Really, Laura and Rose had some audacity to maintain those judgmental attitudes about others accepting relief during the Depression. And the sentiment that people were "just getting what they deserved," especially considering that Laura's own sisters weren't doing as well, seems most uncharitable.
Laura's own sisters had to accept relief and asked for donations of clothes! And still the Wilder women did not change their attitudes. But they did not live with Laura's sisters. They were in a whole different world. And Laura's less well-off sisters were the ones who took care of blind Mary at the end of her life. Laura didn't do that. So to have such judgmental attitudes towards the people who were accepting relief is almost beyond my comprehension.
Their solace was in their tough attitudes.
And to have that opinion, even with the amount of borrowing money that they both did? (Especially Rose.) No, I cannot say I admire their politics or their attitudes towards others at the time of the Depression or afterwards.
I don't suppose they were thinking about starving children who have no way of earning money when they said those things. I think they were just addressing finding ways of dealing their own fears, and that's it.
But something about it helped them get by, or seemed to help them. They really didn't like to feel like they might ever be in that position themselves.
"Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser" | Goodreads
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