Letter to the editor
While I sympathize with Gene Wolfe’s plight, I can’t help but wonder
what more there is to this story (“I’ll be home for Christmas?” Dec. 12).
Millions of women are single parents. They work full time, care for
their children, manage their homes and a few even find time to have some
sort of life. Wolfe says he is homeless because he couldn’t find
child-care and therefore lost his job.
Twenty years ago, when my children were toddlers --- one was 3 and one
was 18 months old -- [I became a single mother].
I had no job and no money. I managed to find a job and child care and
kept a roof over our heads and food on the table, all without going on
welfare or food stamps.
I did not have a trade as Wolfe does; my only skill was an ability to
type. Oftentimes there wasn’t enough money to pay the bills and buy food,
but we managed.
My experience is not unique; it has happened and is happening to
millions of women across our country. I wonder how all those women seem
to manage and why Wolfe can’t, and why his situation warrants a
sympathy-evoking write-up in the newspaper and the plight of all the
women in the same situation don’t.
While child care is expensive, it is definitely not hard to find. Open
any newspaper, drive around any community and you will find an abundance
of it available.
While my heart goes out to Wolfe’s children for the situation they
find themselves in through no fault of their own, I have little sympathy
for Wolfe.
He is a healthy man with a marketable skill and there seems to be no
reason for him to be in his situation except for a lack of
resourcefulness and/or drive.
As a woman, I am offended by the sympathy and attention given to this
man while all the women dealing with the same circumstances that he
claims drove him to homelessness are ignored.
SUSAN SPEIGELMAN
Fountain Valley
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