Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: Today's soundtrack: Moby "Natural Blues" ::
I have a feeling that I may rub quite a few people the wrong way with this rant. Be that as it may, I'm discussing my opinion and thoughts on a particular matter. I'm not saying that you have to agree with me. Go right on ahead and call me crazy and insensitive all you want. Please. As a matter of fact, I hope that if you do disagree, that you state your case for YOUR opinion. Because that's the kind of intelligent debate we (and by "we" I mean "me") like to inspire here.
So, in the spirit of my readership calling for my head on a platter, I'm going to preface my opinion with an actual conversation I had several years ago. I can still recall it accurately deep within the annals of my brain. That is how profoundly this exchange affected me and is one of the main reasons for what I'm going to say. The set up for this conversation is this: I had been out of High School for a few years. I was in a local shop when I ran into this girl who used to know my sister. This girl was happy to see me for some reason and started talking to me pleasantly:
Girl: Hey! So, how's your sister doing?
Me: Oh, fine. She's in Massachusetts now.
Girl: Really? Wow, good for her!
Me: Yeah, she likes it.
Girl: Well, great!
[menacing music as here comes the bad part]
Girl: My boyfriend and I want to have a baby!
Me: Oh, good for you.
Girl: I know! We're really trying. Neither of us have
a job and we live in his parents' basement, but we'll just go on welfare.
That's the end of the relevant part. I think I mentally couldn't hear whatever else she had to say because that last statement filled me with unbelievable rage. It was also the way she said it. We'll just go on welfare. So matter of fact and nonchalant. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. If I could turn into the Hulk, I would have.
Allow me to clarify: I don't have a problem with the welfare system itself. I think it's a good idea to have around. It's a safety net just in case you need it. Such as (and this is completely true) a family's house burned down. This woman had two kids and her husband died. She was a stay at home mom while he worked and so she had no income, no home, nothing. The welfare system helped her get back on her feet. It took a year or two, but welfare helped to take care of her kids and assisted her on going back to school at the local technical college. She got a degree and a great job and no longer needed welfare. Happy ending. That's a story of why it's good to have the welfare system and that's why it's there for us every day folks. I'm not talking about people with actual debilitating disabilities like severe mental illness and whatnot, yes it's there for them, too. But us "normal" citizens with a clean bill of health can rest easy knowing that in case of an emergency, you will be looked after.
So it just grinds my gears that there are people out there who take unfair advantage of this system. Yes, it's there just in case, doesn't mean it should be your first course of action! Why get a job? I'll just go on welfare. I want to have a baby and thus far have proved that I can't even look after myself but I can just go on welfare. Referring to that conversation above, it was the fact that going on welfare was her "Plan A" that made me mad. I wanted to tell her that maybe they should wait until one or both of them had a job and could get their own place with a little money saved up before having a child. Or, I mean, AT LEAST TRY.
And again, allow me to clarify: I'm not giving the hate to ALL welfare moms. Like I said, the welfare system is there for just in case, and every once in a while, no matter how careful you are, a pregnancy can happen. Say a girl is taking a birth control pill. She has to get some dental work done and her dentist gives her a prescription for some preventative antibiotic. If no one told her, that girl might not know that an antibiotic will make her birth control pill not work (yep, it's true. there's your public service announcement, kids). And maybe that girl has a boyfriend who freaks out when hears the news and runs out on her. She might need the welfare to system to help her out. It's the people who get pregnant on purpose knowing that the welfare system will take care of them that bother me like you would not believe.
It's their attitudes, too. Many of these "welfare families" (people who have no discernable disability and yet do not work and have at least three children) carry with them this odd sense of entitlement. Like being "smart enough" to work the system means they deserve what they get and so much more. I swear they have more attitude and entitlement than millionaire brats like Paris Hilton. It makes me want to shout "Have you no sense of decency or pride?!"
Which all comes down to this thought: women who are already on welfare should not be allowed to have children. You might recall my short fuse when it come to bad parents already. I don't think having children should be anyone's "god given" right. I really and truly think you need to be worthy of having children. Being a parent is bar none the hardest job anyone could ever have. You need to be relatively intelligent, caring, giving, and patient not to mention, a provider. Taking care of yourself is one thing. I don't care what you choose to do to your own person, but we're talking about a child, someone who is innocent, defenseless, and full of nothing but potential who will be relying on you. As far as I'm concerned, if you're on welfare, then you cannot provide or take of even yourself, you need the government to do it for you. You are in a not so good place in your life tight now, so you have to get your life on the right track before you can be held responsible for another human life.
You might be saying to yourself there's no real way to stop them from having babies as often as they like, but I say, isn't there? I think that once a woman is enrolled in the welfare system, then she needs to see a doctor about birth control. I don't mean anything as extreme as surgery, no because the whole point is for them to turn their lives around and be proven worthy to take care of a child. I say, they need to get that birth control shot very three months. The Pill is something they could easily simply not take, but the shot would be administered by a professional, witnessed and documented. No more getting knocked up just to get that extra check every month and WIC vouchers. You get off welfare, no more government enforced birth control, and go ahead and have your children. Okay, so it isn't really an absolutely fool-proofed plan, but at least I'm thinking about possible solutions.
And just in case you think I'm being unfair or unkind consider this: the girl I spoke to in the above transcribed conversation? She never got job, is still on welfare and currently has three children (expecting a fourth). No lie. How does THAT make you feel?
William (opinionated)
