A Nerve

Last night on election night, I read several Facebook posts that accused Obama supporters of being lazy and perpetually on welfare/unemployment. There were also several negative comments about the "type" of people who accept government assistance.

This hit a nerve with me. Big time. I am one of "those" people. Quinn's extreme prematurity and extremely low birth weight classified her as having a disability. She qualified for social security benefits and Medicaid benefits due to her "disability" for about the first year of her life.

And these government run programs saved our family financially, and gave us one less thing to worry about during the toughest time in our lives.

We weren't looking for a hand out, and we weren't even otherwise uninsured, but Quinn racked up over a million dollars in medical bills in less than 5 months, and I will be forever thankful for the assistance that our wonderful government was able to give my child when we needed it.

We are not lazy, or uneducated, or looking for the next handout. We are just your average Americans that had something really bad and scary happen to us, and were so lucky that we have a government that had a program in place to assist us. And we are not alone.

However, most people would never guess that we have needed government assistance, and because of this, aren't very careful with their choice of words. And it is hurtful.

By the way, I saw these posts from distant "friends" or from posts that friends commented on. This is not directed at anyone in particular and especially, not at anyone who reads my blog. This was more of a venting session just to get it off my chest.