I would say that I happen to know someone like Sammy. Not exactly like Sammy, obviously, but someone who is disabled, has had problems with the law, and has children. The details of their stories are different, but the theme is the same: Both have been trapped in a cycle of poverty and punishment that might be counterproductive to actually helping them become contributing members of society. My acquaintance is not blind, but has another disability that limits his ability to work and be a "normal" member of society. Even if my acquaintance were able to work, his prospects are dismal, having never earned a high school diploma, and having three children to support. Most of the jobs he would be able to get would pay him--at best--$8.50 per hour. After taxes and child support, there would be very little left, certainly not enough for one person to live on, let alone a family. Certainly my acquaintance made some poor choices when he was young, but how many of us don't make poor choices when we are young? The difference is, maybe our choices didn't have permanent consequences--or if they did, we managed to learn how to adapt to them. Somehow, we have all earned the chance to be where we are, but some people simply do not get that chance.
I don't consider myself a "bleeding heart," but I definitely recognize the destructive cycle Sammy is stuck in, even though the details and specifics are different. The reason it is recognizable is because the cycle of poverty is similar everywhere, as is the struggle for rights for the disabled. Coming from doing double major undergrad work in education and literature, I am all too familiar with the cycle of poverty, having seen it first-hand in many of the students I worked with. Poverty isn't a problem that's in Scotland or England, or "the city" or any other specific place. I guarantee you it is everywhere you look, when you look hard enough. What is beautiful about "How Late, How Late" is that poverty is at the heart of who Sammy is, and he's really not that special. There's "Sammys" all over the place when you look for them, and many of them don't have much in a say in how they get to live their lives.
I mentioned in my blog on the Harvey readings that Glasgow was economically depressed thanks to Mrs. Thatcher and her anti-union policies. The ship build industry in Glasgow had been eliminated. Your blog illustrates institutionalized poverty and a the consequent learned helplessness. Sammy was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. This would further limit his ability to rise about his situation: someone smarter might have been able to do something with his life. The comorbidity of Alcohol abuse as well as of other substances is often a feature of long term poverty. And I wonder about a psychiatric diagnosis(es)--? I have seen much abuse of the welfare system in my day. Although Sammy could have taken more responsibility for himself, his victimization by the circumstances of his life and environment need to be acknowledged.
ReplyDeleteSammy does not seem to have much of a say in what happens to him, he is dragged about by the police, he is made to jump through lots of hoops at the DSS office, and much of the book documents him trying to deal with his blindness imposed by the cops. We do have to wonder, however, about what got Sammy into this situation in the first place. Before we meet him he has been in and out of jail, incarcerated for a total of 11 years. What role did Sammy play in making the decisions that led to his multiple arrests and convictions? Is this simply a case of him starting off by making bad decisions that further and further limit his options for the future, effectively boxing him in until we meet him as a man whose options seem to have run out? What level of accountability can be assigned to him at this point? Does he have the opportunity to change his situation?
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