One of the biggest misconceptions in American culture is that welfare recipients are living large at the taxpayer’s expense, receiving thousands of dollars per month while driving Cadillacs and other expensive cars. This myth is so not true and how do I know? Because for the past two months, I have been on welfare and let me be the one to tell you: being on public assistance sucks.

August 3, 2011 will be a day in infamy I will never forget because it was on that date that I received my last unemployment check and officially became one of the 99ers, a term for unemployed people in the United States, who have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits, including all unemployment extensions. After applying for over two thousand jobs, I found myself in the position of having to apply for Public Aid or be faced with disconnection notices and ...

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Misery Loves Company is an old American idiom that has sadly become true considering the enormous amount of vitriol, malice and ignorance that is running amok in American political and cultural discourse these days. From politicians to radio shock jocks to ordinary folks, people have no problem with expressing their disdain for their fellow countrymen in mean-spirited, shallow ways and no one is safe from their ire, including children and the dead.

Although the pursuit of happiness for Americans is a Creator given right in the Declaration of Independence, I would bet my last dollar that some Americans are not happy with the state of their lives. Perhaps the 1% that owns everything in America is wallowing in glee, but your average American citizen is suffering economically and mentally and it has manifested itself in several ways.  How do I know this? By perusing through the many Internet websites I ...

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