HOMELESS: Agree with Ashby column

In response to Mr. Ashby’s My Turn column, “Fresh Start it’s been 10 years.” Talk about being cruel and unsympathetic and possibly socially profiling a group of individuals. Are they any different than city, county, state and federal employees who make no decisions, produce nothing, and get free medical, vacation pay and retirement? I couldn’t agree with him more; let’s try President Roosevelt’s CCC camps.

We have so many problems with forests and other labor intensive jobs we can’t cut our forests which, given time, will end up burning from forest fires. Plus our forests are full of disease and bug-infested trees, erosion control, access road repair and maintenance. With all the work our government agencies don’t want to do themselves, let’s let the homeless earn their keep. If work and drug testing were a requirement for a handout, we would see a reduction in the amount of people wanting free stuff. Is anyone trying to employ these people or offering them a job? Why would the homeless want to work if they were taken care of by others, government agencies or the public. We aren’t helping them with handouts, in fact we are harming them. Let’s help them to be proud of who they are so they can contribute to society. Not that the homeless go to the polls, but one thing free stuff produces is votes at the polls for the party promoting the free stuff. With fewer and fewer people carrying a lunch pail and really working or producing something, where does the revenue for all of these programs come from?

We the people are doing the same thing as our government has taught us, and that is it’s OK to spend more than we make. At some point in the not too distant future the wheels are going to come off this runaway train. Even with people having as small a brain as mine, it’s easy to see the problem of spending more than you make. It also seems to be more commonplace than rare, not unlike our government spending practices. Are we all asleep at the wheel in America, or am I just paranoid about things going on in our government and our leadership? I have a yard full of quail and other birds which I really enjoy; it seems like the population is always growing. The expense to feed them is something I don’t enjoy but the enjoyment I get from them makes it worth it. If I leave town for a month or so to work there is no one to feed them, and all of a sudden when the free stuff is gone so are the birds.

Funny how that seems to work. I don’t think we are going to see the end of free stuff and government handouts. So I will just be thankful that I was born in America and live in good old Coeur d’Alene, town of the free stuff. Let us give thanks for our good fortune. And to Kenneth Lane Ashby, I think your article was right on the mark and I agree with your letter.

SCOTT STEPHENS

Coeur d’Alene