I have people in my family that have lived off of welfare their whole lives. They are ALL miserable. They have little, if any hope. This applies to ALL of them. They have no goals, no dreams and no aspirations. They live in an "I can't world" that is someone else's fault and that they are not given enough. They whine, they complain and accept absolutley no responsibility for their conditions. When they have troubles, they do not call the welfare department or their welfare friends, they call me. And I take care of most of their problems. Lola can completely attest to this.

Of these pople in my family, I will sharea bit of a few of them. My sister's boyfriend is one of the most intelligent people I know. He could be anything he wants to, but he lies around depressed and feeling worthless. He drinks alot to drown out his conditions and lack of ambition. Why? I believe because he knows he is wasting his potential more than anything else. True, he had a tough life, passed around in the foster kid system. But he has had opportunities to educate himsef and chose not to despite my constant encouragement and support and counsel. He has what is labeled as "social anxiety" and was able to get on social security. Interestingly this occurred after the welfare reforms and he could not get welfare. I don't think I would feel too comfortable around people knowing I was wasting my talents either. I think I would be quite embarrassed too. He and my sister have never married because they would get less government money despite over fifteen years together. They did learn how to cheat and guage the system quite well and were quite successful in those enedeavors.

My sister suffered convulsions as an infant. My parents raised her while themselves beleiveing she was brain damaged and expected little to nothing from her. I think they felt they did something wrong. This despite the evidence that only 0.3% of all of these children actually suffered brain damage and believe me, she has no brain damage. She has been on welfare nearly her whole life. She too is now on Social Security due to health reasons. BOth also get some monies from welfare.

My parents raised me nearly demanding I be a doctor and I indeed did take the entire pre-med curriculum while in undergard but did not want to be a doctor. I received catholic shool education from kindergarten through 5th grade and a great Jesuit high school education at one of the top rated schools in Philadelhia. Three years in pulbic scool in the seventies and I know that system is broken but that one can still succeed there as I have seen. I was lucky in this repsect. If I did not do well I got punished.

Margie got public school and my parent's guilt when she did not do well. They passed it off as her brain damage and took no corrective actions in her failures or lack of progress. They left it to me to deal with her school problems/education and well I did not do the greatest job as they pushed off most of their responsibiliteis on me. I was one of thoe latch-key kids. I was out of there right after graduation and before my sister got to high school.

My sister dropped out of high scholl and resorted to drugs including IV drug use. Many of her welfare friends are drug addicts and criminally minded. She contracted Hepatitis C as a teenager and is now in very bad shape and has told she needs a new liver. She was pregnant at 16 and due to drug ue my nephew was premature, had a whole in his heart and pyloric stenosis. On more than one occasion I went down to these drug neighborhoods facing threats to drag that boy away form her. I have been begging her to take me to her doctor since we are both a rare blood type AB- and both red heads and I am convinced I am the perfect match. I jsut know they can take half of my liver and give it to her so she can survive. She does not want to do that because she fears it may hurt me, or so she says. I keep telling her that that my remaining liver and hers will gorw to full size and I want to do this for her and it will be all good. I think her refusal says more about her miserable existence of her life and the complete lack of hope due to her miserable welfare existence. I don't just believe...I know it while I do understand my parents are to blame for much of it. But welfare has allowed the destruction of her life and her boyfriend's life by perpetuating their feelings of uselessness and giving them just enough to scrape by leaving them valueless and has also affected their children and their attitudes as well.

I raised my nephew from 9 to 14. He had been diagnosed with Dyslexia and learning disabilites. Working with professionals I leared he was not dyslexic at all, rather his problems resulted form hearing problems early in life, something I also experienced and which effects my own spelling issues as well. Ear problems common in the family and I am getting hard of hearing already. This prevented him from clearly distinguishing b's and d's and otehr phonics issues and his ability to learn to spell. He also had a traumatic childhood and was diagnosed with ADD. I was over the school nearly every Friday fighting wtih the teachers to see that he got what was necessary in leeping with his IEP (indiviudal education plan) and he became an A and B student. I kept a tight leash and my sister thought I was overbearing and mean. AT age 14, my siter felt she could do a better job. He was starting 9th grade and got custody as siblings simply lack standing and I had no recourse inthe courts although I tried. He failed ninth grade and was 21 when he finally graduated high school. He lacks ambtion today and works part time at age 23. Recently he was falsely accused of a crime due to his bad choices in friends and I am in process of representing him. This is public infoprmation and I violate no confidnetiality or attorney-client privilege.

I don't need to read any book about welfare. I have seen first hand what it does and there is nothing good that comes from it but for htose who cannot care for themselves. My relative's existences are all I need to know adn more than any book could provide. Their story is compelling to me and not much different than other family members I would much rather see those who don't really need it get kicked off the system and forced to be productive. They would be better off. Then that would leave the monies for those who truly need it and for them to have a better existence.

You can boil this down to Dems vs. Repubs. For me, it is not a political issue. Rather it is about real people's lives and my strong beleif that achieving goals, accomplishment and success and the audacity to dream (like the story of joe the plumber be it real or contrived) is what gives people true hope, the ability to believe a dream can be achieved, and a feeling of having value inside, to their families and their community. You won;t have any soical anxiety then. Start taking away what people work for and give it to others and you then create two vicitms and remove hope, dream an incentives. At the end of the day, people getting a handout hurts them. It DOES NOT help them as we appreciate what we achieve ourselves, and not the spoils of other's property. This is where my passion is derived in this topic.