B.F. Skinner, Daily Kos member since 2008, has posted over 900 DK stories. A number of them are about his struggles with illness, and with the federal bureaucracy which has delayed time and time again processing his just claim for disability benefits.
And now at the 11th hour, just as his appointed hearing was at last to take place, he was notified that the hearing would be delayed for another 90 days. Not that benefit payments would be delayed, but the hearing on whether he would be eligible for benefits has been further delayed, in part because B.F.’s lawyer became seriously ill and had to go to the hospital. However, there’s been no explanation given for why the hearing has been postponed 90 days.
UPDATE: All this stress has helped put B.F. back in the hospital, so he will be responding from his hospital bed today, using his cellphone. If the comment thread gets very long, his phone will limit his ability to comment. Since his February rent will be due in less than two weeks, it’s urgent that we ask for your help now.
A decent provision for the poor is
the true test of civilization.
— Samuel Johnson, Boswell: Life of Johnson (1791)
We have already posted successful Community Fundraisers for B.F. Skinner. Many Kossacks have stepped up and given generously to keep him going until this month. All of us assumed that he would get his hearing, be approved for disability benefits, and they would send him the accrued back payments dating from his first day of eligibility so he could be self-supporting again.
Yet, because of bureaucratic red tape, our government has failed him, so we must ask one more time that you help B.F. keep a roof over his head and feed himself and his furry companions.
Goals
If you can, please help us help BFSkinner survive until his April hearing. Our goal is $5,500.
Here's how to help:
PayPal: houstonbfskinner at netscape dot net (100% to BF)
In addition, we invite you to join in tipping, recommending, commenting, republishing, and casting this story to your social media.
“The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.”
— John Dalberg, Lord Acton, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)
For centuries, the idea that a just society is obligated to give aid and support to its most vulnerable members, and that how it treated its children, the poor, the sick and the old, is the measure by which it should be judged, has been universally acknowledged.
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
— Mahatma Gandhi
Yet for some time in America, the prevailing attitude in Congress and many state legislatures is that there is always ample money available for military spending or offering special deals to lure big business, but less and less funding available for assistance to those who need help the most.
And a huge thicket of thorny bureaucracy has overgrown what remains of the programs designed to aid those no longer able to support themselves because of debilitating illness, handicap or old age.
"...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped."
— Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey
So with increasing frequency, members of our own Daily Kos community must turn to each other for help. In addition to tipping, recommending and reblogging this story, please give if you can.
And one more thing – please WRITE TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVES to put them on notice that this is an issue about which you feel so strongly that it will have a real impact on YOUR VOTE in this election year. It’s time to call these Scrooges to account.
In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief, to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.
