Don's Tuesday column

             THE WAY I SEE IT   by Don Polson  Red Bluff Daily News   9/17/2013

2^nd class citizens; welfare; take the money?

More unused items from my bag of stuff:

An undated piece called attention to proposed changes to a city ordinance in San Antonio, Texas, due to “the addition of some controversial and vague language that critics believe will lead to a crackdown on free speech. Gay rights activists and select officials in the city are looking to revamp the city’s anti-discrimination ordinance to include ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘sexual identity.’ The new text, if adopted, could essentially ban citizens who have shown a bias in these areas from serving on commissions and in local government posts. Meaning: If you oppose homosexuality in ‘word or deed,’ you could be precluded from holding these positions.”

Characteristics such as race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age and handicap/disability are already accepted in civil and legal society for which derogatory or prejudicial words or actions are proscribed. But if expressing critical opinions of homosexuality, same-sex-whatevers, as a private citizen or in some capacity as a moral or spiritual leader—if that disqualifies you for office or appointment, you’re made a second-class citizen.

Like the mandates from some courts, state laws and regulations prohibiting your right, as a florist, baker, photographer or event planner, to decline to participate in the celebration of a relationship that you morally disapprove of—it smacks of ideological, political correctness shoved down the throats of an otherwise free people. Again, I ask: Are you for or against such high-handed force-feeding of conscience-negating mandates?

How far are we from not being able to say anything critical of those living off the fruits of our collective labor: the welfare state denizens reaping housing, food, medical, income assistance, disability and whatever else is contained in the many dozens of such programs at federal and state levels. Have you ever had anyone using food stamps turn around and say “thank you” to the people behind them? No, me neither. Then there are the stories about people determined to got off the “dole,” provide for their own needs and begin contributing to society. Oh, wait—I never see such stories.

Would it surprise you to know that resentful, fun-poking sentiments have been around for over 60 years? In late 1949 and early 1950, a sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek poem, “Ode to the Welfare State,” (searchable by title, snopes.com says “probably true”) appeared in a number of papers across the country:

“Mr. Truman’s St Paul, Minn., pie-for-everybody speech last night reminded us that, at the tail-end of the recent session of Congress, Representative Clarence J. Brown (R-Ohio) jammed into the Congressional Record the following poem, describing its author only as “a prominent Democrat of the State of Georgia”:

DEMOCRATIC DIALOG

Father, must I go to work? No, my lucky son.

We’re living now on Easy Street, On dough from Washington.

We’ve left it up to Uncle Sam, So don’t get exercised.

Nobody has to give a damn—We’ve all been subsidized.

But if Sam treats us all so well, And feeds us milk and honey,

Please, daddy, tell me what the hell, He’s going to use for money.

Don’t worry, bub, there’s not a hitch, In this here noble plan—

He simply soaks the filthy rich, And helps the common man.

But father, won’t there come a time, When they run out of cash

And we have left them not a dime, When things will go to smash?

My faith in you is shrinking, son, You nosy little brat:

You do too damn much thinking, son, To be a Democrat.

You see, there was Republican opposition to Democratic efforts to “promote the general welfare” at that time and, just as Obama is doing now, Truman was out speech-i-fying: “We know that there will be more prosperity for all if all groups have a fair share of the wealth of the country. We know that the country will achieve economic stability and progress only if the benefits of our production are widely distributed among all its citizens.”

By then, American voters were no longer enamored of the FDR/Truman progressive, redistributionist rhetoric and put Republicans firmly in charge in Congress, much like under Clinton, when the Gingrich wave swept Republicans into control of the House of Representatives. Just, coincidentally, like in 2010.

I’ve found the chart showing “The amount of total taxable income for all filers by adjusted gross income level for 2008” which shows that seizing the entire income of “millionaires and billionaires” would have totaled $938 billion. Confiscating every dollar of income of all filers from $100,000 and up would get you about $3.4 trillion, more than the $2.9 trillion 2008 budget but far short of the $4.0 trillion 2009 budget. Does other people’s money really run out?

“Five Lessons for America from the European Fiscal Crisis” (search by title, danieljmitchell.wordpress.com): …3) A welfare state cripples the human spirit. 4) Nations reach a point of no return when the number of people mooching off government exceeds the number of people producing. (All articles posted at donpolson.blogspot.com)