UPDATE: I’ve got some responses to this post, and my reply is appended at the end of the original post…
Today, I received the following email, as one of about twenty recipients. It took me a few seconds to process it. Especially in light of the fact that it was a black woman who sent it to me. It reads thusly:
Subject: FW: think about it
JOB – URINE TEST
(Whoever wrote this one deserves a HUGE pat on the back!)
“Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem. What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them? Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a! problem with helping someone sitting on their ASS, doing drugs, while I work. . . . Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check? Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don’t. Hope you all will pass it along, though . . . Something has to change in this country — and soon!!!!!
I guess we could title that program, ‘Urine or You’re Out’. Just a thought.”
Soooooooooooo…
I sat for a few moments, dizzy, then composed the following reply:
Subject: RE: FW: think about it
Hi,
An American Citizen here, quite shocked at the text below (JOB – URINE TEST).
I, for one, have been outraged and disappointed at the horrible loss of our basic American freedoms under outgoing President Bush.
I have been saddened to see how the criminals in our Government illegally wiretapped us, and then passed retroactive laws to legitimize their crimes.
I stood aghast as the Executive passed secret “signing statements” and “Presidential Directives” that, to this day, remain hidden from the Congress and the People.
I looked on with horror as these jackals condoned the use of torture, and the unlimited detention of people without charge or trial.
Have we, as a People, become so used to this horrid state of affairs that we see nothing wrong with the idea of extracting urine samples from people in exchange for basic assistance?
I shall pray for a healing in this land. I shall pray for an America where the words written below would again be looked upon with horror and disgust.
Before you pass out any pats upon the back, I ask you to look at the slippery slope before you, and remember the words of Martin Niemoeller’s poem, which are inscribed on a stone in the New England Holocaust Memorial.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Sincerely Yours,
The Patriot
I did not hit “Reply All” (even tho i wanted to). I will wait patiently to hear from this young lady, and to see if she takes the time out to pass along my reply with the same zeal she showed for the original post.
God Help Us All.
Addendum:
A long time correspondent wrote: “soo… Kenray your comparing the torture of “suspected” terrorists to people suspected of abusing the welfare system? While I don’t really disagree with what you are saying, I don’t see a connection. “
To which I replied: “…actually, my comparison is mostly about the “Slippery Slope”. When the Germans started recording ancestry data in the 1930s, they didn’t tell people it was for use in sending people to extermination camps…that usage of the data came later.
Here, when people say “pee in the cup for food” – they might mean “FOR FOOD”.
But the data lives on.
Next week it will be “Give us a DNA sample for free health care”.
Then the next year it will be, “Sorry, no job for you, your DNA says you have a weak heart” (see the film GATTACA for spooky vision of this reality).
Then the next year it will be – “Sorry, you can’t have more than one child, your DNA is inferior”.
Then the next year it will be “Get in the van, we have to take you to the ovens because your carbon footprint is too high, and you have abnormal genes, so we’re pre-emptively removing you from the biosphere in this oven”
And as people are being vaporized by the millions (as they were in Aushwitz, Dachau, etc.) you’ll say “How did this happen???” and i will tell you (if i am not vaporized yet) that it happened when we let the National Socialists take away the very BASIS of democracy – the right to be considered “innocent until proven guilty” away for the sake of some more “efficient” or “equitable” model.
Oh yeah, and i will frickin’ die before i pay a single penny for “Carbon Credits”.