Re: Life Duty Death
Julie Locascio (julie.cpc@mhs.unc.edu)
Thu, 7 Sep 1995 12:45:20
>My great grandfather came here from Denmark as a sailor. He paid his way
>and had children which he supported. My grandfather was born in San
>Francisco. He lost land in the Great earthquake of 1906 and took NO
>assistance in rebuilding. My father was born in San Francisco and held a
>job with the railroads. He died when I was four.. My great grandmother
>came from Germany and worked as a stenographer. My grandmother worked as
>a legal secretary and is now on her Social Security. My mother died when
>I was four and thus my father's railroad pension never was used.
>On my mother's side I can trace my ancestry back to the 1700's and so far
>as I can determine I am the FIRST in my family (both sides) te recieve
>disability (due to blindness). I am a taxpayer as well, because I
>recieve a small income from a part time job.
What--your great grandfather came here from Denmark? How on earth were we
able to absorb him?!!! Is he inherently better than a Mexican migrant?
Please explain this! He actually had children? I am surprised that somebody
did not simply assume that a poor immigrant would never be able to raise
children and forcibly sterilize him. Your dad worked for the railroads? I
don't suppose any public money every went into THAT. Your great grandmother
was a foreigner, too? Was she also more gifted and deserving than Mexican
migrants? Social Security???!!! Say it isn't true! Traced your ancestry
back to the 1700s, eh? Do you really think ancestral records made a habit of
noting when people had to borrow money or get handouts? C'mon! The Pilgrims
needed the Indians' charity to learn how to eat in North America--there is no
way you are going to get around that one.
>AND I HAVE NO CHILDREN. Why? Because I cannot afford them. And because I
>cannot afford children, I do without! I am not proud of recieving help
>from the government. I have worked for twenty years and now, my failing
>eyesight will not allow me to continue.There is no way I would be able to
>raise a child with the advantages it would need. So I do not have one.
Advantages? You refuse to bring a child into the world unless it can have an
immediate advantage over everybody else? I'm glad my parents didn't require
that criteria! If you honestly feel that you cannot raise a child, that is
your decision--I fail to see why you feel you have the information AND the
right to make that decision for people you do not know. Mexicans are not
statistics--they are people, like you and me. They have hopes and dreams, and
have to work very hard (unless they are born with those "advantages" to which
you were referring). Many of them do end up having children that they cannot
feed, but many people in the U.S. also have children which end up neglected,
unclothed, unhoused, unfed, beaten, sexually abused: you cannot look into a
crystal ball and know exactly what is going to happen when somebody has a
child. You can have clues and likelihoods, certainly, but you do not KNOW.
>All I expect is that people, like myself, who are forced onto accepting
>public money SHOW RESPONSIBILITY for the money they recieve!
>Swan
Does that include spending time and money tying up the Internet with hateful
and bitter diatribes? The Internet is subsidized, in case you haven't
figured that out! Its main subsidies come from educational institutions with
the idea being that enough informational productivity and distribution will
filter around and make it worthwhile to everybody. If you feel so strongly
about family planning in the third world, then send money to organizations
that provide responsible and voluntary education and services on family
planning--not nazi sterilization policies that may ultimately conclude that a
poor Mexican willing to process chickens is worth more to society than a blind
U.S. middle class consumer who can no longer work. I do not feel that way,
but I do not see how you can have the views you have and not believe that
somebody will turn those views on your situation some day.
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