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Screw you, PBS
email | Craig J. Cantoni

Posted on 09/19/2003 3:55:19 PM PDT by hsmomx3

Sorry for the above language, but I used a more vulgar verb last night while watching a PBS NewsHour segment about new expensive public housing in Chicago. I was still fuming when I awoke this morning.

Maybe my nerves are frayed over my father's recent death and the unpleasant task of moving my 82-year-old mother out of the very humble house that she shared with him for 60 years in St. Louis -- a house that they had made livable over the years through sweat equity. But even with a lifetime of scrimping on their meager income to buy remodeling materials, the house is worth only about a third as much as the beautiful new townhomes built for welfare recipients in Chicago.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a similar story during the week of my dad's funeral. It included photos of expensive townhomes for the poor in St. Louis and purred about how great the housing was for the residents. As with the PBS segment, the story did not question why people on welfare should live in free housing that is better than the housing of most taxpayers, or why the poor cannot be provided with an old house and the materials to fix it up with their own labor, similar to how Bosnian immigrants are renovating dilapidated homes in the city with their own labor and money.

When my mom saw the article, she threw the paper down in disgust without saying a word. She is too polite to say, "Screw you, Post-Dispatch."

Neither PBS nor the Post-Dispatch would ever interview a taxpayer such as my mom about public housing or other social programs. She might tell them what it was like to be orphaned as an infant and raised in a two-flat by an immigrant aunt and uncle, who worked as a waiter and never went on the dole. She might say that she does not begrudge the deserving poor from getting temporary help, but she sure as hell resents it when they live better than taxpayers.

The PBS segment did not interview someone like my mom, but it did interview the members of a single-parent black family as they sat in their new townhouse, which, considering how nicely furnished and decorated it was, could have been featured in Better Homes & Gardens. Adhering to the standard journalism formula, the interview was a politically-correct puff-piece that did not ask the tough questions that my mom and millions of other Americans would have wanted to be asked.

For example, it did not ask the unemployed, overweight single mother if she thought it was fair that she and her strapping teenage kids were living in a nicer house than taxpayers who paid for the house, or why she and her kids and their absentee father could not have gotten off their duffs and helped with the construction.

In the absence of such penetrating questions, another opportunity was lost by the media to teach the public a lesson about personal responsibility. Instead, another lesson in irresponsibility was taught -- that if you want a nice house, the way to get it is to drop out of school, have kids out of wedlock, and sit on your behind and eat Cheetos while watching Oprah Winfrey.

Although the segment explained the horrors of the high-rise public housing where the family used to live, it did not explain why the housing was horrible. It was horrible because Lyndon Johnson's Great Society Program and other misguided social programs stripped the poor of their dignity and self-reliance by giving them handouts without expecting responsible behavior in return. Then they were told to live in gulag-like breeding grounds of social pathology.

But society did get something in return for giving people handouts without expecting responsible behavior in return. It got skyrocketing out-of-wedlock births and the exodus of fathers from families, both of which are the primary causes of poverty, crime, school dropouts and low academic achievement.

My mom and dad saw it coming in the 1960s. Although they never went to college, they understood human nature better than the experts with their advanced sociology degrees.

I also saw it coming. Before the Great Society atomized black families, I worked as a teenager as the only white member of a crew of black janitors and porters. I saw firsthand how black men worked hard, supported their families and were slowly climbing the economic ladder. I even made extra money by washing and waxing my coworkers' cars, which were nicer than my family's decrepit car.

Statistics confirm my recollection of black progress, showing that progress was more rapid before the Great Society than after.

Unfortunately, PBS and the Post-Dispatch are the rule, not the exception. A day does not go by without a chirpy story appearing in my local newspaper or on local TV about a new government program that rewards irresponsibility instead of responsibility. A recent story, for example, chirped about free tutors, free all-day kindergarten and free preschool for poor kids who don't do well in school. It did not mention that an unemployed single parent with four kids is already getting an education benefit that will cost taxpayers nearly $400,000 over 12 years. Once again, an opportunity to teach a lesson in personal responsibility was lost and replaced by a lesson in personal irresponsibility -- namely, if you do not make sure that your kids take full advantage of a free education, the state will reward you by spending even more money on them.

