Czar Red #9

It's welfare music
Watch the baby dance
To the welfare music
Will she ever stand a chance?

Don't expect any answers from me. I admit I'm just as uncertain and weary as the rest of us. I do, however, have a signficant amount of concerns to consider.

I feel like there is a difference between the deserving and undeserving but I do know that I'm not qualified to make that distinction. I don't claim to have the knowledge or even enough compassion to fairly make that assessment. Is the crack addict down the street deserving because of her pathetic lethal addiction? Or is she undeserving -- trapped in a prison of her own making?

My parents always told me to never give cash to "bums" because they'd spend it on alcohol. I always thought that'd be a reason TO give it to them -- if they wanted a drink so bad, why couldn't I be the one to give it to them? To make their small lives happy if just for awhile?

I'd contend there are no undeserving children -- they're too helpless and undeveloped to fend for themselves -- but then again, are they? I had a job at fifteen and understood how to manage money.

So maybe everyone is deserving. The circumstances our out of their control -- no one wants to me an alcholic or a gambler -- but where does that leave them? Unforuntately, they become a massive weight on society, especially the working poor. The rich can blow me, I really care less about their tax concerns. But what about those with a legitmate job that make mere pennies over the poverty line? They are actually trying to make it while the others, well you get the point.

I do know something. I think it's a mistake to blame poverty on the moral failings of the invidiual poor themselves. Poverty is something that is perpetuated by the society's economic structure. Everyone knows that America's poor are poorer and their rich are richer than most places in the world. That diversity isn't coincidental but the result of our economic policy and it's tie to politics.

If we really want to do something about the poor, we have to point our fingers at ourselves and the governmental structure we endorse.