Plague Journal, Survivor Guilt
Yesterday I enjoyed the rare privilege of lunch with a good friend at a restaurant which we both find delightful. We met at Taste of Paris in Mundelein. In the middle of the week, we had the dining room to ourselves. Under these conditions of increasing covid-19 contagion it felt safer to dine alone. What a troubling time! … that the presence of other patrons at a restaurant loved by many, means potential exposure to a deadly disease.
In the course of conversation during our meal the term survivor guilt was used. We white, middle class, professionally successful have in the main avoided the financial destruction, and the familial upheaval caused by the pandemic. Frankly a certain affluence, and good education has served to protect us from the ravages that other families are suffering.
A Brookings Institute report was mentioned. The report by Lauren Bauer was about the consequence of the unrestrained pandemic: hungry children in America. The report was a collation of the answers given to two nationally representative surveys. The survey respondents were asked to respond whether these statements were often or sometime true:
- The food we bought just didn’t last and we didn’t have enough money to get more.
- The children in my household were not eating enough because we just couldn’t afford enough food.
The report concluded that one third of the children in America do not currently have enough food to eat.
“By the end of April, more than one in five households in the United States, and two in five households with mothers with children 12 and under, were food insecure. In almost one in five households of mothers with children age 12 and under, the children were experiencing food insecurity….
Looking over time, particularly to the relatively small increase in child food insecurity during the Great Recession, it is clear that young children are experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times.”
Such a circumstance is difficult to imagine, as I have never been hungry. An insufficiency of food for one’s children is torment to a mother with a child. Food is well being. Forget about paying for high speed internet for remote learning. Forget about putting gas in the car for transportation to work. How long does one not pay rent or a mortgage in order to eat? Is there a light at the end of this tunnel? Not even the pundits are speculating about an end time for the pandemic quarantine. No one has any idea. Even then — how long before the economy recovers?
While reading the Brookings Institute report I learned about SNAP, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, which we once called the Food Stamp program.
A bit of additional research turned up this information.
President Trump’s 2021 budget proposes to cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps) by more than $180 billion — nearly 30 percent — over the next ten years by radically restructuring how benefits are delivered, taking SNAP away from millions of adults who are not working more than 20 hours a week, and reducing benefits for many other households. The budget also includes two proposals to curtail students’ access to free and reduced-price school meals. The proposed cuts would come on top of nearly $50 billion in cuts over ten years that the Administration is seeking through regulatory action, bringing the Administration’s total plan for cutting SNAP to about $230 billion over ten years compared to current policies. — Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
To read the entire Brookings Institute report CLICK HERE.
4 thoughts on “Plague Journal, Survivor Guilt”
A few weeks ago, the Trump administration, under Donald’s directive, offered $13 billion in aid to Puerto Rico after badmouthing them for years during which time his main offer of support was throwing paper towels to a small crowd gathered to pay deference to the thing occupying the White House. This comes three years after Puerto Rice was devastated by two Hurricanes and an earthquake, and just prior to an election where Florida (which has a large population of voters from Puerto Rico), is a key battleground state. I am certain that if poor and hungry folks made up the majority of a state such as Georgia, he would suddenly find compassion and offer them food assistance. At least through November 3rd. As has been pointed out over and over, Mr. Trump is not capable to any empathy for any reason. His sole focus is on protecting himself and to some small degree, his immediate family. All of this is FACT and not conjecture, yet, as we both know, there are tens of millions of people who remain devoted to Trump’s projection of bravado and strength. It’s all smoke and mirrors, but that has no bearing on his unwavering base. Our only hope is for a wave of reason to wash across this nation and jettison him out to sea.
“…a wave of reason” Reason does not come from no-where, though I realize that your use of the term is metaphorical. Reason as the counter to this irruption of the irrational. I think lies/propaganda work by building a framework within which the believer lives and processes reality. Unless something traumatic occurs the believer CANNOT reason or feel otherwise, within the Trump orbit. Perhaps enough on-the-fence individuals and first time voter youth will join us to make the difference.
Thanks for the response. My only caveat to your note is that I firmly believe once a person has wholeheartedly embraced a concept, no matter how inane, they will not be able to extricate themselves regardless of ANY traumatic event. A couple of examples: Jonestown, where perhaps a few of the believers realized too late that the end was indeed one of suicide, but the majority followed through regardless of the insanity of drinking the cyanide laced Kool-aid. Another example would be members of the Branch Davidian, or the followers of Sun Young Moon or the current members of QAnon. The list of cults where there is never a glimmer of dissent goes on and on. Trumpists are no different and nothing will dissuade them from believing in their Messiah. For the rest of us there is the hope of “reason”, or at least that’s what my faltering optimism leads me to believe.
I agree. Once an individual makes up their mind, which is a relatively slow process, and I am reminded of the purpose of Parochial Schools, it is indeed unlikely that the individual will think any differently no matter the countervailing shocks to the point of view which they indwell. My comment about the potential of trauma to effect a 90 degree turn about was autobiographical. Many years ago I suffered with deepening, relentless depression. The nearly disabling depression was a clue that my abysmal self esteem had a great deal to do with the Evangelical ideology which I assumed to be “the Truth.” The idea of original sin, taken from a literal understanding of the Genesis creation story adds up to one conclusion; that one’s humanity is irretrievably flawed. Something that I could not live with. Somehow I left the church in stages, and was fortunate to find a circle of new friends who advocated a “reason” based way of life. I recognize that I was lucky. Most never desire to leave their cult, whatever form that might take.