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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.

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