Since when did needing temporary help to feed your children make you less worthy of protection under the law. Well Missouri lawmakers have recently passed legislation requiring people that receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, to take random drug tests to stay on the “roll.” Republican lawmakers across the country are lobbying to enact similar laws. I believe the Constitution says a little something about Americans being protected against unlawful search and seizure. http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_953196cf-8104-5758-8198-60e151debe90.html
Republicans continually insist they are the party of smaller government, but here again we have another crystal clear example of Republicans helping to create a cottage industry of privately-operated drug labs for welfare families. The details of how the law will work is further proof that this is just a way to help republican business “friends” make money.
The cost of testing can be upwards of $75, done randomly throughout the year, as many times as the system pulls that particular recipients’ name from a database. This means a company can charge the government $75 for a yet undetermined number of times in a year. The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that for every found to be using, it will cost the state $20,000 or more. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125387528
The first year the program is projected to cost Missouri taxpayers more than $1 million, and more every year thereafter. Since laws rarely if ever expire, you do the math over fifty years. When will voters see this party’s slight of hand and stop voting them into office.
This law assumes the worst of people needing help in one of the darkest economic seasons of my life. It criminalizes people receiving a meager subsidy from a government that easily wastes money subsidizing the oil industry to the tune of $4 BIILLION. The US government has given Wal-Mart over $1 billion in welfare to transform them into the “entrepreneurial success” they claim to be. Give me a billion dollars and I will show the government how much a female, minority, single mother can succeed! http://money.cnn.com/2004/05/24/news/fortune500/walmart_subsidies/
For those who say the law is about helping addicted people on welfare, I say liar liar pants on fire. If a welfare recipient is found to be using drugs, they are referred to a rehab facility that they will have to pay for. Then they will lose the benefits if a third party cannot be found to accept funds on their behalf. The notion that someone on public assistance can pay for rehab is insane. And will the “third party” be tested? Moreover, addiction is a disease that should be recognized as such, and since America seems to have lost the war on drugs I say treatment at the state’s expense is in order.
Lawmakers say this law will further help welfare recipients become ready for work. If true, then why fixate on drug testing, and not literacy. What better way to get people from welfare to work than to ensure they can read and write. A 1996 study in the American Journal of Public Health looked at the assumption that people on public assistance are drug addicted. In short, the study found people on welfare drink and use drugs at around the same rates as the national average. http://www.ndsn.org/DEC96/WELFARE.html
Politicians from the great state of Arizona had the audacity to say such a law will help them save $1.7 million a year after kicking families off welfare.
Laws such as this one are just a smoke screen for the building of another layer of bureaucracy created to mire our government in true mismanagement, and produce more businesses. Don’t misconstrue its false attempt to help people in our community that need the most help in these trying times. Children are the largest beneficiaries of programs such as Women Infants and Children and food stamps. To kick their parents off of welfare will leave our children to suffer. Because of this law, one more child will go to bed hungry tonight because Republicans have been mean-spirited enough to attack their families instead of lifting them up.
To be truly fair, all corporate executives that represent companies that get welfare from the government should be required to get drug tested randomly. Welfare is “free money” no matter who is getting it. Test one, test them all.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Righteous Indignation at the Lack of Indignation
As the parent of a precocious two-year-old, public school education has never meant so much to me as it does now. I was blessed to have had parents with the means, and the wherewithal, to send me to a private, all-girl, college Prep school called Notre Dame de Sion. When you say it put some French on it! Now my little one is participating in public education. But at this rate she won't be for long because I cannot afford to fail her by sending her through public school.
This week the Hickman Mills School Board voted to cut the Parents As Teacher Program (PAT) budget by 50 percent http://www.kctv5.com/education/27528532/detail.html. PAT works with parents to teach them how to teach their children from birth to kindergarten. http://www.parentsasteachers.org/about/what-we-do They aren't building weapons of mass destruction, they are educating OUR children who might otherwise not have access to one-on-one tutoring. They work with special-needs students. They are educators with years of experience and the certifications to back it up. These are the teachers that all students and parents want teaching them. Yet when lawmakers look at ways to curb spending, such programs are the first to suffer.
This is devastating because jobs will be lost, and children between the ages of 1 and 5 will lose out on valuable pre-school learning that is essential for future educational success. We as a society know that if we set our children up early they will be successful later in school. But why do lawmakers keep failing our children?
More importantly, all of OUR children must be educated. Not just those whose parents can pay for school or relocate away from blacks and browns to send their kids to public schools so homogonous, and white washed as to be just like private schools. We are all connected on this planet, yet we act as if we are separate. If one of our children are suffering in ignorance then we all suffer. Case in point, when children are failing in school they often are distracting and act out which takes away from the others who want to learn. Our kids pay the price. Then without the foundation for career success, kids who drop out of school often times end up on welfare or in prison, where they ARE society's responsibility.
