Let me just say this: poor doesn't equal filth. There is no excuse for living in filth. I have seen filth and was shocked that anyone I knew could possibly live like that. The girl was an LPN, husband worked at a very good job, 3 kids in school, new cars, etc. One step into the house and I gagged, literally gagged, in front of her and lied and said I was a little flu-ish. They put their cigarettes out on the floors on the house they were renting. The floors were as littered and dusty as a dirt road. There were coins thrown about, crumpled cigarette packs and used up match books, lighters, fast food wrappers and bags, 1/2 fill glasses with something scummy in them everywhere, dirty dishes that were piled everywhere, dead bugs, live bugs, holes in the walls, broken screens and windows, furniture full of stains, rips and burns, holes in shredded draperies, broken window blinds, dust and dirt and webs hanging from light fixtures. The new dining room table was set in china for display amongst piles of garbage bags that never saw the curb.
If you saw them on the street, you would never know. They were not poor, far from it. They weren't drug addicts either - both had professions that required drug screenings and they went to work everyday They just lived in filth.
As I got to know them, I found that they were violent with each other, insanely jealous and would go to great length to "mess" with the other in some odd game they played. I also came to understand there was some mental illness on both sides of the families and these 2 had been raised in truly dysfunctional homes by schizophrenics and criminals. Although they tried, they couldn't overcome their upbrining.
On the other hand, I have known very poor people who washed their children and their clothes in the river and hauled buckets of river water home to boil for cleaning the home and cooking nutritious meals from animals they hunted and vegetables they grew. Their parents preached to them that there was no shame in being poor, but great shame in being dirty. They worked hard and did the very best they could to raise their children properly. There was no domestic violence, they attended church regularly and all the children grew to be very kind and loving people who were also successful in life.
So, don't give me that they were too poor to provide a better living condition for themselves and their children.
Poor doesn't equal stupid, cruel or criminal either.
Poor people don't kill their kids just because they are poor or prostitute them for a loaf of bread.
Shaniya has at once captured my heart and broken it.
arrot:
