STUPID

It sucks being poor, because alot of people equate poverty with stupidity.  Except it's just not true.  I've met plenty of people who were rich, yet stupid.

My dad used to say: "There's common sense, street sense, and book sense.  You can have one, or even two - but most of the time you can't have all three...."  Fortunately, I happen to have all three.  Not by accident, either.  I left home when I was 16, basically taking care of, and raising myself.  I was unwanted and unplanned.  And, my family let me know it every opportunity they could.  I graduated High School (no thanks to my parents);  And joined the Army immediately thereafter.  My whole adult life I've worked and attended various schools and training programs, constantly trying to upgrade my skills, and improve my lot in life.  It helped that I had children to motivate me.

Now that I'm 45, I have time and opportunity to reflect, and have come to the conclusion that it hurts being stereotyped as stupid.  I've been taken advantage of - ALOT.  There's a saying: 'Ignorance is Bliss'.  Well, I'm here to tell you - it's NOT.

When you're poor, people tend to think they can take advantage of you, because they know you don't have a high-powered team of attorneys to back you up. 

Take my landlord, for example.  They feel totally entitled to issue a contract, and then pick and choose what to uphold.  Like, it's contractually inappropriate for ME to be a felon, yet THEY can hire felons to do work in my house, unsupervised.

I have to pay rent, yet THEY don't have to adjust it down when they house me in a deficient unit.  I have to pay electricity, yet it says in my lease that THEY'RE responsible for it.

They can bind me to a contract which says they have to set-aside a portion of my rent in an escrow account, and then they can conveniently 'lose' the money that's in there (no questions asked).

I can press for a statement of said account, and they feel somehow entitled to give me a dummy statement, as if I might not notice - because, after all, I'm 'stupid'.

They can initiate an extension of that same contract, and then deny that they did so.

I have to keep my house spotlessly clean, yet THEY can house me next to a toxic moat.

See the hypocrisy?  It gets tiring.

Thank God for this blog.  Otherwise, I might think I was crazy.. 'whew'