When it comes to our current costs of welfare, this photograph has broken my heart!

Dear Friends,

We complain and argue a lot about politics in this current events forum, but when you get right down to it, the lives of most of us today are very good.

When I came across this beautiful photograph today of this man and his dog, it broke my heart. I want the liberals in this group to realize we moderates and conservatives are not all that bad. We are not cruel, uncaring and coldhearted as many of you for some reason seem to believe.



We, as do you, have intense feelings for the happiness, success and well-being of our fellow Americans. I have no problems whatsoever in having my hard-earned tax dollars going to help and support this unemployed homeless man and his beautiful dog.

We moderates and conservatives do have problems, however, with many people on welfare who should not be there and who could work and provide for themselves and their families but instead they chose not to work and instead skillfully and frequently "game" the system.

When you get right down to it when we argue in this forum about how Congress should spend our hard-earned tax dollars, perhaps our intense political differences are, in actuality, as simple as whom among the population we should help, how we should help them (charter schools or public schools; free, unlimited health care or responsible, reasonable health care) and what we should we expect from the people we help in return!

Honestly, I would be interested in learning from each of you your personal views on this important subject!

 

Sadly, that image is the tip of the ice berg. We are on a spiral due to our wasteful spending, foreign agenda, and corruption that will make that image more common and less rare.

We have to stop corporate welfare.
We have to take the money out of politics. Money is not free speech.
We have to not have 47% of the people not paying any income tax.
We have to stop out massive military expenditures.
We have to stop our massive foreign expenditures.
We have to force balanced trade against predatory countries.
We have to use our natural resources to stop dependency and boost our economy.

 

I, my wife and our children have worked and continue to work and donate to local meals programs.

I've also spent a lot of time in major cities and a lot of homeless that I see have mental issues.

I often times wonder where are the siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins etc etc

On more than one occasion we have had family members move in with us to help them financially. Does it get crowded, of course. Do you get inconvenienced; as I say to anyone who listens, since when is your duty to family about being convenient?

Cancer has hit close to our home so we donate and volunteer with several cancer groups.

I also travel internationally for business and see a much worse homeless situation in the more socialized countries. Govt is not the answer. In fact, by trying to make it a govt issue creates a barrier of insulation for many vs letting us realize that we must be good friends, family and neighbors.

Welfare must be close to home. The farther removed it is, such as state or federal then the less efficient it is and the more removed the common man is from the issue.

 

That is correct. Welfare when state funded takes away the personal responsibility many feel. I have friends who say, well... they already took my money to pay for the poor, why should I donate? I don't have a good comeback for that one.

My wife has worked at CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County) for years in the cancer ward doing crafts and playing with the children. It is heart breaking, I barely go up there. So many of the kids have no parents showing up for various reasons. Often, they just have to work to make ends meet.

I will be working in a Santa Ana soup kitchen on the 5th of January and again later in the month. I rarely talk about my charity work, but there you go.

We need to return charity back to the citizens and take it away from the government. It has been dehumanized due to the BIG GOVERNMENT rule over the issue.

Now we have the Government looking to attack the churches on charity by using "gay rights". You will soon see churches lose their ability to handle adoptions and soon when gays are turned away from a marriage at a Catholic Church you will see screams to remove their tax exempt status. The government wants this money going to churches, they want to then decide after they take their "cut" how to administer it.

Who is better at charity - A huge BIG GOVERNMENT located 1,000's of miles away OR the local people who know the needs of their community?

 

James,

All I can tell you is that we don't know this guy.

Just because he cares about that dog does not make him a good person in other ways.

The trouble with public charity - the welfare state - is that it is being given to total strangers.

Which makes it very difficult to know who can be helped and who can't.

 

Yea thats real compassion for your fellow man. You better pray to God that you are never in that situation.

 

Which is a big issue... the BIG GOVERNMENT Liberals have taken charity out of the hands of the locals.

 

Actually, I do pray that exactly. Because God help me if I was dependent on the Government for for my food and shelter.

