Sometimes outcomes are not matter of bad choices

Published 1:30 am Monday, November 7, 2022

A recent letter to the editor was a solid attempt at parodying those who cruelly look down on the homeless. Or at least, it was too out of touch to be interpreted as anything less. Such as thinking that by making “better choices” you can live a perfect enough life so as to not be impacted by external circumstances. If only the nearly 1,000 Microsoft employees who were just let go had “chosen their friends wisely.” If only the residents of Malden who lost their homes to wildfires had “developed something resembling a work ethic.”

We also can’t ignore how the letter writer refuses to see how “basic laws” are preventing people from making these so-called better choices. Such as restrictions on abortions, contraceptives, and sex ed impeding people from not “creating children you didn’t intend to create.”

The most out-of-touch piece of “advice” is that you can avoid homelessness by saving money during this time of high rent, low wages, hiring freezes, and inflation.

Just follow the 700 rules in the letter and you too can refuse to help your community and instead feel smug in your societal role built for you (not by you).

It’s that simple. Live your life not as you want it, but exactly as the previous letter’s author, and you will never be let go, lose your house to a natural disaster, be encumbered by surprise medical debt, or have to work at McDonald’s.

Allen Flaa

Everett