I once thought this way. Unashamedly. I remember driving by the welfare office, as a younger man just out of college and looking for work... I saw so many nice cars in the parking lot. Nice colorful, clean, new- nice rims... Totally nice rims. I thought- "Those fuckers. I went to college, did the work I'm supposed to do... where is my money? Where is my nice car with fancy rims? These people are just getting shit handed to them. For nothing. No. For being black. For being mexican. For being poor."

I got a job. Oddly enough, I ended up working in the public sector, social work, with these same people who I had earlier felt such, well, I'm going to call it a kind of selfish rage. ...but then I worked in a job where I was required to help people in terrible situations. I saw living conditions that I didn't realized existed in this country. I saw real poverty. I saw real strife. I saw families who, even though I was not a member, even though it was my job to encourage and help them climb out of their situation, I knew- I could feel that they didn't really have much of a chance of changing their situation.

Did they have nice things? Maybe... Some had big TV's and video game systems (this was pre- smart phone age)- though, most of the 'nice' stuff they had was from one of those predatory 'rent to own' joints, who exist solely to exploit those who can't afford to purchase things I took for granted.

It wasn't overnight or anything that I realized I was full of shit. In fact, there were a lot of times I did my job thinking I was superior to those people. I left that job... had others... got older. The universe ended up taking a dump on me, just like it does to us all, eventually... I wouldn't call it an epiphany, but more of a slow motion tectonic shift to the realization that when I had scoffed at those people in the welfare parking lot, I didn't know a god damn thing.

The only worth while thing we can give this world is kindness- because, be it god, man, or the capriciousness of chaos, we all will get the shit end of the stick one day, and when that happens to you... when you are standing there, with the wind knocked out of you, reeling at whatever horror has now become your life, you will hope that there is a friendly face out there trying to understand where you are coming from... not a bunch of jealous, selfish twits trying to knock you down even farther because you have the gall to need help.