AMERICA,
THE LAND OF THE FREE:
Long, long ago, in a
monarchy far, far away, the seeds were planted for a democracy. In 1776, when the leaders of the 13 original
colonies decided to declare their independence from King George III, Thomas
Jefferson had no idea that the simple idea of “life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness” would metamorphose into greed, lethargy and the pursuit of drugs. The concept of welfare, apparently
innate to American government, (we
acquired a statue in 1885 from France and immediately inscribed the words “Give
us your tired, your poor...” on its base)
all started with altruistically sound intentions to help those “men
created equal” catch up in America by way of many programs of the 1960’s. Since then it has culminated into a
laughable, infallible hierarchy that will help anyone who is fortunate enough
to be a citizen of this great democracy, either by birth or by a fairly
elementary test. Ironically, those
immigrants who take the test, and do not take their citizenship for granted
once they get it, can, in most cases, pass the test much easier than their
natural-born counterparts, many of whom greedily benefit from our welfare programs.
Betty Boop and Dudely Doright.
In this
article I choose to point out the truly loathsome, contemptuous and other
parasitic manifestations of citizenry who see America as a helping pot, not a
melting pot. One young woman, who I will
call Betty Boop, is taking the system for all it’s worth. She has screwed her life beyond recognition
and expects the government, i.e., honest taxpayers, to bail her out, caring not
where her next meal is coming from, assuming that the WIC (Women, Infants and
Children) program will provide for her.
If she is pregnant, she could even receive more. WIC will provide for her and the child (until
the child’s 5th birthday). Betty finds
this out and decides she had better have a kid before her child turns
five. These children will most likely
never know who their father is. They are
disenfranchised urchins who grow up thinking America is the biggest push-over
in the world. WIC is not bad, in the right
Betty Boop’s hands. It provides
nutrition and education of nutrition for mothers and their infants. However, the Betty Boop in this case is, as
far as I’m concerned, abusing the program to the limit. She has, as I understand, no intention of
ever getting a job, her criminal background making this almost impossible. She intends to keep having children by
various men so she can support her drug habit and not work. Most likely, if she doesn’t die or end up in
jail, she will go merrily along collecting her WIC and TANF (temporary aid to need
families), more commonly known as welfare programs, never giving a thought to
where, or from whom, the money is coming.
She will just stand in line and cash her check at the many convenient
check cashing facilities (it is no coincidence they are all over the low-rent
housing areas) seeing this and the minimal paperwork she must go through as the
small price she pays while we ultimately foot the bill. TANF replaces the former AFDC (aid to
families with dependent children) as a result of changes under the PRWORA
(personal responsibility and work opportunity reconciliation act) of 1996. In the case of this Betty Boop, she has
reaped the free treatment and medical aid of the county. None of the free drug rehab she received
lasted for more than a few months when I would hear she was back on the streets
dealing for crack. She has had baby
after baby with the taxpayers paying to essentially bring unwanted children
into this world (obviously unwanted by her) that eventually end up in foster
homes, another taxpayer expense.
Betty Boop
is obviously playing America for a sucker, squeezing every ounce of freedom out
of a government for which she does not pay.
I’ve never known her to hold a job for more than a few weeks, so how can
she be taxed. This person is the most
pathetic leach on the system I have ever known.
Sure, there are mothers who honestly need the assistance and make honest
efforts to pull themselves up from poverty, but the majorities I hear of are no
more than criminals with a license to steal, a birth certificate. The 60- month limit on TANF is too generous
and does not impose strong enough limitations, still sending the message that
our democracy will raise your family if you choose not to after the fact.
Dudely Doright
I
encountered this man, who happened to be a Native American, one day on a city
bus. There he sat all fat and sassy, without a care in the world. For a while we rode as the clatter of bus
windows blended with the incessant chatter.
With a wide, impish grin he suddenly decided to regale me with the
details of his wonderful life. He lived in a motel, drinking and watching
TV, emerging every so often to cash checks, government checks. The U.S. government, out of some
sense of guilt over hundreds of broken treaties with the first Americans over the
past three centuries, affords a stipend to anyone who can prove Native American
bloodlines. Is it fair after all this
time? What about the African-American,
the Asian-American and, for that matter, almost any ethnic group to wash ashore
here. As history has taught me there
were more groups that were discriminated against in the beginning than those
that weren’t. I am simply saying that
there comes a time when we must question whether it is fair to hold a whole
country responsible for the wrongs perpetrated generations ago. Now, Dudely, who to me epitomized the
lethargy and lack of dignity that can be the end result of America’s guilty
conscience, seemed more or less happy with his existence at the expense of a
nation, most of whom have no responsibility for promises broken to his
ancestors.
All we owe
the Native American and other groups that have been wronged in the past is
equality from this point forward. That
is all that is pragmatic and plausible in a true democracy. A country of generation Xer’s (some of whom
probably don’t even know who George A. Custer was) can’t be expected to be
included in the debt created two centuries ago by people with manifest destiny
on their minds. However, the
aforementioned men and women that were not “created equal” do deserve some extra from the pot since
they were held back in the game. Be
it Dudely Doright, who does have something to moan about,
or Betty Boop, who, for the most part,
has no one to blame but herself, America must be aware that these programs are
left wide open for abuse.
This
227-year-old “experiment” has gone awry.
Actually, it never really lived up to its intentions. In the beginning,
and slowly progressing and regressing through time, basically only white,
wealthy, Christian men could truly pursue happiness. Perhaps we should look more closely at the
people who participate in the experiment two centuries later. As the 21st century begins, void
of culture, family systems, to say nothing of integrity and dignity, it only
seems fitting that I would portray the rapacious of America as cartoon characters.
