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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skipper who wrote (21916)	5/23/1998 12:31:00 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Skipper, your situation of the street person purse snatcher doesn't quite fit the analogy of being taxed, so I am not sure quite what to say about it. First, I would like to live in a society where everyone at least could go to a work camp of some sort, out in the fresh country air, and have a roof over his head and healthy food to eat, and be evalutated and treated for substance abuse and hopefully be returned to the world of work, in some limited way at least. Almost everyone can do something in return for basic sustenance--even addicts and the mentally retarded and mentally ill. People too sick to participate in some way need for society to help them, and I do not mind doing that at all. Once all the work camps in my social plan were established, begging would be totally forbidden, incidentally, and so would living in the parks, streets, and under freeways and wherever else the homeless congregate at the moment. So the street person would not be taking my purse. There would be daily busses to the work camps, so no excuses!!! Like X, I am willing to pay quite a bit in taxes so that there is not a daily parade of suffering souls when I go outside, or anyone desperate enough to break into my little world at home and hurt me or my family just to survive, or get his next fix. I do not like feeling sad at the plight of the less fortunate, and I want to move about in reasonable safety. On a moral level, almost everyone can afford to help those in need. As long as I am not enabling people to become helpless, which I think is a very bad idea, I feel good about my tax dollars that go to help the needy. But my goal is recovery of self respect for them, and a boost up. I also think this country has criminalized drug addiction, poverty, and being black to some degree. A third of all black men are in prison, on parole or on probation. No other society incarcerates its citizens at the rate we do. Treatment and rehabilitation for all nonviolent prisoners would be much preferable to me than long prison terms. I think the tax dollars that you seem to perceive as being stolen from you could be used much more efficiently. And I guess the 'common good' for me would include children not suffering hunger, neglect, abuse, or a bad educational system simply because of who their parents are. It is not their fault, and intervention in this cycle is one of the quickest ways to make our society healthier. Because of an accident of birth--the right genetic make-up, good health, an education, a childhood environment that was supportive enough that you could take advantage of the opportunities this society offers--you, and most of the rest of us here, are relatively very successful. Although a lot of hard work, and usually some luck as well, are required to be at the very top of the heap, this level of material success does not happen in a vacuum. I think all of us owe a tremendous debt to the planet, and to society as a whole. I think it is the epitome of total selfishness and a misunderstanding of the underlying contract of being human, to simply take what you can and keep as much as possible. I don't want to live in a place like that.