Todd Davenport believes that people subsist on welfare for generations. Doesn't he know that President Clinton yes, Clinton reformed the former Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program in the mid-1990s?
AFDC was renamed Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). A strict, 5-year lifetime limit per individual was imposed on cash assistance to make the program truly temporary in nature.
TANF has been a source of temporary assistance to families in need for almost 20 years now, and yet there are people like Davenport who seem intentionally ignorant of how the public welfare system in this country really and truly operates. Always ready to criticize, never willing to accept the facts.
But beyond that, I seem to recall the words of a certain Jewish philosopher, a fellow from Jerusalem who insisted that we are our brothers' (and sisters') keepers.
If we are responsible for one another, is not Todd Davenport included in that lot?
I certainly am; why isn't he?
If there are children who go without lunch because of poverty, that is an issue that all of us are called upon to address; Judeo-Christian ethics demand it.
If Davenport sees older folks "living off the system," he needs to remember that those folks are retired or disabled and, as a direct consequence of station in life, categorically ineligible for employment.
Stanley Gould
Williamsport
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
