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wearethe99percent:

As a child I survived years of sexual abuse.  In adolescence I battled bullying, clinical depression and suicidal tendencies.  I refused to drop out of high school when my guidance counselor told me to because I didn’t want to be “yet another mentally ill person dependent on public welfare programs to survive.”  What kept me going was my dream of being a mental health therapist so I could use my experience to help others.  In college I defeated my binge-eating disorder.  In graduate school, I left my abusive fiancé with nothing but what I could shove in my car because I knew I would die if I stayed with him.  I still managed to graduate with my Master’s in Applied Clinical Psychology with a 3.97 GPA.

                No one in NY State will hire me because I am unlicensed, but I cannot obtain a license without 3600 hours of documented supervised work experience.  Even the VA hospital rejected my offer to provide therapy services for free so I could obtain hours because it is a “liability issue.”  All of the things life threw at me couldn’t shatter my resolve to overcome and better myself… but the economy did.  Tomorrow I have an appointment to fill out paperwork for food stamps and Medicaid.  I am an unemployed unlicensed mental health therapist dependent on public welfare programs to survive.

I am the 99%…

Occupywallstreet.org

wearethe99percent:

I am 17 years old and just one year ago, my mother lost her apartment after selling everything we owned just to keep it. I now live with my father in a small trailer with me, my younger brother, my step-mum, my dad, and my gramma. My dad hasn’t had work in over six months. My gramma has a part-time job at walmart. My step-mum is the only one with a stable job. I wake up at 5 every morning to walk 1.5 miles to school because we don’t have the money to pay for gas. I’m terrified that I won’t have the money for college next year.

ME AND MY FAMILY ARE THE 99%

occupywallst.org

wearethe99percent:

When I grew up I wanted to be a “Dinosaur Trainer.” Obviously I now know that isn’t possible but the point of that question has always been to show that “you can be whatever you want to be!” But at 22 years old I know that isn’t true. Degree or no degree, the only thing that our generation is hired for is retail, food service, and other underpaid/overworked jobs.

I work retail and make $8.71/hour.

Never has $8.71/hour sounded so good.

This is now what we call lucky?

We are the 99%

wearethe99percent:

Well, I am a 25year old, who comes from a “wealthy” family, by wealthy I mean I don’t qualify for student aid or other government hand outs. My parents could probably pay for my college, but i have always been a self sufficient person. Out of high school I went to trade school to be a mechanic, even though it was not what i wanted to do as a career. Once done there I went to college, during this time I have not made a lot of money, but I have saved a little out of each pay check. I used the money i saved to a top rated engineering school, but because of all these idiots trying to bring down capitalism,there may not be a big demand for educated people, so I’ll probably end up sweeping streets with a PhD like they do in Spain, or I will just move to a country that favors capitalism.

aaknopf:

Tomorrow…

aaknopf:

Ten tales by Ray Bradbury to get you in the Halloween spirit. (via Wired)