Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Tit-Sucker's Lament

                                                 

Last Wednesday morning I went over to a thrift shop not far from my home.  I was looking for a used replacement for my old G.E. 60's era toaster.  Just adjacent to that thrift shop is a community food bank.  I've taken cans of soup and boxes of citrus from my trees there on several occasions.  On this particular morning I noticed a Help Wanted sign displayed prominently in the front window of the community bank.

That sign sparked my curiosity.  I walked in the door to the food bank and asked the counter clerk in the little "sorting foray" they have at the front why they would need to solicit volunteers for help when so many are getting stuff for free?  I'm sure I was overheard by some of the dozen or so folks sitting in chairs filling out applications for access to the free food.  The clerk just shook her head; she didn't want to say what she was really feeling.  So I left, still wondering how could it be that, among the thousand or so people who come here every week, that there's not a single one of them who are willing to put in a few hours of stocking shelves in exchange for the free grub.

On further thought I was pretty sure I knew the reason why the only food bank volunteer workers are those who are already working, maintaining a home, raising kids, helping with homework, and still had time to give to their community.  It is what plagues America in all facets of our society.  It is the plague of tit-suckers who can't even comprehend the idea that they should contribute something when they get so much for nothing.  Whether it is three years of uninterrupted unemployment checks, food stamp cards, or a nice welfare check, it is something they feel entitled to without regard to the idea of earning it.

Then, just this morning I read that Hall of Fame Basketball player, and very wealthy Adrian Dantley, is working as a school crossing guard at a predominantly Black school in Maryland.  He earns $15,000 per year and gets his health insurance for free.  The crux of the article was really focused on how strange it is that a man who owns dozens of businesses, and who is one of those rare ones that always managed his millions in player earnings carefully, would be working for fifteen grand a year.  Dantley does it because he enjoys being around kids in his retirement...and I found that admirable and enduring.

But I couldn't  help but chew on the article a little more.  I wondered why this Black school couldn't find a single parent or family member who would be willing to help kids across the street and augment their poverty level income, especially if the job also offered free health insurance!

Then I thought on it a little more and, sadly, it all became clear.  Who, in that neighborhood is going to go out for two hours a day and hold a crossing sign for $15,000 a year when you've already got a welfare check coming each month, and you don't have to stand out in the heat or cold, even if it is for two hours a day.

And the free health insurance that comes with the job no doubt requires an employee contribution and doctor and hospital co-pays.  Who in that neighborhood would be fool enough to take a commercial health insurance plan when you can draw Medicaid where you don't have to pay any co-pays and Uncle Sugar throws in free dental along with it!

Even sadder; when I was a kid, either parents or middle grade students performed crossing guard duties for nothing.  Parents volunteered and felt it was part of keeping their children safe.  Middle grade students volunteered to do it because it made them feel responsible and "grown up".  Oh, and you did get a free .25 cent lunch ticket on the following school day!  But of course that was back in the days when government wasn't giving 70% of all students free breakfast and lunches.

Ah, the plague of 100 million American tit-suckers.  Far too important to stock food bank shelves and far too important to heft a 6ft crossing sign for a couple of hours a day....even for pay!

Sad.  Damned Sad.



23 comments:

Unknown said...

The Native Americans could have used the same arguement.

A Modest Scribler said...

Pardon me, Annie, if this part native American doesn't agree with you. It's ironic how often liberals trot out the "native American ploy" when trying to defend tit-sucking dependence on others....almost as often as the ploy "racist". Sad that you folks have so little to offer.

Unknown said...

Were the pilgrams not sucking the tit of the Natives?

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

The upper class tells the middle class to blame it on the poor. You sir, have fallen for it.

Carol said...
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Unknown said...

Here's a better arguement then, if you like. There are 100 million people on public assistance. This includes SSI. In actuality, 4.4 million of these are on welfare. (still too many). The average welfare check for a family of 3? $645. For an individual? $350. Try living on this. Not exactly the gold you guys seem to think they getting.

Perhaps the food bank you mention is trying to hire some some sort of administrator. Someone has to be responsible for locking up and stuff like that.

As for your gaurd crossing friend, I have never heard of a part time job with benefits. I have 2 friends and a relative that work part time for school districts and none of them receive benefits. Most corporations that use part time workers do so so that they don't have to pay for benefits.

And if you do the math, 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, for nine months out of the year at the rate of $15,000 a year comes out to about $41.60 an hour. For a crossing guard? I don't think so. He should quit and let a welfare recipient have the job.

A Modest Scribler said...

Annie, your welfare numbers are all wrong. And I'm not going to laundry list all the government benefits given away to tit-suckers 365 days a year..anyone with a lick of sense, and some history of reading the news knows all the fraud, waste and abuse on government programs. When you add up the cost to taxpayers for irresponsible breeding you come up with twenty or thirty thousand dollars per year in school breakfast, lunches, funded pre-school, child tax credits, food stamps, Medicaid (the huge killer with an average family outlay of $16k per year), etc

2nd; Please be careful; I've tried allowing a series of liberal comments on this blog and they try to take it over and make it a liberal forum. If you want to write a liberal blog do so, then send me the link

3rd: I assume you are calling me a liar on the Adrian Dantley crossing guard story...well it's out there for you to google and read for yourself.