 

Really, what is stopping you from picking this man and his dog up and giving them shelter in your home.

 

right, robbing southern racists of another way to discriminate

 

way easier to blame liberals

 

Be careful of what you ask for.

 

That is where private charities come in, they do care about the people they serve and can require commitment and dedication to improvement in their lives from those they serve.

 

First off, conservative-minded people are much more giving than liberals. That much has been proven time and time again. But to address your post, it is very disturbing to me how liberalism has destroyed the black family unit by creating an atmosphere where many are dependent on the government and how the black father has been replaced by the government in many families. (This has also occurred to a lesser degree in white and hispanic families.) The people who pushed through legislation to allow this to happen (like Ted Kennedy) are either exceedingly evil or just plain stupid. I would like to see the Federal Government removed from everything not mentioned in the Constitution (like education), although it may take a generation or two to clean up the incredible mess our liberal government has created over the years.

 

Perfectly put and correct throughout.

Well done.

 

That is a nice pic. It truly shows true love between a man and his dog. I love dogs and they love without wanting anything back in return.

I believe if we stop handing out food, money and good to people, they will, on their own do something to get it.

Just like if you feed wild animals, from the time they are born, if you feed them, they will take your food, but once you stop giving them food, they won't know what to do to survive.

We need to stop giving hand outs to everyone and the government needs to let people learn on their own. We all suffer, we all have bad luck and lose jobs, but we all must move on and use the best skills we all have to improve our lives, not only for ourselves, but through volunteering and donating.

 

so you volunteer and donate because you dont want those you help to do it on their own?

 

I want them to do it on their own, however I help people out on my own, and don't expect government to do it for them, or for me.

Don't (*)(*)(*)(*)ing question why I help, ever, got it?

 

I will question what I wish.

how can you claim not helping people makes them able to help themselves, then urge more people to help?

 

Dear James,

Thank you for that reminder. As we argue and bicker over policy we sometimes forget why we have policies and lose sight of the fact we are all human with the one trait that distinguishes us from animals; that we have both compassion and the ability to carry it out.

I provide employment for people like this man in a special category called "social enterprise". They are allowed to make a certain amount per month, between $500 and $880 depending on their individual circumstances. I am a private enterprise and accept no government hand outs, although I qualify. I do get a break on business taxes, and am allowed to operate indefinitely without showing a profit.

As they tend not to be very stable in their lives, as most have mild mental illness, there is a high rotation factor and I have had a lot of people go though over the years. A few have gone on to full time jobs with other gardening companies and got off welfare entirely. I would like there to be a greater success rate, but that too is life.

I ask liberals to understand this; to a person [I employ women too] they hate having to be on welfare or disability. In most cases it has become a trap for them; barely enough to get by with little or no ability to supplement that income, no possibility to get ahead. They are, with only three exceptions out of about a hundred, extremely grateful to be given the chance to work. My 'go-to" guy right now was living under a bridge three years ago.

I understand there is a lot of abuse of the system in the US, but I blame the system for that. Liberals won't understand this, but we do few people any favors by simply handing them money. We build people, reclaim them by placing trust in them and allowing them to find dignity and self esteem in a job well done and, sometimes the hope for a better life.

Again, not all can, or are willing. But, a great many are both and we should be talking about new ways of expanding this kind of enterprise, not fighting over hand outs.

 

Government giving to people is not the same as helping people get on their feet.

And no, you won't question what I do as volunteer work, because I won't tell anyone what it is I donate or what time, materials or my talents I give to help people get up on their feet and make something of their lives.

BTW-what type of volunteering have you done this past year? how many hours?

 

Perhaps what you need to see is that the dog cares for him.

 

There is a fine line between questioning and contempt without prior investigation and you seem to have crossed it.

None of us can know the true motives of another and, in my experience when we blindly and without evidence project negatives on others we are revealing what is true about ourselves.

 

I am not the one (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)ing about him getting help or giving help. With that said what is stopping you, stupidity.

 

he said helping makes people lazy, then urged more to help. I provided the opportunity to clarify