Blair Rush, a 42-year-old single mother from Montgomery County, Maryland joined the occupiers at Freedom Plaza and has been struggling since they were forced off the site. Rush was an assistant teacher at a day care center in Maryland who lived with her mother. After a bad car accident, she lost her job and her mother died. Rush says she is upset by the way people are treated; every time she thinks about this her eyes fill with tears. “I have been fighting Social Security since 2001 and they keep denying me. Every time they deny me I go through another process. And the process takes two years. They still don’t want to give me my benefits.”
Rush hopes that one day she will receive her benefits and have a home of her own again. “I don’t want a hand out, all I want is a hand up.” She says.