PAT is truly a gift for me and my family because my two-year old now possesses a 150-word vocabulary, and it's ever expanding. Its due to the twice-monthly visits at our home with her parent-educator, Karen, who teaches me how to teach. It's the books we receive monthly, and the baby- sing-and-sign classes that have clearly given my little one a leg up on her age mates. Gymboree two times a month has taught her countless physical developmental skills. Because of PAT she is prepared for school NOW. When I talk about the priceless gifts imparted by PAT I cry. Tears roll from my eyes because this child is but six generations from slavery. I boo hoo because of the opportunities that will be afforded her because of her knowledge. Joy fills my heart and tears tumble from my eyes in a dichotomy of emotions that overtake me at times. I have a purpose.
I also shed tears when I work with her three-year-old playmate who cannot decipher numbers or words at all. She is in a daycare where they are "teaching" her. I cry because her parents don't know how to access the assessments and tools that will give her a 150-word vocabulary. I despair because her parents were educated in public schools, and they do not know how to be outraged because of her delays. I cry because there is a school system waiting for this child that is comfortable with cutting much needed funds for her, and her schoolmates. I cry because lawmakers trade our children for the blood money of big corporate interests. I cry because the likes of many businesses like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Preparers market to uneducated and impoverished consumers helping earn them $4 billion in a four-month tax season. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gary-rivlin-tax-prep-refund-anticipation-loan I cry for this country.
Education cuts have caused many an Englishman to rise up and strike a blow to the rich and wealthy Royal Family http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/09/world/main7134510.shtml . The French know how to pick a fight with their president when their children are being short-changed, yet Americans do nothing as our future is slowly being imprisoned by but a few rich and powerful like the Koch Brothers whose goal is to keep the working man a captive-consumer http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/koch-industries-price-gouging/ . Where is our American fight? Where is our American outrage? Where is our indignation!
We must ask ourselves who does it serve if an individual possesses a quality-education that empowers them to take care of themselves and their families.
This week the Hickman Mills School Board voted to cut the Parents As Teacher Program (PAT) budget by 50 percent http://www.kctv5.com/education/27528532/detail.html. PAT works with parents to teach them how to teach their children from birth to kindergarten. http://www.parentsasteachers.org/about/what-we-do They aren't building weapons of mass destruction, they are educating OUR children who might otherwise not have access to one-on-one tutoring. They work with special-needs students. They are educators with years of experience and the certifications to back it up. These are the teachers that all students and parents want teaching them. Yet when lawmakers look at ways to curb spending, such programs are the first to suffer.
This is devastating because jobs will be lost, and children between the ages of 1 and 5 will lose out on valuable pre-school learning that is essential for future educational success. We as a society know that if we set our children up early they will be successful later in school. But why do lawmakers keep failing our children?
More importantly, all of OUR children must be educated. Not just those whose parents can pay for school or relocate away from blacks and browns to send their kids to public schools so homogonous, and white washed as to be just like private schools. We are all connected on this planet, yet we act as if we are separate. If one of our children are suffering in ignorance then we all suffer. Case in point, when children are failing in school they often are distracting and act out which takes away from the others who want to learn. Our kids pay the price. Then without the foundation for career success, kids who drop out of school often times end up on welfare or in prison, where they ARE society's responsibility.
PAT is truly a gift for me and my family because my two-year old now possesses a 150-word vocabulary, and it's ever expanding. Its due to the twice-monthly visits at our home with her parent-educator, Karen, who teaches me how to teach. It's the books we receive monthly, and the baby- sing-and-sign classes that have clearly given my little one a leg up on her age mates. Gymboree two times a month has taught her countless physical developmental skills. Because of PAT she is prepared for school NOW. When I talk about the priceless gifts imparted by PAT I cry. Tears roll from my eyes because this child is but six generations from slavery. I boo hoo because of the opportunities that will be afforded her because of her knowledge. Joy fills my heart and tears tumble from my eyes in a dichotomy of emotions that overtake me at times. I have a purpose.
I also shed tears when I work with her three-year-old playmate who cannot decipher numbers or words at all. She is in a daycare where they are "teaching" her. I cry because her parents don't know how to access the assessments and tools that will give her a 150-word vocabulary. I despair because her parents were educated in public schools, and they do not know how to be outraged because of her delays. I cry because there is a school system waiting for this child that is comfortable with cutting much needed funds for her, and her schoolmates. I cry because lawmakers trade our children for the blood money of big corporate interests. I cry because the likes of many businesses like H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Preparers market to uneducated and impoverished consumers helping earn them $4 billion in a four-month tax season. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/04/gary-rivlin-tax-prep-refund-anticipation-loan I cry for this country.
Education cuts have caused many an Englishman to rise up and strike a blow to the rich and wealthy Royal Family http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/09/world/main7134510.shtml . The French know how to pick a fight with their president when their children are being short-changed, yet Americans do nothing as our future is slowly being imprisoned by but a few rich and powerful like the Koch Brothers whose goal is to keep the working man a captive-consumer http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/13/koch-industries-price-gouging/ . Where is our American fight? Where is our American outrage? Where is our indignation!
We must ask ourselves who does it serve if an individual possesses a quality-education that empowers them to take care of themselves and their families.