PBS, the Post-Dispatch and other mainstream media are essentially saying "Screw you!" to millions of Americans by not including their views in news stories about welfare and other social issues.

Americans should say "Screw you!" in return and go elsewhere for their news.

__________

Mr. Cantoni is an author, columnist and founder of Honest Americans Against Legal Theft (HAALT). He can be reached at ccan2@aol.com.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: defundpbs; govthousing; greatsociety; pbs
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To: DUMBGRUNT
Not to worry, many of the units will be trashed in short order. Not all of them, but many.

Sad, but true. It's human nature to value and protect that for which you've worked hard and earned. Something given free or for minimal charge is not valued much by the receiver.

41 posted on 09/19/2003 5:31:49 PM PDT by randita
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To: McGavin999
Liberals just don't seem to understand it, or if they do, they're intent on cheating other people out of that fantastic feeling.

They cheat others out of it because it selfishly makes them feel good by giving other people's money (i.e. the tax payers) away. How giving someone's else's money away makes a liberal feel compassionate, I'll never understand.

Also, they do it to extort votes.

42 posted on 09/19/2003 5:37:59 PM PDT by randita
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To: Sub-Driver
time to defund PBS.

Time to defund the government!

43 posted on 09/19/2003 5:41:32 PM PDT by SpyGuy
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To: hsmomx3
I can certainly sympathize. But I think some of your scorn is misplaced, because the vast majority of social welfare in this country does not go to the poor. It goes to the rich.

About 87 percent of the wealth in this country is in the hands of folks over 50 years old. More than half (55 percent) is in the hands of people over 65. Yet about two-thirds of the federal budget is spent on social security and Medicare. By comparison, less than 7 percent of the federal budget is used for traditional social welfare.

So while you rightfully lament the ungrateful, lazy bastards who live in government-subsidized housing in the slums of Chicago, you ought to save your real rage for the leisure classes in Sun City, Myrtle Beach and Tampa Bay.

Most of those folks vote Republican, though, so I guess that makes them alright.

44 posted on 09/19/2003 5:54:38 PM PDT by massadvj
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To: McGavin999; hsmomx3; randita; ovrtaxt; FrdmLvr; holyscroller; viaveritasvita; tonyinv; Mears; ...
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: "From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

- Alexander Fraser Tytler (later Lord Alexander Fraser Woodhouslee), in "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic," published 1776

45 posted on 09/19/2003 5:57:22 PM PDT by SpyGuy
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To: bruinbirdman
HEY!!! Thats how I made my "gentleman's" bathroom in my old house. I couldn't afford the cost of a plumber to sawcut the basement floor. A drain is a drain, right?(Not really, I know, I know)I added a comode and a shower stall. The new owner's wife said "We can take that out" The new owner said "I think I'll keep it. I always wanted my own bathroom".
46 posted on 09/19/2003 6:00:43 PM PDT by chadwimc
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To: hsmomx3
there was a story in sf chron about three days ago how people in the bay area were getting homes{yes,homes} worth 160,000 and only paying a fraction of the cost...the taxpayer picks up the rest...the story was in lucianne.com and go to their search engine and look up the word condo..the story is there
47 posted on 09/19/2003 6:06:58 PM PDT by fishbabe
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To: hsmomx3
if you want a nice house, the way to get it is to drop out of school, have kids out of wedlock, and sit on your behind and eat Cheetos while watching Oprah Winfrey.

Yup, the "Rev.Jesse's" pinions have learned their lessons well

48 posted on 09/19/2003 6:11:48 PM PDT by apackof2 (Watch and pray till you see Him coming, no one knows the hour or the day)
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To: nutmeg
.
49 posted on 09/19/2003 6:13:52 PM PDT by nutmeg ("The DemocRATic party...has been hijacked by a confederacy of gangsters..." - Pat Caddell, 11/27/00)
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To: hsmomx3
In much of America, Johnson's "Urban Renewal" became "negro removel". And "ppor anybody else" removal. Poor housing and cheap hotels were leveled - but nothing was built for those who were displaced.

