As my regular readers know, this month marks a year since we were personally on the brink of disaster. I had been laid off from my job following the birth of my youngest, whose birth had required several 60 mile each way trips due to the lack of a hospital in our community and, combined with the loss of income, had depleted our already meager savings.

A comment on another thread regarding the need for public assistance brought it back, with the need to comment.

Following the layoff, I did everything I could to keep afloat. Our rent was past due, with crippling late fees getting higher every day. Our electric bill was coming due, and, following the actions of a close family member, we were left without vehicular transportation in our desert community of 30,000, where the nearest grocery store was 12 miles away.

I, of course, applied for unemployment, but that was a long, drawn out process that would take 6 weeks before I saw a check. Swallowing my pride, I went to the welfare office to apply for TANF.

The image that sticks out most vividly in my mind was begging, literally on my knees, to be allowed into the interview, because my wife had committed the unforgivable act of bringing our 2 week old baby along to the 4 hour interview, owing to the fact that the interview's length would require his feeding before its termination.

We are at a time in our life when we are past that, hopefully forever. We are working towards complete self sufficiency, in the hopes that our financial fortunes not be forever tied to the whims of a fickle employment market. But our brief and harrowing experience with the system designed to be the safety net for us left me forever struck with a sense that this is a system so deeply flawed, it does not need to be reformed. It needs to be REBUILT. From the ground up.

There were many individuals who assisted us greatly in our personal time of troubles. And I am forever grateful to these individuals. But the system that was designed to protect us, didn't. And it leaves me forever wondering, how many others have had similar experiences?

And how long will this happen before we pull our heads out of the sand (or a particular part of our anatomy which I dare not mention because I didn't label this thread "adult")? How much money will we continually throw into a failed system foolishly hoping that money can change the system?