Eavesdropping in Greenville: Stories from a Swing State
I met John (20) at a Trump rally in Dayton, Ohio and then spent the day with him and his friends, Austin & Devon, who are Bernie Sanders supporters.
As we hung out, I was struck by the undercurrent of fear in their discussion — the Paris bombings led to thoughts about a recent school shooting in a nearby township; opinions on money spent abroad quickly gave way to discussing the reality of homelessness and the challenge to make ends meet from $10.50/hr (minimum wage).
The following is a snippet from our conversation, shared with their permission. Feel free to listen in.
Photos & interview by Talitha Brauer. Transcription by Elyssa Brauer.
Where were you when the Paris thing happened?
John: I was sitting at home watching it…next thing you know, every channel was all the Paris shots. It was just going on buh-boom-boom-boom, just kept goin’ and goin’. Them numbers just kept gettin’ higher and higher and higher.
So when you see Paris & San Bernardino, are you afraid that that’s gonna happen here?
J: It already has, even though I think 9/11 was half set up by our own government, but I think the shit’s gonna keep happening. They’re probably planning something right now that we don’t even know. Just like the Boston fuckin’ bombers, all that shit, we were never expecting anything. It just happens and then everyone notices it.
Austin: Everything’s unexpected.
J: We can’t prepare for anything. They say they have higher security — that’s while there was just a shooting in fucking Madison Township High School.
A: That kid was fourteen years old shooting up the school!
J: Buhboom! You’d never know it, you just can’t know. There’s nothing to stop it. No matter who’s the president!
A: I just don’t understand like, what would possess a fourteen year old to shoot up a school? I wasn’t even thinking about…Fourteen? Fourteen? The only thing that was on my mind was Yu-Gi-Oh and football (laughs).
So do you feel safe in America?
A: I feel safe.
J: When I’m 21, I’m gonna own a gun.
A: You can own one right now it just can’t be a handgun.
J: It just can’t be a handgun, yeah.
A: I could do more damage with a shotgun than with a handgun!
J: You just take one shot!
This is also something that is interesting to me from abroad. You’re troubled by shootings, you’re troubled by teenagers doing these crazy shootings, but you also feel the need to have a gun to protect yourselves as soon as you’re able.
What do you think would be a way to solve the school shootings?
J: I don’t think it can be solved.
A: Teach your kids gun safety. That’s the only thing we really can do. It’s our constitutional right to own weapons so I mean, they really can’t take guns away from us, so the only other way to do it is to bring your kids up knowing what guns are and what guns can do and the safety behind all the guns.
J: Yeah. Kids are fuckin’ high and they’re like ten and twelve and it’s like, dang. Kids knowing how to shoot guns already. They’re over there in ISIS training like ten year olds how to fight and shoot guns and shit.
A: I’m not worried about what’s going on in a different country.
J: Exactly, that’s the thing, we need to worry about our own country. We’re in so much debt, we’re just never gonna catch back up.
A: We’re so worried about getting popularity points for helping other countries when we should be helping our own.
J: You walk through Dayton and you see all these homeless people…we’re so worried about helping them people [overseas] and people don’t even have shelter over here.
A: I’ve been to Las Vegas twice, and in that town alone, I have never seen more homeless people in my life. I’m sure there’s more [somewhere else], but I haven’t really been to anywhere big yet, so, Vegas is pretty much the biggest place I’ve been. You can’t walk five feet down the street without another homeless person being there, they’re just everywhere.
J: The only thing about the homeless people — I get why some are homeless, but there’s shelters and there’s jobs. In Vegas, if you can’t find a job, you got issues. I would work at McDonalds before I would be homeless. I was homeless before — I lived in my car. But you just gotta keep working and fucking get another job. I’m 20, I can’t just get shit for free. I tried. I tried to get a Link card and I can’t even get that. Everyone else can.
A: You can’t get what?
J: A food card. I dunno. I went there when I was working at GTI and I made too much money (laughs). It’s bullshit. I was gonna get an apartment [in income based housing]. They said I made too much money there too and I’m like, fuck, it’s only $10.50 an hour, how is that too much money?
A: (laughs) Yeah, because those are income based for metropolitan people. That’s another thing, with like welfare and everything. They set the bar way too low, to where you basically can’t work a full-time job, you *have* to work a part-time job to even qualify for it. So that’s another reason why people are lowering their standards, working a part-time job just so they can get the assistance.
Like John said, $10.50— he’s 20—I’m the same thing. Me and her, we have a kid and we tried doing it on our own and both of us had to work a full-time job, you know 40+ hours a week just to, you know, make it by. But if they raised that bar for welfare up a little bit to where if you make a little more money, it’s not gonna mess with anything — I think that’d help out a lot, honestly.
And then we wouldn’t have to be worrying about people calling in about people being lazy, and all this. People are only lazy because if they do get a better job and they’re still not gonna be able to make it, so they might as well just stay down, and get help.
So there’s no way to get out of it — you’re stuck with the same problems because you can’t make more to get out of it.
A: Yeah. And then again, if you’re making $10.50 an hour and you’re making too much for welfare and you can’t get into these income based housings, and you can’t find a two bedroom house where you can get by perfectly fine — you’re going to struggle.
How long were you living in your car?
J: Not long, just a couple nights I would stay in there [my car], then I would just get a hotel the next night or something. I had options, I just decided to sleep in my car ‘cuz I was all around and then I got this place [gestures to the house]. I had a Ford Escape.
I’m 20 and I’m doing pretty darn good. There’s like 20 and 30 year olds, 40 years olds that don’t even have a job or a place. Then you got people who get their parents to pay for their shit. They get these fancy trucks and cars and I gotta work for my shit.
My checks would be like 600, 700 dollars, and I get like $400 pay checks and I’m like, dang dude. Healthcare and all that bullshit I don’t even have. I don’t even have a doctor, or healthcare or Obamacare and that’s still getting taken off my check. I haven’t seen a doctor in a long time and that shit still gets taken off.
That’s like a fourth of your check for insurance that you only need if you get sick or something.
This story is part of Voices of America, a photographic exploration of ordinary Americans and their reasons for supporting a controversial candidate.
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© All text & images copyright Talitha Brauer
