First they took the food stamps away from the lazy poor...

[Jackpine Radical]

First they took the food stamps away from the lazy poor, and I was glad because they told me I would pay lower taxes.

Then they took the homes from the mortgage holders who were in over their heads. I was glad because I had no mortgage.

Then they took people’s jobs so that they lost their livelihoods and their health insurance. I was glad because I would not have to pay for them, and I still had a job and health insurance.

Then they took the benefits from the social security recipients, and I was glad because I was young and hated to see the old people getting something for nothing.

Now I am old and poor and homeless and ill, and I have nothing to eat. But I am glad because I know that I am not a burden on the deserving rich.

[Deja Q]

1. How'd they deserve it in the first place?

Is it a "job" to prattle one's opinions on the radio for three hours every morning?

Hell, we'd all be millionaires if we all did that.

[formercia]

9. Manifest Destiny

after all, it is 'their' country. The rest of us are just temps.

[NightWatcher]

2. hmm sounds vaguely familiar.

Are we ready to revolt yet?
Can we at least smash some things?

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Shameless plagiarism

from Niemöller.

[NightWatcher]

4. but an adequate adaptation for our times

[ananda]

5. Good use of Niemoller's phrasing, though.

It shows how blaming victims and getting them
to accept the intolerable works....

It's amazing to me that the poor and now
formerly working classes aren't rising up in
arms.....

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Agreed...... Meanwhile the real criminals on Wall street get to stay in

their penthouses while under arrest.

[cliffordu]

13. Now there's an interesting idea.

[ashling]

6. Very good!

[indepat]

7. The heart of soul of the effects of 'puke ideology eloquently sensitized in a few words

:D

[cherish44]

10. Not everyone on food stamps are lazy bums....

I know a single mom with 4 kids (her loser alcoholic ex husband doesn't pay child support) who works a total of 50 hours a week at two different jobs. She's still below the federal poverty level. Minimum wage is NOT a living wage. And yes she qualifies for and receives some food stamp assistance. She's not going to let her pride allow her kids to go hungry you know...

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. Google Niemöller..... the OP was making a point.

the lazy bum stuff was sarcasm

[cherish44]

17. Yes I know it was sarcasm

My comment is because I get so tired of the right assuming people who gets food stamps or other assistance are lazy bums who don't want to work. I've learned that trying to explain that to them is like talking to brick wall so I vent here. :banghead:

[gratuitous]

14. Highly true

But what is the portrayal of folks on food stamps in the popular media? Yeah, lazy bums.

It's been a few years ago, but I was third in the check-out line at the supermarket when the woman at the front pulled out her food stamps to pay for her purchase. The person between us made an impatient sound and half turned to me with a "can you believe this shit" look. I muttered that I'd much rather see my tax dollars going to feed this woman and her family than buy bombs and bullets to kill people on the other side of the world.

For some reason, the conversation was over before it really even began.

[treestar]

12. There are some people who just can't stand for anyone else to

be helped. One wonders why they are so confident they will never need it themselves!

I especially hate those who "worked their ass off" for it all as though it is not possible to "work your ass off" and still end up bankrupt, poor, or in trouble, ill or disabled. It's as if they are in denial about how it could happen to them and try to put on a face that it never will and never can.

Yet they are one illness or job loss or accident away.

[eridani]

18. A very common superstition

Deny that you are in any way like someone that something bad has happened to, and you have guaranteed that the same thing will never happen to you.

There was a very serious multiple murder at a Chinese social club in Seattle back in 1982. I swear--the first thing that went through my mind was "Good thing I'm not Chinese." And I'd bet that most of the Seattle citizens of Chinese extraction were thinking, "Good thing I never hang out at that club."

[Numba6]

15. Food stamps cut? No prob, the Republican social safety net:

"Recession blamed for shoplifting increase"

http://connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=325703&paper=59&cat=104

[tbyg52]

16. Word. nt