The other morning while driving I heard a story on Michigan radio I found utterly disturbing. It seems the Michigan legislature is volleying back and forth about what to do with the loss of funding that provides assistance to low or no income families to assist with paying their winter utility bills. The funding is about to expire and the debate is how and if it can be painlessly replaced. One legislator interviewed said something to the effect of, "we want to take care of this because we don't want anyone to freeze to death this winter."
Not freezing to death seems like a rather absurdly low benchmark. In this state freezing to death is more than hyperbole, however, it happens. The sad thing about the funding in jeopardy is that the population most needing assistance are the elderly and families with small children. Knowing those demographic parameters I can understand the legislator's concern: frozen kids and old people send one's chances for re-election straight down the toilet.
In spite of the lame comment, the part of this situation that bugs the crap out of me is the fact that we should be having this dilemma at all. Losing one's utilities during life threatening conditions because of economic hardship seems down right inhumane, anti-social, and beyond possible in these United States. Free enterprise? Sorry. Please make another selection. I have confidence the matter will find legislative resolution before any lives are threatened but I find it maddening that our system- economic and political- plays chess with lives in deference to corporate prosperity. In a country with the wealth and resources of ours, poverty should not carry a death sentence.
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