Today is not the first day I've cried out of frustration, but it is the first time I've stood up for my beliefs as a liberal woman in a conservative family.

Every day in America, people are passing judgment on the way other families handle their finances. And every day, these people are becoming more and more ignorant.

I was recently told that a "non-English speaking woman used three EBT cards (or Electric Benefit Transfer Cards) to pay for her groceries." This person then proceeded to exclaim, "Why does she need three EBT cards?" In response, I think, well, assuming a woman is doing her grocery shopping, she probably has people to feed. This woman probably has one card for herself, one for her son, or brother, or partner, and one for the children in her family.

I guess she needs to be punished for making her family's life more convenient.

And don't even get me started on the fact that this woman "needed" to be categorized as an under-qualified being because of the language she speaks.

I was also told that people even go far enough to change their names and social security numbers just to play the system and keep getting assistance unfairly. For some reason, that's kind of hard to believe.

Answer me this: if that was so easy to do, wouldn't everybody being doing it? And wouldn't we have cracked the code to change that by now?

It's ridiculous to actually accuse people of going THAT far just so they can get "free" assistance. Because it is pretty much untrue. Sorry, Ronald Reagan(s).

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It has always troubled me to know that some people really do think that others are out to get them and steal from them. Apparently, my opposition to this belief means I only look for the good in people and I am "uninformed" about society. I am told to research things like welfare abuse and the demographics of who receives governmental assistance. I am told people who are receiving such assistance are lazy, and primarily Latinos who "don't speak English." I am exposed to prejudice at my own dining room table. I am advised to "watch out" for people who "play the system."

To the people who have apparently paid their dues to society: why not just collect your benefits now?

These are the people who demand quality service at McDonald's where "people don't work hard enough and just flip burgers for a living," but won't vote to raise workers' wages to help them "get off their asses" and provide customers their quarter-pounders and 10-piece chicken nuggets.

These are the people who complain about others not getting jobs because they are black or Latino, but will conveniently find a white candidate more qualified than a nonwhite candidate at a job interview.

These are the people that scream they're not racist, but justify that statement by saying, "I have a black friend."

There is such a high level of insensitivity that drives the Republican party, that influences my conservative counterparts to be the first to accuse others of stealing while they themselves are stealing opportunity from other citizens. It is what condones the shooting of blacks in their place of worship, it is what condemns homosexuality, it is what justifies the allowance of waving the Confederate flag, it is what accepts judgment of the lives they don't live.

And it is where I get angry.

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Do not try to change my political affiliation because you assume my age is correlated to the degree of my naivety. Do not look down upon me because I know there is a cap on welfare benefits, and there is no way in the world that someone can abuse the system for 10 years without being cut off or finding a job to sustain themselves. Do not accuse me of being uneducated because I know non-English speaking citizens have a right to governmental assistance. And do not advise me to research who receives aid in regard to race and cultural differences.

These people think they are preachers because they've been through tough times, too. And that's all fine and dandy, until they start to judge another's life without knowing how they live it.

If someone receives assistance, don't give it a second thought. There are always bad apples in every system in America. There are people who abuse their rights and privileges in every institution. Just because they don't use the assistance the way you want them to (or don't they?), doesn't give you the right of passage to tell them they're bad people.

It is also appalling that I have been told recently that "people from South America haven't done anything for this country." The very stupidity of this statement was enough to send me over the edge. Is it not the very diversity of this country that makes America great? Did people not originally immigrate to America to find a better life? Have different cultures not provided us with new opportunity, new lifestyles, and new experiences?

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In 2010, 31.8 percent of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) recipients were white and 30.0 percent were Hispanic. Therefore, it is clearly false information to say that the majority of food stamp-loving people are "Spanish" and taking away your hard-earned cash.

In another instance, 56.7 percent of families who received AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) in 1984 were white. More recently, as TANF was set in place to limit the amount of benefits recipients receive, the percentage of whites that receive benefits was still higher in 2010 than their Hispanic counterparts.

In 2013, 31.2 percent of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) recipients (that's food stamps) earned an annual income, while 21.5 percent had zero gross income and just 6.5 percent were receiving TANF. Aren't laziness and unemployment the first reasons Republicans say welfare abuse is to blame, though?

Here's how TANF's rules work in regard to a recipient's assistance and the limit of time they get it:

Under TANF, the federal government imposed a maximum 60-month lifetime limit on receipt of TANF funds by adults. Therefore, after 60 months of receiving federally funded TANF benefits, either consecutively or nonconsecutively, an assistance unit with adults is generally no longer eligible for federal cash assistance. Some states have adopted shorter lifetime limits, while others have chosen to fund recipients after the 60 months with state dollars. A few states have also chosen to terminate benefits only for the adults in the unit, in which case all children in the assistance unit remain eligible for benefits after the lifetime limit expires, as a child-only unit.

The deal is, you apply for aid, and once you are given aid, you have a ticking clock where you need to find employment. Once the clock is up and you haven't gotten a job, benefits are terminated. That's how it works. People don't just "sit on their asses" and wait for more benefits. They are required, by law, to get a job in order to keep receiving benefits.

People think minorities are mostly on welfare because of the places they live and visit. It is obvious that in a poor, urban area with a mostly black and Latino population, most of the recipients of governmental assistance are going to be of minority race, and consequently within the same living area like "ghettos" and the projects. I mean, that's really all it is. People are placed in a neighborhood with housing they can afford, with jobs they can get, and receive assistance for the things they need. Sure, there is abuse. There's abuse everywhere, in every system. But I'm not blaming every police officer for the murders of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. I'm not taking away every officer's badge and gun because of a few officers' unfair treatment of minorities' rights.

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There is a quote I saw when I went to Ellis Island years ago, that I thought fit the idea that whites set up a system to benefit themselves and left "darker" immigrants to do all the dirty work:

I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, I found out three things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all; and third, I was expected to pave them.

Never have I ever been so appalled at the way we make our minority citizens work harder than us, but complain when they don't do it the way we want them to. Never have I ever been so disgusted at the way we depict minorities in this country: as lazy, "fatherless" people with no regard to respect and values. Never have I ever been more ashamed of being part of a community that criticizes the way our government takes care of the poor.

It would be amazing to see how these same people would demand rights and help for being in the positions they claim are the most lazy.

I wish I could change minds. I wish everyone would look at factual evidence and see that it is harder for the people whose ancestors had no respect or representation in society. I wish people would understand that whites are not the victims in our country. We have the ability to do and be whatever we want, and it is disgusting that many can't see the prejudice that still walks the Earth today and hangs over us like a black cloud (oh, the irony).

I am saying this with tears in my eyes and sorrow in my heart. It is truly saddening to know that the people I look up to can even harbor these racist feelings in their bodies. I guess it is time to readjust, and I'm not talking about the way I look at my childhood role models.