Working poor live life of struggle

A lot of people have the wrong opinion about the poor. Some mistakenly believe it's only those who don't try hard enough or work hard enough who end up in poverty.

In other words, if you're poor, it's your own fault.

Anyone who believes that fallacy should come with me to a class called "How to Get Ahead in a Just Getting By World."

The class is for people who are living in poverty and want to make their lives better. Attendance is voluntary and nothing is given to participants - nothing except knowledge about how to make their lives better.

Some people have the belief that someone who is poor or homeless is a bum who doesn't want to work.

You can't believe that if you sit in class and listen to their stories.

Take Charlie, for instance. He has worked hard every day of his life but he still qualifies as "the working poor."

Even with working for 11 years as a nurse's aide at an area hospital, his yearly wages put him below the poverty line.

Charlie and his wife struggled each week just to feed, house and support their four children.

Then she decided she had enough. She didn't want to struggle anymore and she didn't want the demands of being a mother. So she took off, leaving Charlie to take care of his kids, attend to their many problems, and work hard to support them.

When he hurt his back lifting a heavy patient, he had to keep working despite pain. There was no other choice because someone living paycheck to paycheck can't afford a sick day.

Then Charlie's hospital decided all full-time workers had to take off two weeks without pay. The hospital said that was better than laying people off.

Let me ask you this. With no warning, could you survive two weeks without a paycheck?

Charlie couldn't. He now rides a bicycle to work because he can't afford a car.

He missed paying rent for the second time and was evicted. He and his four kids have moved into a small trailer with a relative while Charlie tries to come up with a security deposit and two months rent so he can move his kids back into their school district.

Sometimes I wish I could wave a magic wand and solve people's problems.

What impressed me in that Getting out of Poverty class was seeing how hard class members were trying just to survive. Yet they keep getting knocked on their behinds.

One homeless fellow who touched my heart was Tom, an older fellow definitely down on his luck. He was living in his old van that had no air conditioning and seemed to be held together by duct tape.

To escape the heat, Tom spent time sitting on a park bench near the water. One day as he scanned the water he saw a young boy struggling to stay afloat. When the boy went under and didn't emerge, Tom dived into the water to save him. That he did, but in the process he seriously injured his leg on rocks near the shore.

Unable to walk, he asked passers-by to drive him to the emergency room. Incredibly, people walked away after taking one look at his long hair and scruffy appearance.

I see Tom as a hero. Others see him as just another homeless bum.

Finally, one compassionate woman dropped him off at the hospital where he was given crutches and sent on his way without being shown how to use them.

He fell in the parking lot and was unable to get up. I can't believe no one stopped to help in that busy parking lot.

Sadly, Tom had a stroke before a police officer came to help.

He needs rehab to learn how to walk and talk again. But there is little help for someone without family or resources.

One guy argued that point with me, claiming "the bums get everything for free while working stiffs like me have to pay for everything."

Again, that's perception. It's not the truth. At least not in many cases.

I wanted to interview Tom in the hospital about what happened to him after he saved the life of a child. But he has yet to regain speech after his stroke.

My friend Pat Knox is one of my heroes because she works full time at a volunteer job helping the poor.

Sometimes she gives a box of food to someone who cries with gratitude. Other times the homeless guys try to help with carrying boxes, she said.

But one homeless man became verbally abusive with a news volunteer trying to give him a box of food. He said she didn't understand when you have no home, you can't cook your own food.

"In more than a decade of doing this, that was the first time a homeless person was nasty," Pat said.

She hoped that incident didn't reinforce the belief that homeless people are dangerous.

"Most are not. Many are just down on their luck," she said.

Volunteers like Pat continue to work in faith to help the needy - both the working poor and the homeless.

"It's what we all are called to do," Pat says. "We can't eliminate poverty. But we can help to feed the poor and help wherever we can."

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.