Friday, March 11, 2011
To Twitter or Facebook, That Is The Question
I have a confession to make---I really don't like Facebook or the chatter that goes on in that vortex, and I don't really get the appeal. Millions of people on Facebook, a movie, and I'm sure a book will be forthcoming, but what is the BFD. Yes, I'm on Facebook, but never ever check my account anymore. I figure if someone said something days ago, it CAN'T be relevant anymore. I think all conversations should be limited to Twitter's 140 characters, or less. In person, on the phone, at the office, in the classroom, all communication. I shouldn't have to use more than 140 characters to get my 2-year old to behave properly, or sit on the potty.
Unfortunately, I cannot convince my dearest besties of the point of Twitter . They just don't get it. They fail to see the blast that one can have just reading the limited rantings of their favorite NFL player, or the musings of a mother clear across the globe about how potty training is practically killing her spirit one day at time.
Maybe it's Twitter's simplicity that confuses people. Twitter's world begins with the @ sign and once you get an account, which is your name or any silly name you create, then you just start talking, using just 140 characters or less. You say things and others see your comments and they hit you back, or better yet follow back. Once they are followers of you then they see everything you say. Goal: get as many followers as possible so cleverness and a message are key! What about this is so hard that my best friend "just can't get into it." My other bestie just flat out refuses to leave the garden and cafe of Facebook and join the real world of Twitter.
Twitter has gotten a bad reputation for being all about randomness, when in fact it's specific, personal and much more intimate than Facebook. The immediacy is one reason for this. I can instantly reach out to celebs, and get an instant response. On many of occasions Chad Ochocinco has invited 100 of his closest friends to dinner in one hour, and had I been in Los Angeles, or Miami at those moments well let's just say I would be eating good. This is only possible with Twitter.
One night I found myself sitting at home on a lonely Saturday when HBO was premiering "The Hangover." With a simple swipe of my iPhone I soon realized that thousands were at home just like me watching. Celebs and just regular folk. Everybody was commenting about almost every scene, and I nearly busted a gut laughing. I ended up having a blast watching one of the funniest movies with a few thousand friends. I soon started following Mike Tyson, though he has yet to tweet back.
Twitter's celebrity factor was the original reason I opened an account. Ochocinco is his name, and he's still my favorite tweeter because nothing about his life is off limits. He wakes up and tweets, he eats and tweets, he tweets to his friends that eventually become my friends. And on occasion he's even tweeted me. The day he followed me was the pinnacle. I will forever be his biggest fan for that one.
Beyond the celebrity factor Twitter has brought me into contact with very dear, ordinary people doing interesting things all over the world. I found myself tweeting with a lad from England and we talked about the old neighborhood I used to live in there. No barriers between me and a young, white, male Brit just 140 characters. I love it. I remember at the beginning of the personal computing and Internet revolution that it was said that this medium will remove all barriers of race and gender, and in many ways it has. Twitter is proof.
Unfortunately, I cannot convince my dearest besties of the point of Twitter . They just don't get it. They fail to see the blast that one can have just reading the limited rantings of their favorite NFL player, or the musings of a mother clear across the globe about how potty training is practically killing her spirit one day at time.
Maybe it's Twitter's simplicity that confuses people. Twitter's world begins with the @ sign and once you get an account, which is your name or any silly name you create, then you just start talking, using just 140 characters or less. You say things and others see your comments and they hit you back, or better yet follow back. Once they are followers of you then they see everything you say. Goal: get as many followers as possible so cleverness and a message are key! What about this is so hard that my best friend "just can't get into it." My other bestie just flat out refuses to leave the garden and cafe of Facebook and join the real world of Twitter.
Twitter has gotten a bad reputation for being all about randomness, when in fact it's specific, personal and much more intimate than Facebook. The immediacy is one reason for this. I can instantly reach out to celebs, and get an instant response. On many of occasions Chad Ochocinco has invited 100 of his closest friends to dinner in one hour, and had I been in Los Angeles, or Miami at those moments well let's just say I would be eating good. This is only possible with Twitter.
One night I found myself sitting at home on a lonely Saturday when HBO was premiering "The Hangover." With a simple swipe of my iPhone I soon realized that thousands were at home just like me watching. Celebs and just regular folk. Everybody was commenting about almost every scene, and I nearly busted a gut laughing. I ended up having a blast watching one of the funniest movies with a few thousand friends. I soon started following Mike Tyson, though he has yet to tweet back.
Twitter's celebrity factor was the original reason I opened an account. Ochocinco is his name, and he's still my favorite tweeter because nothing about his life is off limits. He wakes up and tweets, he eats and tweets, he tweets to his friends that eventually become my friends. And on occasion he's even tweeted me. The day he followed me was the pinnacle. I will forever be his biggest fan for that one.
Beyond the celebrity factor Twitter has brought me into contact with very dear, ordinary people doing interesting things all over the world. I found myself tweeting with a lad from England and we talked about the old neighborhood I used to live in there. No barriers between me and a young, white, male Brit just 140 characters. I love it. I remember at the beginning of the personal computing and Internet revolution that it was said that this medium will remove all barriers of race and gender, and in many ways it has. Twitter is proof.
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