A Modest Scribler said...

Average outlay per welfare family when all benefits totaled: Over $60,000 per year.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/over-60000-welfare-spentper-household-poverty_657889.html

Ken said...

Wow! Some strange disconnected responses here. Where does the Native American enter into Toasters, food banks and crossing guards? Our govt turning its back on the military? Might still have the remnants of an Irish holiday keeping my brain functions on "Non-Op" today, so I'm not getting it.

I was going to comment that I was a crossing guardsman in elementary school. We started as the sign guy and moved up when in 7th and 8th grades to the whistle and Flag guy. This duty got us out of a few minutes of class at the beginning and end of each school day and the job was earned, if your grades slipped the job was lost to someone else. It paid nothing monetarily but lots of good lessons and character building here.

I, too came up with a figure of a little more that forty bucks an hour for the job you described. It occurred to me that Mr. Dantley, being a millionaire certainly didn't need the check so naturally I have to question his not doing the job as a volunteer. Yes, this country is lacking seriously in doing something to give back to the community,and sadly, Mr. Dantley would be a prime example of that. I don't understand the reason for the "Native American" or "military" here. Maybe you can enlighten me.

I am, however in full agreement with you on the giving back to the community that has made your life a richer one. Be it $645, or a million. I know from close association,though, that the "welfare check" itself is just the tip of the "govt tit" iceberg, a tit good for, at times, several thousand dollars per month. Just check the "Sect 8" housing benefit where the recipient lives in a house for a rent of $200 next door to the person paying $2500 or more, or how about health care that I can't afford, dental care that I have to pay for out of pocket, child care my daughter has to pay for yet the welfare recipient does not. When you come out with the, "try living on $645 a month", I would have to answer, why don't you try living on $645, please. So when that person scoffs at the opportunity to give back to a very generous community, yes, shame on them!

Ken said...

You beat me to it and with better information. I should have expected that.

Ken said...

I think I'll go on over to "the Good News Journal" see if there is anything happy to read about...geez so much negativity here! lol

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

I am NOT calling you a liar, I am not into name calling. It's just that the info about this crossing guard is soo off, it makes me wonder about the sites you get your info from. Anyone can research untill they find sites that agree with their opinions and then use that info. Me included. The info I questioned about the crossing guard I didn't have to research. It just doesn't add up no matter your political views. People with part time jobs don't get benefits and crossing guards don't make $41.60 an hour. People just know that. So, yeah, I question your sources.

A Modest Scribler said...

Annie, the Adrian Dantley crossing guard article was a sports article on ESPN...and believe me they have no political bone to pick with anyone.

Unknown said...

So, you believe that a crossing guard makes $41.60 an hour because ESPN said so? Makes me question you even more.

What is so wrong, anyway, with feeding, clothing and educating children? That's what I just don't get, I guess. Doesn't doing this, no matter the cause of their poverty, insure we will have a healthy, educated future generation? So these kids have screwed up parents. We shouldn't feed them because of that? I don't understand not wanting to help children. Most of the food prgrams you mentionedd are for kids. Maybe you can explain this to me.

Unknown said...

PS. I love Civil War history too!!

A Modest Scribler said...

Annie, the Great Society Programs began in 1965. We've bred three generations of "victims" who honor no work ethic, refuse to take education seriously, and when we build them housing it becomes a ghetto within a decade.
The "great lie" that has caused us to spend trillions upon trillions to fight poverty is because of "the children". We never hold the "breeders" to account; as a matter of fact we reward the breeding of children whose parents cannot afford to feed, educate or medicate them...and each succeeding generation of these "children" have become more savage, more illiterate and less able..or willing to assume a productive role in society....god, why do I keep answering these type of questions...it so useless because liberals are never able to get beyond "emoting" and see the faults in their own logic.
I happy that you enjoy civil war history, Annie.

Unknown said...

Well, I have no response to that. I feel like it's an useless arguement too. I agree that abuse takes place, but where doesn't abuse of that sort take place? Bank officials abuse the system, politicians abuse the system (of both partys). Banks get trillions of bail out money, politicians turn their backs on the obvious. Government spending is the problem, but not just the asstance programs. $20,000 for officail government portraits, for example. What a waste. Representatives can have their jobs for 4 years and then retire at full pay. It's these sorts of "little things" that are a waste. It would be nice to see you conservatives look farther than the poor to find and fix these problems. But to blame and take away from children is just wrong.

Unknown said...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9910.califano.html

Unknown said...

There is no fault in my logic. It's just different than yours.

Carol said...

The 'military comment' was accidentally posted on the wrong one.......somehow got mixed up while signing in. :/

A Modest Scribler said...

That's okay Carol...your support for the military is appreciated wherever you post it.