Stop the fucking presses, there's a white woman panhandling in Silver Spring. So we already know that DC social service agencies are stretched very thin. There are plenty of homeless people in DC, and shelters have been closed due to budget problems. Those stories, the stories of people turned away from social services in DC, or stories of families on the street, those aren't really worth covering. What's worth covering is the fact that there's a white woman panhandling in Montgomery County. Yup, WJLA-TV did a whole piece on this woman:
SILVER SPRING, Md. - The bad economy is taking a big toll on local social service agencies. In Montgomery County the need is so high some people say they're being turned away.Wow, it's like someone took People's District, vomited all over it and then bottled it and sold it at Whole Foods saying it's healthy. While I'm sure that Kathleen Waltos is suffering, I do have a bit of a hard time feeling for someone who made $70K and has only been unemployed for seven months. How about those people who made $20K and have been laid off for a year? Yes, Waltos has faced some obstacles getting access to social services, but I have a hard time sympathizing with any of this. I don't wish her any ill, but I don't see why this deserves the 11 o'clock news treatment. Meh, of course it makes sense. It's TV news.
More than seven months ago Kathleen Waltos lost her $70,000-a-year job. She says she's been unemployed or underemployed ever since. She says she's used up all her savings and her 401K and, at times, has actually turned to panhandling.
Waltos told us, "In order to survive I have to do something...and that's stand on a corner and collect money."
