I saw a picture of a highway with cars headed away from the photographer and north out of Florida. When I saw the word "goodbye', I was expecting the picture to be about the annual exodus of the snowbirds. I was wrong. The original poster wrote about gleefully saying goodbye to all the "deadbeats who don't want to work and drug users" who would be leaving Florida to go to States where drug testing is not required to receive public assistance. I am still stunned, though I shouldn't be, at how many people not just here in Florida, but across the country, really do believe that drug users and deadbeats are the largest group receiving public assistance.
There is a reason so many people believe this misconception about who receives public assistance. Fox News, Right Wing television and radio personalities and the Republican Party have made this one of their biggest messages in an effort to gain support to destroy social service programs. Painting a vivid picture of deadbeats and drug users really does have a tremendous effect on how people perceive those receiving assistance. Would anyone really feel so angry about senior citizens on Social Security, people with disabilities or veterans receiving assistance? Of course not, unless a person is so heartless as to really believe people deserve to starve.
Some working people also receive public assistance because they are unable to find full-time work or find a job that pays enough to feed their family. Raising the minimum wage would certainly help. But that is a difficult conversation to have when wealthy corporate owners are spending so much money to prevent that from happening. There is also the impact raising the wage would have on small business owners who would struggle to meet payroll demands. The tendency is always to focus on the big corporations as though big corporations own and operate every business.
Surely demonizing people is not the answer, yet that is what is happening. Worse is that the lie is being endorsed by staunch, proud conservative Christians who quote from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians that people who do not work, should not eat. They, of course forget all about Jesus saying sell what you have and give to the poor. (Matthew 19:21, Mark 10:21, Luke 12:33, Luke 18:22) There are also verses in the Old testament as well as the other verses in the New testament about feeding the poor, caring for the elderly and taking care of the sick. All of which are conveniently ignored in an effort to destroy life saving programs.
If only people would actually take time to find out if the information they pass along is actually truthful instead of allowing their emotions to be manipulated, this country might actually move forward, rather than backward. If only this outrage at all those drug dealers and deadbeats who refuse to work who are receiving so much public assistance, which in fact is not the millions about which conservatives rant and rave and whip people into a frenzy, was directed at those who are not paying their fair share in any type of taxes, the deficits would drop and social programs would be infused with life giving money. Where is the outrage about this?
Where is the outrage about children who are starving/ Where is the outrage about the elderly who have to choose between eating and paying bills? Where is the outrage about veterans living on the streets? Where is the outrage about anyone living on the streets? Where is the outrage about people digging in dumpsters for food?
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