The Overwhelming Drain

We all know the last six months have been brutal. The population of folks living in poverty has overtaken the entire population of California (over 50 million people). Our unemployment rate sits around 8%, but is likely to rise again as winter begins and a second wave lockdown is starting. El Paso, Texas announced a full lockdown of all non-essential services Thursday evening.

It has been 90 days since unemployment stimulus’ were last received. For many state unemployment coverage has ended. Restaurants, bars, and pretty much any service job is closing as more and more cases are found. We are left with gig work at Uber, Door Dash, and OnlyFans serving those who can afford to stay home worry free.

The outlook is incredibly bleak as Wal-Mart pulls gun displays from shelves citing civil unrest. What do we do? What options do we have left? Voting helps, but rules are changing daily (Minnesota 8th district court changed vote by mail acceptance rules 10/29 evening), and even if Biden wins Trump has stated that he has no plans to leave peacefully and would have another two months after learning he lost to shove through any executive order he wants while also holding nuclear launch codes. Scary, to say the least.

We must work together. We must form solidarity with each other to defeat this. I am not a hyperbolic person, but this is truly an evil that must end. We have to numbers and we have the fight. Beyond that we have each other even if all else fails. Our neighbors will become more poor and more desperate. Remember to reach out, remember to offer help, food, money, anything. Remember to ask if you need it too. There are over 50 million of us and you are not alone. I have struggled with poverty for a decade and was homeless until 2 years ago. There is a way out of this. There is a positive end if we just help each other. We must fix systematic racism, sexism, homophobia, and much more. We must show them exactly how by doing it together.