Where before a wino could put in a few hours at day labor and be paid cash sufficient for a flop house, some food, and a bottle of wine (the real incentive), a after "Urban Renewal" they slept on the streets and under bridges.

I once dated a surgical nurse who lived in Miami. She regularly had stories about how 'trolls' (the OR term for those living under the bridges) were kept alive by maggots which debrided the knife wounds.

When flop houses were available, emergency care was far more readily available. Why so? Ever tried to find a phone with which to make a call from under the abutment of a bridge? Remember, we are talking about a "Renewed" area, so even the phone booths are trashed. That is, those that were not removed due to a lack of profitablity due to vandalism.

Moral: Urban Renewal" had major Unintended Consequences. So do most experiments in socialism and/or social engineering.
50 posted on 09/19/2003 6:40:18 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon liberty, it is essential to examine principles - -)
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To: hsmomx3
I'm on travel and don't have my PBS/NPR ping list; but yes, screw PBS
51 posted on 09/19/2003 8:48:32 PM PDT by Drango (McClintock is my first choice, but given the numbers I'm voting for Arnold.)
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To: hsmomx3
...Although the segment explained the horrors of the high-rise public housing where the family used to live, it did not explain why the housing was horrible...and I'll bet it didn't explain that this original public housing was so trashed by those living there over the years that in many places it has had to be dynamited as not longer habitable, to make way for the new garden apartments - which I'll also bet will be similarly trashed within a few years, eventually to be dynamited to make way for.......
52 posted on 09/19/2003 8:59:00 PM PDT by Intolerant in NJ
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To: hsmomx3
They can also "afford" medical care, unlike most working Americans. Nice that we pay for that too.
53 posted on 09/19/2003 9:21:13 PM PDT by ETERNAL WARMING
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To: SpyGuy
"From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage."

Very chilling quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler; thanks for posting this. So much apathy and dependence out there, today. So what happens next when the liberals' looting of the treasury runs dry? Will they push us out of our homes and strip us of our assets at gunpoint, because we worked our asses off all of our lives? Arm yourselves, that day may be coming in the near future.

Almost forgot to say it - screw PBS!

54 posted on 09/20/2003 12:02:12 AM PDT by roadcat
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To: massadvj
Boy, I heard a lot of rebuttals there.

Although that whole 'leisure class' rhetoric is a bit Marxist in tone, doncha think?
55 posted on 09/20/2003 12:47:38 AM PDT by LibertarianInExile (The scariest nine words in the English Language: We're from the government. We're here to help you.)
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To: randita
it selfishly makes them feel good by giving other people's money (i.e. the tax payers) away. How giving someone's else's money away makes a liberal feel compassionate, I'll never understand.
IMHO it doesn't truely make them feel compassionate, it couldn't. What it does make them feel, IMHO, is powerful.
Also, they do it to extort votes
. . . and that really makes them feel powerful!

But the interersting question is why the middle-class liberal (a minority among the middle class, but not a small one) wants to enable the scamming hot-shots who do this. I think it's a vicarious thrill of power, myself--but ya gotta be hard up for a power trip to inflict that on your children/grandchildren.


56 posted on 09/20/2003 3:54:06 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The everyday blessings of God are great--they just don't make "good copy.")
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To: hsmomx3
< *golf clap*>

Very well put.
57 posted on 09/20/2003 4:31:22 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (this space intentionally blank)
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To: roadcat

Don't worry about PBS and their socialist agenda. When Republicans are in charge of the House and Senate, we'll defund that taxpayer-funded waste pit. Right.
58 posted on 09/20/2003 4:34:01 AM PDT by kittymyrib
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To: hsmomx3
ahhh yes...PBS...The station that ran a show last week on 911 that had on it an interview with a journalist (probably from the NY Times) who described 911 as "poetic justice".

"Your either with us or your with the terrorists"....That says it all

59 posted on 09/20/2003 4:40:42 AM PDT by scabbage (if Huey Lewis and Stevie Ray Vaughn made a record, could you tell who was singing?)
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To: SpyGuy
Thanks for the wonderful excerpt about democracy----scary,isn't it?
60 posted on 09/20/2003 5:59:30 AM PDT by Mears
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