Post-Shower Thoughts on My Previous Entry

Like most people, most of my best thinking is done in the shower.  As is my tendency, I criticized my latest post.  And one important topic that I left out is that not all of Detroit’s residents are good people just down on their luck.  Some are adverse to working and expect a government handout.  And that irritates me.

I don’t work so you can sit around and drink or do drugs.  I don’t believe that my taxes should go towards your recreational activities when I stay home most weekends and am behind on my bills because I still don’t make enough money.  Stop popping out kids, stop staying up all night and sleeping in, and get a job and make money for yourself.  It won’t kill you, I promise. Then you can buy your designer clothes and big screen TVs with your hard-earned money, not mine.

I know, it’s how you’ve grown up.  That’s what your parents did, and possibly what your grandparents did too.  It’s hard to break the cycle, but it can be done.  Why don’t you take pride in yourself?  Why don’t you want better for yourselves and for your children?

And to those of you on SSD who CAN work but don’t WANT to, you’re the worst of the lot.  Do you know that there are people out there with serious injuries that prevent them from being able to work and support themselves while you’re claiming that you have bipolar disorder and can’t function in society, yet you’re out partying every night and always seem to be at friends’ houses?  Do you care?

The law firm I work for represents many people from the inner city, many of whom are on welfare and SSD.  While some of them do genuinely need the government assistance, it seems as if many of them don’t.  While I don’t know their entire stories, I know enough to know that they could work if they really wanted to.  And when you overhear one person telling another that they’re on SSD or welfare because they don’t want to work, it doesn’t help me think otherwise.

I know this is a problem everywhere and not just in Detroit.  And while this may seem racist, it’s not.  I know plenty of white folk who are doing the same thing.  The system is easily manipulated and it seems as if manipulating it is not only tolerated, but encouraged.

Instead of teaching our children how to manipulate the system to get the most out of the government, why don’t we teach them how to read, write, and persevere?  Why don’t we teach them the value of hard work and how to take pride in their community?  Or is that too much work?