This was a letter to the editor of the Waco Tribune back in 2010 It was submitted by Alfred Evans. Almost 10 years have gone by and not much has changed....
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 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 to 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 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. 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 it 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.