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For the record, I'm not saying that we should NOT have government assistance programs. I just believe we need to keep them LIMITED, rather than making more and more government departments to keep doling it out for longer terms.

I totally believe in giving people in unfortunate circumstances a hand up.
What I don't believe in is making it easy for them to make this assistance a way of life...especially for generation after generation
There's something VERY, VERY WRONG with that way-of-life thinking.
Welfare is meant to be a short term help, not a lifestyle.
When someone can turn that system into a "career path", you just gotta wonder where the hell things flew into the crapper.

Rea, since you spend your days in the land of the little people, I'm willing to bet that you have never had a conversation with a 15-year-old pregnant sixth grader (yes 15!)where they look you dead in the eye and tell you they don't care about doing anything to get an education, that they are just coming to school to "visit with friends 'til I get 16 and can drop out". When we discussed how they intended to provide for their soon-to-be born child, hearing "I ain't gotta do shit. Im'ma just keep havin' mo', cause the mo' you have the mo' you get from the gov'ment'" was a real precious hallmark moment, let me tell ya.

Maybe you've never taught in an inner-city school where 97% of your student body is on free and reduced lunch, or had to sit across the table on conference night from parents who have money to buy that carton of cigarettes in their purse and the liquor blowing in their breath and the gold teeth in their mouth, but they don't have money to buy their child some notebook paper and pencils.

Maybe you've never had the glorious experience of having to drive home a set of twin boys to the worst ghetto in town because their mother failed to pick them up from an afterschool activity. On that glorious trip, we had to roll the windows down because the smell in the car was putrid from the fact that these kids were wearing clothes that hadn't been washed in over a month because their water had been turned off for failing to pay the bill. Then, while on the way home, we are told that mom has developed a crack habit and sometimes a man comes over and knocks mom around for money, and other men just come and go all night. Have you ever held some crying boy who gets home to find his mom has locked him out because she's inside with a man trying to earn some money to score more drugs, while his brother tries to sneak in through an open bathroom window?

I'm betting no.
So don't give me all this bullshit about Mumbai ghettos.
Just because you watched some hollywood movie like Slumdog Millionaire doesn't make you "informed" and "conscious".
We have this crap going on in our own streets, and the welfare state is only serving to keep it just as it is...on a downhill slide.


And also just for the record, you seem to think that I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth.
ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE.
My parents struggled constantly growing up. But they both worked, sometimes two jobs each, to make sure I had what I needed.
When it came to college, I didn't get one red cent from them.
I worked 4 and sometimes 5 part-time jobs and lived on 4 hours of sleep every night for three years to pay my own way through college.
And I did that without taking out even one penny of student loans or grant money.
I walked at graduation not owing anyone a dime for my college degree and though it was damn hard, it was the most rewarding
feeling of my life to know I did it by my own hard work and effort.

I will NOT take a step back just because hearing truth may not feel good.
Yes, I've met you all.
Yes, I disagree 100% with your politics, but still think you are all lovely people nonetheless.
My issue is with the ideologies that are driving our country off into a ditch, not one person or another.

And I have every damn right to express my anger...because failure to do so constitutes approval by default and complicity by inaction.
Sitting on your ass, shaking your head and saying 'Isn't this a shame?" doesn't change one damn thing.
So I will absolutely REFUSE to "step back" and be quiet when I know better.
I will shout whatever the hell I want until the cows come home.
If one person starts looking for their own answers instead of just accepting some nice lines from a speech, it will be worth it.

If you don't care to hear it, then perhaps you should just quit reading this thread and play with your like-minded friends in the BHL thread.

And though we may never have had in-person discussions about political ideologies, I do read this board quite often and have heard tons and tons of discussion on the AP or the BHL thread enough to gather your leanings. Therefore, I do not at all feel I am stereotyping or making any sort of sweeping generalizations.

Again, I am not mad at any particular people here.
I am just mystified how so many intelligent, rational people seem to swallow random sound bites and news as "correct", when so often a simple search for the details reveals that you are
being given highly steered versions of partial truths, and lots and lots of weasel wording.

But, crazy-sounding or not, I'll continue to speak my mind.
If it offends you, don't read it.