’re a burden on taxpayers. So what do you think? At what AGE does someone stop deserving our compassion? Our empathy? Like, come ON. It’s as if their 18th birthday magically erased every single thing they survived. At what age did the hungry child become the undeserving adult? At what age did the “traumed out” teen become someone we should PUNISH instead of help? At what age did we decide that someone struggling was no longer worthy of basic human decency? And don’t even come at me with personal accountability. I BELIEVE IN ACCOUNTABILITY. I also believe in understanding the circumstances that CONTRIBUTE to someone’s behaviour. Those two things can exist in the same fucking room. You can hold someone accountable AND help them. You can recognize harmful behaviour AND recognize the person behind it. You can believe people have a responsibility to change AND believe they deserve the resources to make that change POSSIBLE. HELP IS NOT THE OPPOSITE OF ACCOUNTABILITY. Poverty isn’t a character flaw. Addiction isn’t proof that someone is worthless. Homelessness isn’t evidence that someone deserves to suffer. SO WHY ARE WE TREATING IT LIKE IT IS?? I’m not suggesting that every person who experiences this shit will develop an addiction, commit a crime, or struggle as an adult. I’m saying that pretending this shit has NO impact is fucking ridiculous. And if your argument against helping vulnerable people is that somebody, somewhere, might take advantage of the system? SO WHAT?! Look the other way. Close your fucking eyeballs. I’d rather risk helping someone who didn’t need it than ABANDON someone who desperately DID I don’t want the next generation to suffer just because the last one did. That’s stupid and backwards. WE can help break the cycles. US. So yeah. Feed the people. House the people. Fund the treatment. Support the families. Give children a fucking chance. And for the love of creator, stop treating basic human needs like prizes people have to WIN for being good. Here’s my final question and it’s a juicy one. If we can recognize that a struggling CHILD deserves compassion, why is it so fucking difficult to extend that SAME compassion to the adult they beCOME? Your friendly neighbourhood Recovery Goblin. 🖤