So this week I've been training to work at yet another Salvation Army run shelter; this one is for pregnant teens who have either committed some type of crime or have been addicted to drugs or alcohol. I've been struck, once again, with the blatant brutality of the world; not because of terrible things these teen moms have been through, although I'm sure eventually these stories will come out, but because of the terrible Nazi-prison-camp ways the Salvation Army choses to run this shelter; the ways they are furthering the destruction of the shreds of self-esteem these young girls may still manage to possess. I don't know why I keep taking these jobs with the Salvation Army; I mean the name of the organization says it all, doesn't it?
I couldn't believe the way one of my co-workers punished one of the girls for not coming to dinner because she was sleeping after getting a wisdom tooth removed...she made her write a short essay about the importance of eating dinner. The same co-worker confiscated prenatal vitamins from a mother who was continuing to take them because she was breastfeeding; she said the girl needed to get a doctor's note to take them! The girls get in trouble if outlets are found uncovered in their rooms, they are not allowed to keep nail polish or curling irons or even vitamin C in their rooms with them. They are punished if they don't spend "appropriate" amounts of time doing "approved" activities with their babies! They are pretty much punished for everything, they are not allowed one ounce of freedom. I was tempted several times to just start randomly smashing things and to yell something like "get out girls!!! This place is dangerous to your mental well being and personhood!!!!" I wanted to lead a mini-revolution and take all the girls home with me....
But alias, I have no room for thirteen or so hoodlum (I say this in a most loving way,) girls and their babies...
Instead, I will most likely do everything I can while working there to expose the girls to as much feminism and anarchist thought as I can sneak past the watchful eyes of my co-workers....and since I'll be teaching an unsupervised prenatal class, I should be able to teach the girls quite a bit about these things...I'll fill their heads with as much radical thought as I possibly can. I'll inflitrate the Salvation Army with "dangerous" ideals....and I'll finance my van and canoe to take me to Minnesota for more wild ricing this summer while doing so...
I just don't understand why our culture insists on kicking the weakest members of our society the hardest, while they are down....can anyone explain this to me?
Love ya,
Carrot
its people like you these girls need the most. People who know that conformity is not helping, and who seek to liberate, not to incarcerate into a "system," another "box," a machine that keeps going and relies on things staying the same.
These girls need to wake up, and the "help" they are getting is causing them to numb their brains even more. The system is making them dependent on the system, giving the system a purpose, keeping the system going.
Sometimes people like you are the first one who ever made one question in the first place. Keep at it carrot, doing the good work, and fighting the good fight.
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