...you find that while they are very willing to help, for literally 2 years they have been so underfunded everyone, but EVERYONE, is now on a waiting list for assistance. Bear's hearing loss is enough to make him a possible "Priority 2" for job assistance, assistive technology, etc, but of course, they're not really calling Priority 1 folk, who may have, say, lost a limb in an industrial accident.
I understand on the one hand, and on the other I'm furious that there is so very little AZ can do or has been able to do to help people who need it, especially if they don't fall, say 200% below the federal poverty limit. Sure, we have insurance, which I pay exorbitant amounts to so Bear can be covered; sure, we have a home which we won't be able to sell in the foreseeable future in order to move to a better/nicer/wiser/more beautiful place. Sure, we have food-- thanks, Mom, for being sure I had a fear of running out of food. I've never come close, except that one time I had only ketchup and a jar of peanut butter a day before payday. But these are the people who are gently having their lives chipped away, hanging on before bankruptcy, unable to borrow from job retirement funds or facing unreal penalties for doing so-- these are the people in whom the "bird of hope" perches and pecks away at their hearts until they expire, wondering "what happened?"
Dream on, dream on.
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