String of snow days deprives many students of food

OK

We have no issue with helping people who are in need. What we are against is the growing phenomena of “institutionalization” outside of the institutions. Remember in the movie Shawshank Redemption, the old con who when he was released after many years in prison, he could not handle the burden of the many small responsibilities and tasks we all take for granted everyday without even thinking? That is institutionalization. Your told when to wake up, what your going to do that day, what to wear, what your going to eat, etc. When suddenly you have to think of all of the things someone else has done for you for years, it creates unbearable stress in the individual. That is why have-way houses transition prisoners slowly back into society.

The institutionalization that is occurring outside of the four walls of the traditional prison environment is the reliance on government programs for every basic need. There are whole communities who have multiple generations of people who have never worked, never had to worry about meeting basic needs, between welfare checks, food stamps, school lunch/breakfast and section 8. And thats just the government programs. If there are any other needs, there are all kinds of programs you can go to. Kids need coats for winter? Power about to be shut off? Need a laptop for the kids? Need a ride to the doctors? There are a whole slew of agencies who can help you. I’m not against them, there are people who truly need them. What I am against is the idea that all of these programs have to expand into every aspect of peoples lives, so there is nothing left to be responsible for. This is the root cause of many of the problems that occurred after Katrina. People were so used to being taken care of, they had no ability to take care of themselves.

Then you have the administrators of the programs themselves. They have to publicize the “poor children are starving without us”. They have to insure the continued need for their program to insure the continuance of there jobs. If parents have to get off the couch, turn off Jerry Springer, and go feed their kids, well I guess that program wasn’t really needed.

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."-- A Former Indentured Servant

You are right on every point except one. And that one in my mind is crucial. I can not paint everyone in that color when I do not know the individuals or anything about those individuals. I have never supported the gimmie entitlement mentality. When my son died, my daughter-in-law was left with huge medical bills she could have walked away from-the social services person at the hospital wiped out some legitimately, the rest my daughter-in-law chose not to take the easy way out-which by the way was suggested— she paid them. All of a sudden being a single mom meant it took a long time. She paid them.

That is the way our family does things. That is the way I expect others to do. Some do, many do not. But some do. Those that are honorable about debt or where life has been tough beyond their control should not be lumped with the deadbeats.

And certainly those that “administer” these “programs” decidedly feed at the teat. On a related sideline, with more and more evidence irrefutable evidence showing algore created a crisis (which many of us knew from the git go) to line his pockets- ya spose he might lose his stupid peace prize?

What we are essentially doing is ‘tying baby elephants to the stake.’ The elephant eventually grows up and can easily break away from the stake, but because they were conditioned as a baby to believe they couldn’t break away, they don’t even try.