I was raised as a latch key kid too. From first grade. The school was a block away, so it was all good, I guess. I'm a '63 model myself, and my parents put a roof over our head, and fed us. They demanded that chores be done, of course, but had no interest in anything with us unless we got in trouble. Thank God for our grandparents who taught us life lessons, and supported us while we matured. My Granny was the most patient, wise woman on the planet! She cannot be replaced, or replicated, but, she lives in all of us.

Now that my brothers, sister, and myself are, and have been past the dysfunction of our raising, we're all thriving!

For most people, even being on unemployment benefits is degrading, never mind welfare. Yeah, sure there are those that game the system like there are bank robbers and drug dealers. But it is a small percentage, minuscule. Yet find one "Welfare Queen," and the whole system is condemned, and Reagan created that scenario. All are bottom-feeders: it has just been verified by that one indicted person. Please try to imagine and then know the devastating effect on millions of people in the 2008 financial crisis. America did not just suffer a severe set-back, the country almost went under, destroyed. Let them starve through no fault of their own? Begrudging them some possible delicacy or extravagance for all they suffered at the hands of Wall Street and the Banks is just?

I had an upper middle class family. Never really wanted for anything. I had a job just by wanting one. So it should have been hard for me to imagine how "these people" couldn't get off their butts and find any sort of work. Did they have no p***e or self-respect? Then we come to the harsh reality: we are not all created equal after all. And this reality: some jobs, usually minimum wage and part time, like most of the Fast Food Industry, pay less than benefits and now forced to pay for childcare and travel, the food and clothing allowance is greatly reduced. What would you do for your family?

The EBT card was also good so that people that actually Need those benefits could use them without the stigma attached to the stamps themselves, having to count out stamps in a check out line full of people waiting sucks.. I know.. been there.. done that.. but also worked my entire adult life and paid in..and I didn't make it a way of life.. some folks as you say.. use them as a safety net until they can get gainful employment and then get rid of the welfare.. some folks just use them to get them through.. no stigma attached Nor did I imply that ALL people on stamps game the system.. but the few that do ruin it for those in need.. I saw both while volunteering at a homeless shelter.. some that were displaced from the 1989 earth quake In Loma Prieta.. Lots of people made homeless in one natural disaster and I know all across the united states this is the case..Also a lot of those are just like me.. they worked their whole lives and came upon a bad situation.. these things happen..

I agree 100%.. I was a latch key kid, and while the neighbors looked out for all of us, this is in my opinion where "it takes a village" ends.. the rest is on the Parents!..My folks both worked but they instilled enough right and wrong in us that when I got home from school it was chores...homework first.. then I could go hang with my friends but not until then..as a young child they told me about the "birds n bees" so I didn't have to find out the hard way how to get pregnant..

I, as a tax payer shouldn't have to pay for someone else's mistake, especially if there are Mulitiple mistakes from not practicing safe sex, Bottom line. Birth control of any kind isn't 100% the Best way to Not get pregnant is to put an aspirin between your knees to keep them shut, in otherwords, abstain.. I shouldn't have to pay for a s*x c****e operation, which in my opinion is a Life choice, theirs NOT mine..

One thing regarding food stamps or as they call it now, SNAP.. the one good thing they did was come out with a snap debit card... No more cracking stamps to buy booze or drugs..If there is a down side to all this, is some folks see that snap card as a free pass to spend their money on anything they want, provided they get a check as well.. the system pays for food for them, since you can not buy things like toilet paper or paper towels .. deoderant..tooth paste etc.. I guess the system paying for the food leaves them some cash to buy these things..Supposedly...I seem to remember Bill Clinton, said something regarding being on welfare for 3 years then folks have to become self sufficient.. so far that hasn't worked very well.. especially in California..I've heard some say over the years "if ya gotta be homeless California is the place to be.. *rolls eyes* well needless to say, I no longer live in Cali.. thankfully!.. Love California's geography, Don't care for it's politics!! even though it's a misnomer that CA is all blue and no it's not by the way.. I still felt like a guppie in a shark tank politically.. because sadly, the Silent majority, is still silent.. for what ever reason.. Glad I left it..

The EBT card was also good so that people that actually Need those benefits could use them without the stigma attached to the stamps themselves, having to count out stamps in a check out line full of people waiting sucks.. I know.. been there.. done that.. but also worked my entire adult life and paid in..and I didn't make it a way of life.. some folks as you say.. use them as a safety net until they can get gainful employment and then get rid of the welfare.. some folks just use them to get them through.. no stigma attached Nor did I imply that ALL people on stamps game the system.. but the few that do ruin it for those in need.. I saw both while volunteering at a homeless shelter.. some that were displaced from the 1989 earth quake In Loma Prieta.. Lots of people made homeless in one natural disaster and I know all across the united states this is the case..Also a lot of those are just like me.. they worked their whole lives and came upon a bad situation.. these things happen..

''Don't worry, in NY conservatives are still allowed to try to deny food for and care for the newborn once they take their first breaths of life...''

From an OPP member a few months back...


I am very tired of the argument that conservatives only care about a child before it is born... That after birth conservatives would deny the child food, medical care or other basic necessities...

It is a false narrative....

I don't wish to speak for the entire conservative side, but I consider myself a conservative and I'm certainly against the majority of a******ns...

I am also against the usage of taxpayer dollars to support welfare queens and their broods...

I expect people to be responsible for their actions... Sex is a right... All people are born with the right to pursue sex... But rights come with responsibilities...

