It’s March again. So much has changed over the past year as the pandemic reality sunk in across America and didn’t let go.
Back in November, I voted for President Donald Trump because I believed he was a strong leader who was thinking about West Virginians. The election didn’t turn out like I’d hoped, but I’m the kind of person who tries to look on the bright side.
When it comes to COVID-19 relief and recovery, I’m willing to give President Joe Biden and our Congress a chance to do the right thing to help people like me.
Like many other West Virginians, my family is dealing with tremendous grief, and struggling financially. My husband supports our family as a coal miner. He lost weeks of work when the mine closed for pandemic lockdowns, and that caused us to fall behind on bills.
I suffer from a permanent disability that has left me unable to work and more vulnerable to infection. What’s more, my family is reeling after my daughter-in-law recently died of brain cancer. We desperately need the help from the COVID-19 relief bill, and we need it now.
Here in Morgantown, my neighbors also are trying to stay healthy and afloat. A lot of families work in the oil and gas field, and have faced repeated layoffs. I’ve been helping a friend whose whole family got sick with COVID-19 recently — including her elderly mother, who passed away. I bring them food, including my homemade pasta salad, which my friend says is helping her get her sense of taste back.
My neighbors, my husband and I consider ourselves middle class, but, these days, it doesn’t feel like it. Instead, it feels like we have to fight so hard every day just to stay healthy, keep working and take care of our families.
I never considered myself a political person, but this pandemic has made me one. A few months ago, I answered an online survey that connected me to an organization called WorkMoney, which got me in touch with elected officials.
WorkMoney started during the pandemic, to help people like me advocate for stimulus relief directly to elected officials, including Sens. Shelley Moore-Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
My message to our congressional delegation was very clear: Getting COVID-19 relief passed is urgent. The longer Congress keeps stalling, the more its members debate, the less it’s going to help — and I’m starting to worry that we’re not going to get it at all.
Right now, my husband and I feel like we’re on a cliff’s edge. We’re able to put food on the table and pay our mortgage, but even one setback would push us right off the cliff. And we’re some of the lucky ones — friends and neighbors were pushed over the edge months ago.
That’s why we can’t wait any longer. Members of Congress are holding up this bill, talking about the cost, but what they should be thinking about is the costs of this pandemic that West Virginians have already endured for too long.
Honestly, $1,400 isn’t enough to get us back on our feet; it’s really just the bare minimum to help us scrape by and try to get back on the path to firmer footing. And that firmer footing will be out of reach if Congress keeps stalling. They need to move fast, to get $1,400 checks into the hands of working families all across the country who are depending on them.
This pandemic taught me that, if I want something from our elected officials, I need to take matters into my own hands and make sure they hear my voice. And even though I voted for Trump, now I’m counting on President Biden and members of Congress to keep the promises they made to all Americans to pass the relief we urgently need.
It’s now or never.
