It's great to recognize that the lazy, uneducated, criminal, addicted, abused, neglected, impoverished, homeless, underemployed, unemployed members of our community are that way for a reason. What does that recognition lead to? Oh, give that addict a pass, his parent never made them finish school and abused them. Declare them unemployable, put them on the dole and let them be homeless or housed for free in Presidential. That's great, one person is taken care of, but they tend to reproduce and continue the cycle. Give them food stamps, give them welfare, where are the safeguards that the food stamps aren't traded for drugs, that the welfare isn't misspent? This steering committee sounds great, but how many of them actually grew up in poverty or faced the same problems as the bottom segments of our community? It's noble to go slumming, but have they ever spent the night in the slum with the only thoughts of tomorrow being uncertainty and hopelessness? The bottom segments of our society are resistant to change--something that comes with fear and a lack of education. If there are plans to put safeguards in place, how will the needy be persuaded to engage? Many "hope" for a better tomorrow, but are content to be unemployed and live for today--always leaving action to tomorrow, which never comes. It's time for more tough love, less coddling. People should be working to their abilities. Change the people in the present and stop the cycle that perpetuates these lifestyles of despair. Postpone having children until education and a decent career is secured. Learn self-sufficiency and responsibility. Handouts will not cure the problem. "Checked out" parents too busy with their own vices and pursuit of happiness are failing the children they spawned. The kids aren't held accountable, aren't pushed to work to their potential, never learn to work hard and learn to expect instant gratification. How many generations until those that actually pay taxes will be so few that there will be no funding to support every 19 year old mother that decides they want to be pregnant with their fourth child while the fathers are constantly in a rotation of incarceration, couch surfing and homelessness? By the time they realize the error of their ways, they're so uneducated and their brains fried by dope, they've reached the point of no return, and it's time for them to go on disability, be given free housing and food stamps! |