worst case senarios

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 21^st 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.