NO. 838 PUT HER IN CHARGE!

No. 838

Jim Davidson -- NEWSPAPER COLUMN

PUT HER IN CHARGE!
In these days of our nation’s downturn, it is thrilling and encouraging to read about someone who really gets it, especially if they are a member of the younger generation.
Such was the case in a terrific article a friend sent me a while back that was written by a 21-year-old female and appeared in the Waco (Texas) Tribune Herald on Nov. 18, 2010. This young person was worried about her future, and the following is her opinion and how she feels about the social welfare big government that she is being forced to live in! In her opinion, the following solutions are just common sense.
She begins by saying, “PUT ME IN CHARGE of food stamps. I’d get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho’s, just money for 50 pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.
“Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I’d do is get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we’ll test recipients for drugs, alcohol and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke, or get tats and piercings, then get a job. Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your ‘home’ will be subject to inspections any time and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and own your own place. In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a ‘government’ job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22-inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the common good.
“Before you write that I’ve violated someone’s rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules. Before you say this would be
‘demeaning’ and ruin their ‘self esteem,’ consider that it was not that long ago that taking someone else’s money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem. If we are expected to pay for other people’s mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices. AND -- while you are on Government subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes, that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Government welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.”
That is the end of the article and, as I said in the beginning, it is rewarding to see someone from the younger generation who truly understands that it is their future that our government is hocking, as well as generations yet unborn. I would hope that everyone in the younger generation would come to the same conclusion. While not quite as radical, I share many of the same views but would be careful not to paint with a broad brush. There are millions of people in our country who would like to have a job and take care of their own needs and the needs of their family, but unfortunately there are millions of others who would not hit a lick at a snake if given the opportunity. One of the main problems, and the reason our nation has a $13 trillion-plus debt, is that we have set the safety net bar too high. When you can get just as much from the government, and not work, as you do working, you create dependency.
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Davidson is a public speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034. To begin a bookcase literacy project visit www.bookcaseforeverychild.com. You won’t go wrong helping a needy child.)