They Got Off Welfare -- Why Can't You?

They Got Off Welfare--Why Can't You?

Two Success Stories

By Denise Noe

Sharon McKibben, 22 yrs old, one child.

        

Welfare was a way of life in our family.  Mom was on it as long as I can remember.  Grandma was, too.  So when I had Chuck, in my last year of high school, it was almost automatic that I went on the county.

        

But it wasn't much of a life.  I got hostile looks whenever I went to the grocery store and paid with food stamps.  Exasperated people would ask, right while I was in line: "Why don't you work for your money like everybody else?"   When I tried to explain that I had a baby to take care of, they'd say contemptuously, "You made your kid, lady. The taxpayer didn't."     

        

Just about every time I turned on the TV or radio I heard someone condemning welfare as a dead end.  It got to me -- I knew it was true.  After all, my Mom and Grandmother had done nothing with their lives except scrape by.

          

But what may have been most important factor was the little voice inside telling me “You can do better.”

        

So I looked for work and let me tell you it wasn't easy.  I finally found this job.  The hours are long but hard work never killed anyone.  Plus I'm one of the few women in this field so maybe that makes me a role model for others. 

        

Transporting crack cocaine pays well but I'm not getting rich.   I'm a clocker, you understand, not a dealer -- at least not yet.  But I've got Chuck in decent after-school day care, I'm paying my bills on time, no one gives me dirty looks or makes snide remarks when I go to the grocery store, and, most importantly, I'm not sponging off the government.

                                                                                                   ****     

James Gallegos, 26, father of two.        

        

I've got to admit I wasn't a very responsible father for a good while.  It's not that I didn't care -- I was real regular with payments and visits both, when I had that $15 an hour factory work.  But the plant shut down.