Troll,

I'm not angry. I don't feel exploited. Welfare has helped a great many more people than it hurt. There have been abuses. These people need to be gone after. But the record shows that many have been helped despite propaganda to the contrary by those who oppose the system.

Many African-American musicians have not been able to carve out much of a living on their skills. Many have been on welfare. It's too easy to make a judgement on who abuses the system and doesn't. The facts are only good when we evalutate them on a case by case basis. It's too easy to condemn women who are single mothers on the poverty level. But to ignore them and their plight and especially their offspring is to mount up a cost much greater than the measly amount that government offers for welfare. Your tax dollars will go to make more prisons to house the less fortunate and to pay for more policeman to handle the crime rate that soars when troubled people are ignored. Your freedom is already curtailed when you can't walk down certain streets of American cities without fear of crime. This is already a huge price to pay.

Woody's relationship to his family might be considered shameful in some eyes, particularly by those whose judgements stand on some kind of personal moral rigidity without thier evaluating his circumstances. Woody had a crippling disease that he knew about and tried to do what he could. He also realized the plight that some folks have when they don't have a break in society and he sang about that. He was fortunate to have developed a successful career although he never saw much income from it in his lifetime.

The mounting costs created by the less fortunate in our society will eat away at everyone's paycheck unless a more charitable attitude accompanies the American public view. We are all winners when the less fortunate has a chance. I see Bush turning his back on this.

Frank