Day 223 - Visit DHS

Date: August 17th, 2010

I know I'm behind on entries, but I held off on this one because I didn't want to go from Jon's awesome Korean adventures to the depressing existence that is the Department of Human Services.  One of the things I've encountered in my job is that there are "bad guys".  People or organizations who, if we have a client who has a problem with them, we know we're in for a fight.  The Department of Human Services is one of those.


One of the things I hadn't done before was go to a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge.  While they are official hearings, they are in an informal setting.  So, for our ALJ hearing, we didn't go to the courthouse.  We went to the nearest Department of Human Services location.  I was immediately struck by the starkness of the room.  There were clearly uncomfortable chairs, unwashed folding tables and about nothing else to sit on or near.  There were vending machines in the corner, which really was more concerning than not because it meant they expected people to be there a while.

The light was dim and false, like bad florescence in a haunted hospital.  I suppose that was better because of the  sheer number of people who were crammed into the uncomfortable chairs.  Dim, fake lighting probably made it easier to stand the amount of human suffering in the room for those who had to be there every day.  At any given moment there were babies crying and the low hum of forced conversation.

As we sat there, I found myself mesmerized by the television set.  Stuck on a never-ending loop of Ad Council commercials, it was like there was some interesting program about to come on, but it could never quite make it past the government red tape.  It also reminded me of the torture police inflict on people in sieges - blasting bad music in the hopes that they'll simply give up the hostages and walk away.

I chose to write about going to DHS because level of hopelessness surprised me.  I know that some people are against government assistance, but where I stand is this - if we're going to do it, we should do it right.  That place, that room, that everything - it was soul crushing.  I left and I didn't want to work.  I wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep.  I wanted to try to forget about the clearly disabled people waiting for hearings on medicaid and the mothers with their crying babies.  It was all I could do to be productive for the rest of the afternoon.

If we're going to assist people, we should do it in a way that encourages productivity and hope - not one that steals it away at every opportunity.  If we're going to give people a leg-up, and I believe we should as fellow countrymen, then we should do it, well, better.  I left DHS feeling dejected, but a day later I felt motivated.  This... place... should not exist as it does right now.  It must be possible to make a Human Services that actually serves humans.  It must be possible to help people without making them go through the red tape and Ad Council reruns.  It must be possible to make it better.  And I'm going to figure out how.