Not all in poverty, wealth are created equal
The other day I was driving home and as I approach an intersection to make a right hand turn the car in front of me applies his/her brakes at the red light only to be yelled at my three young females crossing the street. The car didn’t appear to go near them or make any maneuvre to deserve having profanities shouted at them. Granted, if the driver had done something, profanities would not be undeserved and I cannot be a hypocrite in this matter as I have shouted at many a driver. But that is neither here nor there. The point was it was three youngish girls. It is always difficult to tell ages of some young people because they try to dress and look older, but I digress. One of the females was pushing a baby in a shopping trolley.
Now I don’t know why this baby was in a shopping trolley. They had no groceries, they were just strutting across the street. The following opinions are based on an assumption. The assumption that the reason this baby was being transported around in a shopping trolley is because the mother. be it the person pushing said trolley or not, cannot afford a buggie or stroller or some other baby-moving device. But this cannot be put down to mere poverty. The simple fact is we may well be able to divide society into have and have nots in the economic sense. But what is often overlooked is the have and have nots when it comes to class. And by class I do not mean in the economic sense. There are just some individuals who lack any sense of self respect or dignity. Just classless. If we assume the person pushing the trolley was the mother, I can’t be put down to “well thats what happens when teenagers get pregnant”. I am from a UK city with one of the highest teen pregancy rates and have seen many a teenager walk the streets in poor areas pushing babies, but never in a shopping trolley. Now don’t get me wrong the poor areas of the UK aren’t the classiest of places either. And this is the first time I have seen it in the U.S. and was astounded at how low some people are. My family didn’t have much, but they tried, they wanted the best for us and tried hard to attain it. As did many of my friends families. And I know they would never have pushed us around in a shopping trolley. If someone is so poor they can’t buy their child a device which will allow them to be transported safely and comfortably, they can’t afford to be a parent and should have their children removed from their care. Shopping trolleys are designed for going around supermarkets with smooth floors for a small period of time. They are not meant to be used to transport children on bumpy uneven roads across six lanes of traffic. This person is not fit to take care of children. But I am not the baby-worship type and this blog isn’t really about children or child safety.
What it is about is there are good people who have dignity in shitty financial situations, as well as classless scum in shitty financial situations. The problem is too many people equate poor with scummy. They fail to acknowledge that there exists classless scum who are at the upper end of the income bracket too. It’s just that their behaviour tends to be garish and more a matter of bad taste as opposed to just nasty.
I don’t have the answers. I don’t know if I had a question. It’s 2:03am and I think I might have a smoke…
