Hi.

I need to sit and have a serious discussion. Grab a cup of coffee and let’s chat.

Have you heard of debtor’s prisons? You know, the ancient practice of jailing the poor for, well, being poor.

Yes, those debtor prisons.

These same prisons are coming back/never were completely abolished despite law changes.

What does that mean to those of us living below the poverty level? Well, we all know how hard it is to maintain a roof over our children’s heads and food in their bellies not to mention a vehicle so we can get to/from work to pay bills. We all know that robbing Peter to pay Paul then Joe to pay Peter is the neverending debt juggling that can be our endless battle to barely survive.

So some have decided to begin taking us to court and jailing us for nonpayment. I’m not really sure what is accomplished by removing what may be the sole breadwinner from the home creating further financial hardships and potentially putting vulnerable innocent children into foster care.

Dear friends who are poor like me, please join me in looking for ways to live more cheaply (man, I wish I’d bought a camper truck or tiny RV instead of a van crossover . . we could quit paying rent). Let’s cut expenses as much as possible while beginning to send some money to bills that are in collection every month. We can’t sit by and allow them to take an entire class of people and jail us!!

Now, I know many would say we should just protest . . but, honestly these are our bills and our responsibility. We have to find ways to handle this.

We can, as a group, share ways to live comfortably below the poverty level. Post awesome trails we can hike with our kids vs going to the movies. Post ways to stack coupons/sales/rebates to fill our cupboards for free. Post locations of nice food pantries so we can stock our cupboards during weeks we have short paychecks or send extra to bills.

If we all pull together and stay focused we can survive the ruthless.