I had a good meeting yesterday morning with people who can help me navigate the state government bureaucracy to get a home of my own. Dealing with bureaucrats is not the favorite thing of most people, especially if the bureaucrat has to be asked to push a limit or two. That's not always the fault of the person in the government job, however.
Legislatures create government agencies and programs and task them to do certain things. Then, people in the agencies write rules and regulations designed to help employees of that agency to meet the goals set for it by the legislature. Then, staffers do their jobs based upon those regulations. English, though, is an elastic language. It gives people inclined to stand strictly on their reading of the regulation the strength to do so, but the same language, looked at from another perspective, can often give somebody so inclined lattitude to respond to individual situations. It's an intriguing process the media and the public too often see in black-and-white terms. In our eagerness to proclaim ours a government of laws, we tend to downplay the role individuals can play in applying those laws.
It's not clear yet whether my case will fit firmly within the definition laid out by the main program that could help me, but I'm comfortable I will get a fair chance from the people I met yesterday.
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