Sparkie and Our Gang are spoiled rotten. I did not do it!
They're taken to the vet for annual checkups and whenever they need to see the doc in between. They have food when they want it. They have clean water, regular meds, treats whenever they want them, ears rubbed regularly, and a little snuggling when they claim puppy's rights. They get brushed, and McDoubleCheeseBurgers when we go to town. Pretty girls dote on them, and ignore me. They're warm in winter with a lounging pool, but prefer the pond and creek and any other nasty water they can find, and have individual fans in summer. They get a more or less daily ride in the car, Chick-fil-A nuggets (their fave) when we go into the city, a comfy bed to sleep on when they get run off the couch, and any other creature comfort a four legged fur-ball might want. And attention… oh, the demands for attention when they're claiming puppy's rights.
What's the difference between the Gang and those who've been stuck into our welfare society?
Ask any judge, nay, even better, spend a couple days sitting in any courtroom observing those who wander, or are escorted, through. How many can read? How many have graduated from public schools with real creds, not just social promotions? How many have skills an employer might rent for pay? How many have a work ethic, and understand the jobs they might fill belong to their employer, not them, and their wages depend upon the skills they bring to the party?
How many of those who stand before a judge on a regular basis could we easily imagine saying “Ain't got nuthin', ain't never had nuthin', ain't never gonna have nuthin'”?
And they can't even read.
We belittle fathers. We minimize the value of fathers in the family, then government officials and their appointed functionaries attempt to fill the gap with money and all the benefits of pet-hood. We abuse fathers, make them the butt of “comedy routines,” forgetting their function in the basic unit of our society, the family, and all those unstated lessons they teach… not to mention those discussions beginning with “Now son, you know this is going to hurt me a lot more than it will you.”
We forget those lessons in courage, true courage, dedication, tenacity, when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em taught by our fathers. There are those who will tell our children to be nice, to allow themselves to be bullied, that bullies will eventually get tired and move on… neglecting, or not caring because it's just easier, the bully will continue his or her behavior, only with other victims, until someone stands his ground and knocks his running lights out. Fathers teach where those limits are, to their sons and daughters.
Fathers teach us to stand up when we get knocked down, shake it off like Taylor Swift, and go for it again. Uh, maybe not exactly like Ms. Swift… but I digress.
Fathers also teach us to take responsibility for our own actions, at least they're supposed to.
We are a nation in debt. Serious debt. This, the greatest nation to ever grace the face of Planet Terra, these United States of America, owe $18 trillion, that's on the books… a debt our grandchildren and great grandchildren will be paying off when some haven't even been born yet.
And still we're told the solution to each of society's ills is mo' money.
We, as a nation, have spent something over $22 trillion, just on welfare programs, since 1964 and the inception of President Johnson's Great Society. This is just what's credited to his war on poverty. How's that been working for us? There's as much “poverty” today as there was then. Some would say more.
$22 trillion… that's more than a brazillian, and it doesn't include the money spent on Medicare, SSDI, or many of the other programs that've been morphed into something they were never intended to be. The “war on drugs,” that's another failure.
How much money is been spent through non-profit groups to eliminate poverty outside of the taxpayer funded programs? What's the tax affect of those “non-profit” organizations, many of which have dubious creds in the first place when we investigate how much money actually gets down to those purportedly the foci. Add church group efforts, individuals doing their deal, businesses attempting to do their community service deal, and we have serious money being spent very quickly… on top of those free TaxBucks.
But still come the calls for mo' money.
“It’s hard to get a guy who is making thousands in drug money to take a job that pays $8 an hour.”
Really?
Here's an easy way to do that; in the local vernacular, cut off them EBT cards and I'll betcha by golly they'll go to work for eight bucks an hour. It may take a little time, but everybody gets hungry eventually.
“You have to go to them.”
Excuse me? Really? When do we begin demanding personal responsibility?
Those of us who get up and go to work every day, even if the closest we get to a rush hour traffic jam is dogs wanting to be fed while we're trying to get to the coffee pot, who pick up the tab for all the money being spent on “programs” aren't afforded that luxury.
When are any of us able to sit on our tush and say “Yoohoo, Mr. EmployerMan, we're over here waiting for you to bring us a job and a paycheck.” Wasn't there an effort to hire gangbangers by a couple of local businesses recently? How'd that work out? Seems most of them quit in rather short order.
Everybody wants a check. Some aren't willing to work very hard to earn it. Some are even less willing to make an investment in themselves to become valuable as an employee, a subject for another day, but that's merely a symptom of our having made pets of a segment of our society.
For over 50 years we've been coddling a sector of our society, giving them everything in our attempts to bring them up… as if we, as a society, have the power to do for others what they should be doing for themselves.
Demanding personal responsibility, demanding BabyDaddies be identified, demanding our children be able to meet the published requirements of the board of education before being given a high school diploma, and tapering back on welfare is how to help people. Paying people the equivalent of $65,000 to $80,000 per year not to work is not.
Poor Ms. Sassy. She and Elvis have been over playing with Claude's cows again.
Royce Burrage, Jr.
Royce@Officially Chapped.org
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Mo money; how many can read; how many graduated not just a social promotion; how many have a work ethic; ain’t got nuthin ain’t never had nothing etc and they can’t even read. Can’t get a man who is making thousands in drug money to settle for a job making eight dollars an hour. Baby daddies. Cut off their EBT cards.
I think you made a few more scurrilous remarks directed most certainly at people of color. Of course you also make the case for poor pitiful white people who do not have the luxury of sitting on their white tush all day and doing nothing
And one of the all-time favorite of folks like you: The National Debt. We love our little white children so much we cannot bear to leave them a nation in debt.
Is it okay to leave all of our children in a nation mired down in bigotry and hate or a nation that spends more on jails than schools? A nation that leaves our veterans on the street because they are poor and we lost interest after they returned with medical and mental issues having served our country. How about leaving a nation where it is easier to vote than to buy a gun. I understand the need to gut the voting rights bill, claim voter fraud and stop the young and old and black people from voting, after all, one already made it to the White House who knows what would happen if they all voted.
Sir, you have devoted an entire essay feeding the climate of intolerance and bigotry even in the face of murderous acts of violence. We can do better.
You mentioned writing an article about investing in oneself; a subject for another day. Please, please spare us another diatribe.
Cecilia Lewis
Ooltewah
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Thank you, Ms. Lewis, for seeing through all the senseless and contradictory rhetoric that several people seem to feel the need to express with bigotry and hatred. Some of them think that problems are because of the pigment of one's skin, or any other minority composition. They are either the cause of or they are the targets of all the bad and wrongs in this country.
They need to be correctly educated and get their heads out of the sand as life passes them by.
Richard Smith