Main Street

I Hope

by Melissa Stiehler—Minnesota

I was organizing in Powderhorn and came across an unemployed woman, home in foreclosure and a lack of hope. She payed close attention while I gave her my rap. As always I told her that grassroots will win with strength from the community. She then began to tell me about her struggle.

As she spoke, she started to cry, explaining how life isn’t easy right now. Due to proposed health care cuts, she was laid off from her nursing job. She was the only working person in her house, supporting her family and her three unemployed sisters. Bills had been piling up for quite some time and she could no longer afford her house, which has been in her family for four generations. And while she wanted to get involved on every level, she didn’t have enough money to pay her taxes, let alone make a dues payment. She knew our issues, as she lives them everyday.

As she signed down for a membership, she thanked me, both for the Unemployment Lifeline, and for working hard for people like her everyday. Knowing that there is an organization that is fighting for the people and offering resources to those who have been left behind by capitalist values gave her more hope than she had felt in quite some time. While financially she couldn’t help, she is more than on board with letting her voice be heard and fighting for the right of happiness for working families.