I joined Facebook a while back and I really enjoy it. Early on I made a conscious effort to avoid, for the most part, political and religious posts. To me it's a very personal thing and I just want to have fun on Facebook. Recently there have been "click if you agree" posts about "welfare" and it's been hard not to speak up. Many of my friends on FB tend to be more on the conservative side of things where I tend to be more of a moderate to conservative liberal . Today for some reason I feel the need to speak up: especially about "welfare." First I ask my readers to check out this website: www.welfareinfo.org especially the "History of Welfare."
I am a "welfare" recipient. If it were not for Social Security Disability Income (a large chunk of which I pay out to): Medicare, Medical Assistance and something called the CADY Waiver, I would either be dead, or much more disabled than I currently am and in a nursing home. I admit that it hurts to read the comments about "welfare" on Facebook. I defend to my very core everyone's right to say what they choose, so please don't get me wrong, but it stabs the heart a little when I read them. Are there abuses to the system? You bet, not only by the recipients but the vendors and/or providers as well. I've experienced it in the health care system myself, especially with equipment suppliers. But without "welfare" I shudder to think where I would be now.
BTW, I found out my father was part of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Core) during the depression, which I thought was totally cool: see www.ccclegacy.org/ccc_legacy.htm The CCC was part of the original "welfare" system established by Roosevelt. Maybe some of your parents/grandparents were also a part of such projects during the depression.
I'm just asking to please think a little before generalizing is all. Thanks for hearing me out. See you on FB!
I'm with you on the welfare thing. Without it, I would be in worse shape than I am, although to "activate" my medicaid every month, I'd have to pay almost $200 for my spend-down and my doctor appointments are usually less than that so I pay out of pocket what Medicare doesn't cover. I get a whopping $16 in food stamps while people who can work get well over that. I get very upset sometimes when I see people at the grocery store use their food stamp card to pay for their groceries, then turn and give the card to their friend in line behind them and buy their groceries as well. That's not how it's supposed to work and I've been told the grocery clerks are supposed to report such activity but they don't.
ReplyDeleteNow, as a kid in high school I worked one summer for the YCC (Youth Conservation Corp (like the Marine Corp) which I think was similar to the CCC, only with kids and not during the depression. I worked at Roaring River (which is a Missouri state park, I believe) with a group of other kids my age, clearing trails, building a bridge and a stone wall, and basic stuff like that.
Love ya!
Tigg