I hope this letter will enlighten those of you who were so angry after reading the letter about EBT cards and the foods people buy with them.

We are a family on assistance. We do not like it, but it is necessary because of our health problems. We live, the three of us, in a one bedroom apartment. My daughter has the bedroom, (she is 16 and needs her own space), and my spouse and I use our living room as a bedroom. Most months we can't even afford the basic toiletries but we manage somehow. We hate living like this, but we have no choice. It's the only way we get our several thousand dollars of medication and medical treatment. I would love to work again; the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

So the next time you see someone buying food you don't think they should with an EBT card, stop and think about what their story is -- not everyone is trying to bilk the system. We have nothing else, lay off of the only thing that gives some of us joy. (I'd write more but my glasses were taken away by the governor's cutbacks and my eyes get tired.)

Barbara Waechter, West Richland