"We have clients who have chosen to return to the abuser rather than not have food for their children." --Elizabeth S. Saylor, a lawyer with the Domestic Violence Project of the Legal Aid Society
While our pResident wages his war on terrorism, women in the U.S. continue to live with terrorism, in order to provide food for their children. This particular story is about immigrant women, but obviously many American women are presented with the same horrendous dilemma.
When our elected officials choose to make cuts to a safety net that is already woefully inadequate - in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy - our government effectively endorses the terrorism of women and children. But when your government has the same values as a Corporation, or values the bottom line over human lives, this is exactly what you get.
New York Times (reprinted here):
Hundreds of battered immigrant women and children are being illegally denied food stamps and other aid because of programming errors in New York welfare computers and faulty staff training, according to legal papers that poverty lawyers plan to file in federal court today.
The lawsuit is a last resort, the lawyers said, because city and state officials have failed to fix systemic problems that force many women to choose between staying safe and feeding their families, despite government policies aimed at supporting them until they can get on their feet.
"It's a nightmare," said a dressmaker from Jamaica who joined her husband legally with their two children last year, and fled with them to a homeless shelter when she was eight-and-a-half-months pregnant. Her abusive husband, she said, had threatened to feed rat poison to the children, who are 7 and 9.
A caseworker denied her and the older children food stamps, cash assistance and Medicaid because they had no Social Security numbers to satisfy one of the computer prompts. They are now subsisting on school lunches and her newborn's allotment of aid: $68.50 every two weeks, and $119 a month in food stamps.
Please tell Congress to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) NOW. My thanks to Ampersand for reminding me and other bloggers to post the above link.
Bush Terrorism Domestic Violence Vioence Against Women Feminism Safety Net VAWA