Take freedom of speech... That's a right... But I am still responsible for the outcome of my words... If I offend someone I may lose a friend (or get punched in the face)... If I lie then others may not trust me anymore... If I speak too loudly or obnoxiously I may be asked to leave... Ultimately I am responsible for the words I speak...

So back to sex... An individual has the right to sleep with another individual... That's their business, not mine... But they also have the responsibility to be careful...

If you go out and engage in sex,and it results in a pregnancy, then you are responsible for that life...
Follow through on that thought... Your kids are also your responsibility... You need to take care of them... Not the tax payer or the government... YOU...

Personal responsibility has gone the way of the Dinosaur... It seems that no one wants to support their own kids and that it is the government's job to provide a life for each and every one of us out there....

Anyways... Would be interested to hear some of the viewpoints on this topic..

Born in 1961, so by the time I was able to go outside and play with my friends I was kid what did I know.. or even care about politics.. also a subject that wasn't talked about in "polite company" that and my folks Never talked about finances until I was old enough to have a job.. My step dad was of the mind to teach me how to count back change, before computerized or electronic cash registers were made.. I was talked to bout dept as a young adult.. I have neices that I feel for growing up right now...

Things went south in school for me as far as the teachers competence or lack there of, regarding all this revisionist history, and I was rudely awakened by this chicks T-shirt regarding McGovern/Nixon, 1972... She was for McGovern.. more acurately her mom n dad were... Honestly, I still didn't care... I didn't really start to care, until I saw all the money they took out of my paycheck.. then I started paying more attention to my environment..

It's even scarier Now than it was back then..

When I heard, that Liberals wanted to take out ANY ethnic references in books like Tom Sawyer, Huck Fin.. I was Pissed, I guess is the best way to describe how I felt.. see NOW and even as a young adult.. I find that removing bits of history, is leaving one's self open for experiencing those events again and having the same result.. People who do not learn from their mistakes are doomed to repeat them..or hell even acknowledge the past.. by tearing down monuments to our Not so illustrious past.. It has to be told NOT buried!!..

Regarding A******n, I am pro-choice, as In I CHOSE to not k**l babies unless it's the mother's life in the balance..I guess a product of rape.. Just WOW!!, other than that.. carry it, give it up for adoption, take a lesson, regarding this crap that they can K**l a BABY after it's born and a heart beat detected I call Bulls**t!..Take a lesson from this and try not to get pregnant.. Tax payers are NOT responsible for someone's bad choices! Period..

And so here we are, we Have the muslim scourge, after many years in our history of beating them back to their homeland.. we have sexual depravity, by way of homosexuality..& tax payer paid s*x c****es to convicts or hell to anyone that wants to change their g****r.. Look I don't care what people do behind the doors of their homes, what I resent is the concept that they should get ANY special treatment from our gov't for a life choice!..OR that we as tax payers have to foot the bill!

The EBT card was also good so that people that actually Need those benefits could use them without the stigma attached to the stamps themselves, having to count out stamps in a check out line full of people waiting sucks.. I know.. been there.. done that.. but also worked my entire adult life and paid in..and I didn't make it a way of life.. some folks as you say.. use them as a safety net until they can get gainful employment and then get rid of the welfare.. some folks just use them to get them through.. no stigma attached Nor did I imply that ALL people on stamps game the system.. but the few that do ruin it for those in need.. I saw both while volunteering at a homeless shelter.. some that were displaced from the 1989 earth quake In Loma Prieta.. Lots of people made homeless in one natural disaster and I know all across the united states this is the case..Also a lot of those are just like me.. they worked their whole lives and came upon a bad situation.. these things happen..

I agree 100%.. I was a latch key kid, and while the neighbors looked out for all of us, this is in my opinion where "it takes a village" ends.. the rest is on the Parents!..My folks both worked but they instilled enough right and wrong in us that when I got home from school it was chores...homework first.. then I could go hang with my friends but not until then..as a young child they told me about the "birds n bees" so I didn't have to find out the hard way how to get pregnant..

I, as a tax payer shouldn't have to pay for someone else's mistake, especially if there are Mulitiple mistakes from not practicing safe sex, Bottom line. Birth control of any kind isn't 100% the Best way to Not get pregnant is to put an aspirin between your knees to keep them shut, in otherwords, abstain.. I shouldn't have to pay for a s*x c****e operation, which in my opinion is a Life choice, theirs NOT mine..

One thing regarding food stamps or as they call it now, SNAP.. the one good thing they did was come out with a snap debit card... No more cracking stamps to buy booze or drugs..If there is a down side to all this, is some folks see that snap card as a free pass to spend their money on anything they want, provided they get a check as well.. the system pays for food for them, since you can not buy things like toilet paper or paper towels .. deoderant..tooth paste etc.. I guess the system paying for the food leaves them some cash to buy these things..Supposedly...I seem to remember Bill Clinton, said something regarding being on welfare for 3 years then folks have to become self sufficient.. so far that hasn't worked very well.. especially in California..I've heard some say over the years "if ya gotta be homeless California is the place to be.. *rolls eyes* well needless to say, I no longer live in Cali.. thankfully!.. Love California's geography, Don't care for it's politics!! even though it's a misnomer that CA is all blue and no it's not by the way.. I still felt like a guppie in a shark tank politically.. because sadly, the Silent majority, is still silent.. for what ever reason.. Glad I left it..