Alfred W. Evans’ letter to the Waco Tribune Herald (which unfortunately requires a login to see the original online version):
Put me in charge…
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 to 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 all 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 anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and 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 to do. 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 that this would be “demeaning” and ruin their “self esteem”, consider that is wasn’t 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.
Amen, brother.
Sorry, I haven’t been paying much attention to the blog lately.
@Jessica – personally I think that forced sterilization is a bit much for a free society to take on its own authority. Of course, we’re not talking about mandatory procedures, only a voluntarily condition of receiving public aid. I will say that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, so your comment seems fair to me.
@Erinyes – yes, I’ve deleted their comment and spam link. Thanks for pointing it out.
There were only a couple things I agree upon, but you are all listening to a person who is either starting propaganda or is a slave to it; however I do agree the welfare program definitely could use some tweaks for sure.
Let me pose this question: Why is it when a country’s economy is on shaky grounds the focus turns to the poor and not to the REAL guilty parties? Welfare is pitens compared to corporate and political robbing of the country (creating poverty in the first place) and making us dependent on the system they created and benefit from? In addition, this country has no heart anymore, no love for God, just a bunch of hoarders and control freaks. Zero faith in humanity…and it all started with the ‘market place’….Greed and power corrupts absolutely.
I find this letter chilling, heartless, clueless, and if this is our future in America, I do not want to grow old in America. Surprise he didn’t stipulate that if a person, no matter how old, cannot support themselves, they should be shot and left for dead in the streets…worthless sons-of-bitches! Goodbye Grandma and Grandpa, take that you autistic loser, go to hell you veteran paraplegic, oh and cannot forget you too homeless orphans…sorry we know you would like to work, but there are NO jobs for us, never mind the old, disabled, homeless, so you must die. Yes ridiculous, but this is just the next step if the country followed Alfred’s idiotic vision.
Focus on things that bring us together not HATE. It takes more courage to be compassionate then it is too be cruel to one another….Also, when the REAL SHTF, there will not be enough people to resist… UNITE NOT DIVIDE; RESIST HATEFUL PROPAGANDA!!!
In response to Wolfire……I agree, and respect, 100% with Alfred Evans letter. Your response tells me your probably less educated and have uncontrollable anger issues with some of the words you used. (“sons-of-bitches, hell” ) I did NOT read into Mr. Evans letter, any of the accusations you stated. I do agree with you regarding how many people are trying to take God out of our lives. But, it’s not the wealthy or prosperous people. Most of them got where they are from long hard hours of work. They are not the heartless, but the ones who make jobs available. Without big companies where would so many of the people find work? I’m sure most don’t want to work that hard at owning their own business. In every aspect of Mr. Evans letter he states “choices”. If you want a handout, without working for it, then don’t expect what us working people achieve. In my opinion, it’s “Survival of the fittest”, just like with wild animals and “Mother Nature”. When one is willing to work to achieve, they are the survivors. Just one last comment, the majority of people, whether working or not, all have compassion for others, particularly the less fortunate. I see these people, driving a nice car and giving money to the “pan handlers”. Yet, I have heard these beggars bragging about how much money they made from hand-outs. I would think it would be more rewarding to brag about the money one made after a hard day of labor. And don’t tell me there are not jobs available, cuz people will pay for someone to mow their lawn, wash their windows, even walk their dog. But why should someone do anything strenuous if they can get money just sitting around? What lacks in todays world is “Pride of Achievement”.
Wolfire, I say that the welfare state is wrong, on principle, regardless of whether the national economy is good or bad at any given time. Why? Because it is a presumptive, dictatorial, deliberate confiscation of one group’s resources for redistribution to another.
If you want to be charitable, I applaud you. Do so to your heart’s content at one of the many, many deserving charities in this country and by all means give to your local churches where the resources do the most good, without the inefficient government middle man. That’s what I do and I recommend it.
The fact is that the market-driven economy you slander has generated a standard of living that no other system will ever be able to match. If you desire full-fledged socialism, I invite you to move to a nation where it is in place. Live by your principles, man! Of course no sane person would dare do that – the consequences of socialist government are catastrophic, as any citizen of an Iron Curtain country will tell you.
Yes, there are inefficiencies in the capitalistic system; however, they are a mere fraction in comparison to the wasted potential of a communistic one. Some would say it’s unfortunate that a free, market-driven society requires that able-bodied men and women work to sustain themselves; however, the reality is that work in America is a virtual vacation compared to the conditions in the socialist police states you seem to admire. Even in these difficult economic times there are jobs available, especially to those who have sacrificed immediate gratification, stayed in school, and planned for the future.
