adjoa middleton

Monday, July 28, 1997

Federal aid helps dreams come true

COMPASSION:

All L.A. benefits from welfare system that helps improve
lives

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore ­

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over ­

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

­ Langston Hughes, "A Dream Deferred"

As a child, the limitless possibilities that adulthood seemed to
offer filled me with anxiety and wonder. I could be a professional
academic, a business person, or a famous entertainer. Sometimes I
would tremble, tingling from head to toe, overwhelmed by the
potential directions that my life could take. I was sure that the
world was my oyster and that I only needed to state my demands.

At the age of four, I was full of purpose and ambition,
scurrying around the halls of Yale University at my grandmother’s
ankles as she prepared lecture notes for her urban planning class.
My family on both sides is full of people who have made a career in
academics, ranging from educators to chemists. Yet, when my mother
left my father with two kids and six footlockers, we found
ourselves on Federal Assistance.

What happens when your best just isn’t good enough? You keep
trying, using every resource available to you. My parents were a
promising young black couple with brains, looks and fortitude
­ how could they go wrong? They met romantically in West
Africa, both on study-abroad programs from different universities.
After seven years of a difficult marriage, my mother called it
quits and decided to try her luck in California.

With little aside from a lot of love and imagination, my mom
brought my brother and I to Huntington Beach. Because of her
background in science, my granddad was able to land her an
entry-level job with a consulting group for the Food and Drug
Administration where he works. After a conflict regarding quality
assurance in which poor-quality products were approved by the FDA,
my mother quit.

In efforts to improve the plight of her little household, my
mother applied to the Physician’s Assistant Program at Drew Medical
school. In transition, my family moved to Watts and kept body and
soul together with Food Stamps and Federal Cheese. At the age of
seven, I knew the shame that accompanied the silent moment between
my mother and the store’s cashier as s/he begrudgingly accepted our
food stamps.

Being on welfare does not feel good. Don’t let a friend come by
to visit, and bust out that government cheese! The news was all
over campus the next day. Children have no mercy, especially in the
ghetto. This reality was far from the golden palace I had imagined
to be my birthright.

From Watts to Westwood. My mom was accepted into the UCLA
medical school program. I received a scholarship to Crossroads, a
college prep school in Santa Monica. Maybe my dreams of grandeur
would be manifested after all. Critics may say that my family was
able to survive because of the benefits of affirmative action and
government handouts. Today my mother serves as one of the most
compassionate general practitioners on staff at the Thousand Oaks
Clinical Facility. I am a fifth-year student majoring in English
and Afro-American studies and am dedicated to a variety of
community service programs. Social services are not wasted when
they are spent on individuals, they are invested.

My family was lucky ­ we beat the odds. The strong
background in education and the contacts didn’t hurt. But what
about the more common experience of someone less fortunate, suited
to conquer the world solely by virtue of the Los Angeles Unified
School District?

Los Angeles is a beautiful and diverse city. We have the
environmental advantage of an ideal climate, the glamour of
first-world elegance and cultural variety, assets which are
dampened only by the absence of a moral code of conduct. Compassion
is an essential part of a rich life and a healthy society.

L.A.’s social problems climaxed during the 1992 civil unrest,
but we saw the signs developing for years. The division in our high
schools, the corruption of our political and religious leaders, and
the increase in violent and drug-related crimes are testaments to
our severe social problems. The frustration that we feel as a
society causes division among the various communities of Los
Angeles.

There is no moral guide at the forefront of popular culture that
stresses the importance of understanding, social consciousness, and
the interdependency of our society. If we do nothing to maintain
respect for each other on an individual basis, we are all
personally responsible for the social ills that come as a result of
our actions.

The recently passed 187 bill is an example of how the
interdependency of our society is not acknowledged. Proposition 187
leaves undocumented immigrants without job opportunities,
education, and access to health care. A large community of
undocumented immigrants are intimately involved in our daily lives
by cooking in restaurants throughout the Southland, from Compton to
the Sunset strip. Without the assurance of their health, how can
anyone feel safe eating out? The overall quality of health, safety,
and general life will suffer in a society which contains neglected
communities.

Extreme measures must be taken to avoid the development of
hopelessness in our local communities. Hopeless people use
desperate means. Desperate people have nothing to lose, and are
potentially destructive to themselves and to society.

Some illustrious members of our society may feel protected in
their exclusive neighborhoods, but the reality of violent crimes
such as car- jackings has illustrated that neither money nor an
exclusive neighborhood can provide complete protection from the
devastating effects of our social ills.

Personally, I feel that I do experience the simple wonders of
life on a daily basis. I couldn’t have wished for a better
experience; I just wish that every struggling family might have the
same opportunity to improve themselves with federal resources. It
is important for the healthy development of our society to
encourage hope among our children. No child’s dream should be
deferred.

At some point or another, all of our families have contributed
to this government with blood, sweat and tears. My tax dollars are
as hard earned as the next American’s, and I feel that my money is
well spent when it goes to federal assistance programs such as
welfare.