Have you ever hit rock bottom at any time in your life? And if so, was it a good thing?

What got me on to this topic was a news story that appeared recently in Los Angeles.  An encampment of homeless people somehow got hold of a washing machine. They hooked it up to a fire hydrant for water, to street lines for power, and began washing clothes.. A Fox News commentator didn’t think the city acted against the  perpetrators harshly enough. Said he: “You have to let people hit rock bottom because then they could bounce back up. These Democrats want to make rock bottom comfortable.”

The LA Democrats, I suppose, must have thought a rock surface doesn’t offer much of a bouncy response to whatever lands on it, and that perhaps a bit of rubber on it might do better.

I suppose there are many situations in which a person who lives on the streets or on welfare says, “well, I can’t sink any lower than this”, decides to make the effort to work at becoming a solid citizen again and succeeds.                                                        

But I don’t believe, as Fox News personnel seem to, that those who are at the bottom are there because they’re satisfied to live on public services. That is probably true for some of them, but the majority are there because of such reasons as these: Single mothers with no one in their lives to help them. People who are severely crippled due to accident or birth defects. Serious chronic health problems. And a great many who are mentally incapable, whether born with diminished mental capacity, or due to physical or psychological trauma or disease. The TV commentator above obviously wishes to stick to the simplistic view rather than have consideration for such people. He and his ilk want to cling to the “work or starve” philosophy. 

Now if the people with the limitations mentioned above could be raised even slightly from the basement bottom--given basic food and shelter, a change of clothing, or introduced to some sort of training--could be offered a measure of kindness and respect--then they  will have a chance to begin an upward climb. But without any help or consideration whatsoever, getting off that rock bottom is next to impossible.

Strangely the right wing media that promotes the “root hog or die” view usually  promotes the cause of Christianity as well. Somehow they fail to  recognize that Jesus never, in any of his teachings, criticizes the poor. He insists on quite the opposite attitude, even tells one rich man who wants to join his movement that he must first turn over his wealth to the poor. Many of his statements show love and concern for the poor and condemnation of the greedy rich.

Now this is not to say the concept of the rock bottom has no merit. Those who join Alcoholics Anonymous must admit that  alcohol has taken over their lives and they have failed to beat it--have hit rock bottom. And when they confess this publicly they realize that everyone else at the meeting has made the same admission. And they can strengthen each other as a group to win the battle. Not all succeed of course, rising from the bottom takes much time and effort.

In 1929 the Great Depression  began. Not only did it depress the price of farm products, but at the same time a terrible drought hit the grain farmers on the Great Plains of Canada and the United  States. The wind and dust storms cut the young seeded plants down, the crops failed year after year in the late 1920s and on into the ‘30s. Agricultural incomes dropped to zero. It could be said that the farm families had hit rock bottom.

It was this terrible downturn that created many of the communities in what is now the northern grain belt of Saskatchewan, including the one where I was raised. My father’s family fled the southwest of the province, my mother’s fled the southeast, and they both came north to take homesteads in the Snowden area. Thousands of other families did the same thing.

Had it not been for the rock bottom situation on the prairies farther south my parents would never have met and I would never have been born. There are no doubt some people who aren’t sure if that was a good thing or not. (Oh well, my mother loved me.)

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