I filled out an on-line form with some social organization.
If you had any idea how humiliating that sentence was to compose…
To my shock I actually got a return phone call this morning. Nice lady, asked me some questions, then lowered the bureaucratic boom. (I’m not saying the following is necessarily true, I’m just reporting what I was told.) My “vision problem” would not be considered eligible for Disability assistance, because my eyesight can be corrected with glasses. The fact that I have a degenerative condition that will eventually blind me is unimportant, what matters is that glasses would mostly correct my vision NOW, and SSD doesn’t do glasses. I MIGHT be eligible for assistance because I’m lame. According to the info given by the lady, I need to find a GP who’ll certify that I need medical care for the sores on my stump – then maybe they’d pay for the glaucoma meds but maybe not because that’s not medical, that’s vision and SSD doesn’t help with vision. Oh, and by the way I’d better hurry because if it’s been five years since my last provable employment I’m out of luck in all cases. So.
Dropped in on some neighbors after shit-shoveling. They save me their cast-off greens for my chickens in exchange for surplus eggs, not that there’s been much surplus lately. THEY told me about another neighbor whom I’ve met but don’t know well. She’s got cancer, is financially destitute, and through some bureaucratic nitwittery (possibly the five years thing) she can’t get assistance either. BUT she told me that the local electric cooperative issues a prescription discount card that they hand out like party favors to county residents, and that I can (almost) certainly get one of those. The lady at the Wally-World pharmacy also mentioned that card, I recall, but I didn’t pay any attention because I’m not on the grid and thought I’d surely not be eligible. Turns out that doesn’t matter. So I’m going to check into that. I gather it’s one hell of a discount, and could at least make the meds affordable if not the doctor visits. So that’s a positive development.
A dear old friend who read about my troubles on the blog immediately sent me $100 via Western Union. Heh, I had to look up where, if anywhere, there’s a WU office in the little town near where I live. Turns out there is one. I’ll be interested to see if I can collect, though, given that I have no “current” photo ID. Hope an expired DL and/or birth certificate will work. If I can find the birth certificate.
Kind of ironic that one reason I moved out here in the first place was my growing phobia about filling out forms, which made it very hard to live in a city. Guess I’d better get over that, huh?
Joel. How about state medical assistance (Medicaid)? And how ’bout that PayPal button that’s rumored to be in the works.
That sucks about the five-year thing, after you nerved yourself up to do the awful deed.
Well, at 62, you know you can start drawing ss if you want to.
Seems to me your first chore is to stop feeling humiliated. A.E. Houseman had a point, “…in a world I never made.”
Now, that attitude can disguise a hell of a lot of statist sinning, and millions of your fellow citizens use it in just that way. You are not, and I don’t think you could ever be, such a slug.
People like you — including to a much, much, lesser extent me — are guilty primarily of not representing viable voting blocks.
Stealing and adapting a line from Trevanian’s Cagot: “If I ever hear of you displaying shame as you deal with the bureacratic arms of the state, I shall come to your desert and do you harm.”
Don’t know why that posted as anonymous.
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Welcome to government assistance. We don’t actually help anyone who actually needs it. Hang in there!
Check with your local Lions Club for help with glasses too , vision is kinda their mission
Had a friend that had to prove to an agency that she had no Job or income. Tough to prove since poverty often doesn’t come with much paperwork. She went to the agency office once a week to prove her purse was still empty. Only took them three weeks to catch on to her point. Keep plugging away, eventually the dragon can be slain.
I’ll second the Lion’s Club thing. Don’t know why we didn’t think of it sooner. I belonged to a Lion’s Club for a lot of years… we owned the only shooting range within about 100 miles. 🙂 But that wasn’t the ONLY reason I joined.
Oh, and they are NOT into humiliation either. Just a lot of fantastic folks who really want to help. Talk to them, even if they don’t have a club in your little town. There is one close somewhere. They should be able to help you pay to see an eye doctor AND probably provide transport as well. Ask…
What a bitter pill. Seems to me you should tell them your name is Rudolfo Hector Juan Luna Gomez or DeAfrikeniqua-tuan and they’d send someone to wash your foot, dry it with their hair and throw money at you; meanwhile telling you how “The Man” is keeping you down with his Capitalism.
I second the query about the paypal button.