It is Monday, October 10th, 2011.
It is raining in North Hawai’i and an Australian won the Iron man Triathlon held in Kailua Kona last weekend.
Just got a call a from an old friend who has been out of work for over a year and who just learned that his meager welfare benefit is being stopped.
Apparently, he is not “disabled enough” by a crushing major depression and the three shrinks who evaluated him via video teleconference from Honolulu think he should just suck it up and “get a job”.
The cost of the three shrinks alone would have fed this man for a half a year.
His General assistance benefit was only $300 and some change, but without it, he cannot even buy toiletries or gasoline to continue the fruitless search for gainful employment on an island that has over 300 applicants for even the most menial vacancies.
He did take the all of PAHA classes, sans tuition as a work scholar, back in the days when I could afford such generosity.
Now in his darkest hour, he is waiting on the results of the international CSAC examination, which he sat for on Sept. 11th, 2011.
God willing and the creek don’t rise, this credential will give him a leg up in this now unrecognizable landsacpe where hard work and willingness are no longer legal tender.
I offer silent prayers to my higher power, that light will find this man in his hour of need and give him the mercy he deserves.
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