Thread by @Thom1st

I grew up poor.
I worked my butt off to get where I am today.
But I did not do it on my own.
I did not pull myself up by my *own* bootstraps.
I didn't even have bootstraps to pull on.
I ate thousands of free lunches at school.

I benefited from thousands of dollars of food stamp assistance.
I had a hard-working mom who had to work two jobs.
I had generous people I went to church with in High School.
I received government grants to help pay for college.
I worked my butt off to be where I am today.

But I did not do it on my own.
It was a combination of my own hard work, the generosity of the community around me, and the Federal and State government filling in the gaps that my family and my community could not afford to fill.

I could not in good conscience be where I am today because of those things and then turn around and work against other poor children having those same opportunities to receive help.

My politics aren't about left vs. right. My politics are about personally experiencing the benefits of an imperfect system of imperfect compassion.

When I vote, my first question will always be, "Does this person care about poor children in rural Missouri? Poor kids in urban Memphis?" If they don't, they don't get my vote.

I once had a boss snidely say, "You only preach the way you do [about social justice] bc you grew up poor." He meant it as an insult to my objectivity. I replied, "You don't preach the way I do bc you have to protect wealthy donors." I meant it as an insult to his "objectivity."