”...Am I my brother’s keeper?” (from Genesis 4:9)
In this posting, to use the famous line from the old Dragnet television show, “...the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”
Some of you who are know me well and are familiar with the church I pastor will figure out who I'm writing about in this piece. If you do figure out who I'm writing about, I ask you to just keep that information to yourselves. I also want to clarify that I mean NO disrespect, unkindness, or hostility to or about the person who is the topic of this piece. Rather, I'm just thinking about a woman I know that I shall call “Kelley”. Kelley has had numerous contacts with the government, with the medical establishment, and with the church. I'm reflecting today; and I'm wondering if the agencies and entities with whom Kelley has interacted have helped her, or if they have actually hurt and crippled her. Ill warn you, for those of you who hold to a hard and fast political ideology, this will not be a piece that's easy to process, and it will not make you comfortable.
Kelley is a woman about 38-years-old. I don't know what her I.Q. is but it’s not very high. I don't consider her mentally retarded, however. Some folks who know Kelley DO consider her “mildly retarded”. I'd say she has a below average I.Q., but I have known some retarded people through the years, and Kelley is frankly much smarter and sharper than probably any of them. Kelley hasn't worked in well over ten years, with the exception of a few part-time “under the table” jobs. She receives a government check each month and is classified as “disabled”. Kelley also lives in a heavily subsidized apartment, located in a complex for the elderly and disabled. Kelley is diabetic, and struggles with her weight.
It might surprise you to learn that Kelley is the proud graduate of a pubic high school located in one of Boston's MetroWest suburbs. She graduated from high school around sixteen years ago, at the age when most young people are graduating from college. Kelley is very proud of the fact that she made the honor roll several times in high school. Yet, Kelley cannot spell the word “doctor” (to her it's “dockter”), nor can she spell the word “second” (for her it's “secend”). Until just a couple of weeks ago, she had no idea what the word “famine” meant. In fact, Kelley imagined a “famine” must be some type of animal.
Several years ago, Kelley excitedly told me she was being transported to a demonstration in protest of proposed cuts in state healthcare for the disabled. I cautioned Kelley against attending that demonstration, telling her that hardworking people from our church congregation who might see her on television would be very angry that she was protesting while they were struggling to put food on their tables.
“Do you know where your benefits come from? Do you understand how they are paid for?” I asked.
She had no idea.
When I told her it all comes out of taxes, she was horrified. Kelley didn't think her benefits should come from the taxes hardworking people pay. She thought essentially that the government should just print money and take care of poor and disabled people.
I don't think Kelley should lose her apartment or her checks. She'd never survive. In fact, she's barely surviving now, because until recently no one ever REALLY taught her how to handle money. Some concerned women from our church have been helping Kelley and she's been making progress.
Kelley's life story is horrific. As an infant, she was abandoned by her biological parents. She was then illegally adopted by an unsuitable and undesirable family. As a teenager, she was made a ward of the state and placed in a group home. Kelley's social skills were deplorable, but the group home did greatly help her. While she was a resident of the group home she completed high school. Social service agencies have taught her how to use the system to survive, or “exist” is a better term.
Kelley should NOT have been awarded a high school diploma. Of course, she got the diploma before the days of the M-CAST test. Kelley does math at about a 6th grade level. She reads and writes at around a 3rd grade level. Believe me, she's not the first such uneducated high school graduate I've met!
Kelley's main occupation is going to doctor appointments. Each month, there's an appointment with her chiropractor, then her diabetes doctor, then her eye doctor, then her orthopedic doctor. (There are actually others, too; those are the ones I can think of!) Most of the appointments are paid for by the state's health insurance for the poor.
Those of us who have worked with Kelley have found that she IS capable of learning, and changing, and growing as a person. Several have dedicated an enormous amount of time and energy to Kelley, and she's slowly but surely progressing.
But how many other Kelleys are out there...both men and women? Was it right to socially promote Kelley and hand her a high school diploma? Was it right for social service agencies to teach Kelley how to be a ward of the state and use the system? Is it right for doctors to have her keep coming for (often) meaningless appointments for which they then bill the state?
If the answer to most of the above is “no”, and the answer to most of those questions IS “no”, then what IS the answer?
Are we our sister's keeper?