In fact, I will go so far as to say that unemployment is itself an economic stimulant in some respects. A person without a job is much more likely to put his mind to work and create an opportunity for himself than a person who already has a job. No job? Start a business, find a new way to add value to an existing organization, or fill a need no one has yet recognized. Invention and ingenuity is what has made America great, not standing in line at the unemployment office.
I originally read this as a facebook posting and it said it was written by a 21 year old female who “gets it.” This was my response. So now it seems it was written by someone else. I think my points are still valid and that this person still doesn’t “get it”.
I’m not sure what this person “gets.” What I see here is a 21 year old lacking in the basic understanding of the functions of the democracy in which she lives. Put me in charge? Clearly she does not grasp the simple concept of what a government does. This is not too surprising seeing how her home state of Texas ranks 51st in the nation in earning high school diplomas. Yes 51st in a nation with 50 states, that is truly finding a new low. But anyone who has beliefs, however uninformed, has the right to express them. That also allows us, those who disagree, the right to a rebuttal. So here is mine.
Let take her claims one by one. She begins her attack against the big government with food stamps. This is a program, that according to ABC news, costs taxpayers $68 billion, now that sounds like a lot of money, but the federal budget is just under $4 trillion. So we can see that these Ho-Ho eating “fat cats” are consuming roughly 1.7% of the money spent in this nation. These programs are designed to help those in need and are not meant as permanent solutions, is there fraud? Of course, but nothing on the level that exists in other areas of spending. By comparison our former “small government” Texas, President George W. Bush spent more than 10X this amount bailing out banks when they were in need, so it seems to stand to reason that the government can help out Joe six pack when things get tough. According to Texas’ own informational website on the Lone Star card, which is their version of EBT, people are not allowed to buy any of the things she lists, they can however already buy all of the things she wishes to give them, so she offers us a solution to a problem that simply does not exist. As for her rice and bean comment, well that’s just racist, to deride a people simply because they are of a different skin color is so anti-American it’s ridiculous.
Her next topic of choice is Medicaid. Now this really is a very expensive program, about $300 billion a year, that’s about 7.5% of the federal budget. But her problem does not seems to be with the money spent on it but the fact that women are allowed to conceive or smoke cigarettes while receiving it two actions that are legal, one of which is fundamental to life. Her small government solution to the problem is government mandated sterilization. She wants to bring the government into your bedroom, your bathroom and your vagina. Well I’m no woman, but if I were I think the last place I would want government is in my vagina. Let look at a list of nation that have instituted forced sterilization on its people: Australia, on its indigenous population, nice! How dare they discover a place before England. Czechoslovakia, under communism, on gypsies in exchange for social welfare benefits. Yippee! No freedom loving American loves anything more than instituting policies from the wrong side of the iron curtain. Germany, I think I need not even comment here. And of course the United States has already done this with the mentally handicapped. Hooray for progress! This is only a small list of many countries that have tried this program and history does not look kindly on them. I would hope you do not either.
She now moves on to government housing. Now I will admit that I do not know much about government housing, but I do know something about rights of Americans in their home. This girl wants government inspection of peoples homes. Lets take a trip in the way back machine to Boston in 1775. The people were forced to open their homes to soldiers, without their consent. This so infuriated the population that it caused them to take up arms and overthrow their government. If only the British had the foresight to only have the soldiers quartered in the homes of the poor.
Her other solution to have the people pay for the government homes by giving them government jobs. If she wants to pay them this will add to the already inflated national debt, but of course she doesn’t want to pay them. But she does want to seize their property. There are people who live in government housing and work for the privilege, they are called criminals. She is calling for us the people of this nation to treat the poor as criminals. Really? Does this sound like the kind of America you want to live in? Does this sound like someone who “gets it?”
There is nothing voluntary about her solutions. When faced with poverty, starvation and the inability to provide the basics for family, one will do things that once seemed unthinkable. Her last insult to our people, and yes these are our people, Americans, is to take away their right to vote. To not let them participate in the system which you have now made them a slave to.
This woman who so called “gets it” wants to fix problems she sees, and this is admirable. It is good to think of ways we can help to make this, our nation, better. But her solutions don’t work for liberals or conservatives. She wants to fix the problems of big government with government inspections, regulation and government jobs. She wants to take the people poorer than her and treat them as criminal and create a new sub-class of Americans. We must remember that this nation was established so people could not have titles, and could move from class to class based on merit and hard work. To create a permanent sub-class of Americans is to destroy the very nation she is seeking to aide. Whether left or right, Let us remember a quote so famous its origins are lost to history. “The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest members”