Gasoline Alley by Jim Scancarelli for July 08, 2010

Where’s Joe-Allen Doty?

Sleeping, for a change? He’s got the spot on the couch next to Gertie.

Joe, it was JCSupSvc who said, 2 days ago ”It’s the homeless people that set the circus animals free a few weeks back. They set the animals loose and stole their food. Now they are stealing from Walt.”

It’s a brilliant guess! I don’t know these guys, but they certainly seem to be the type to steal food from animals! I hope JCSupSvc is right.

Looks like my guess was correct. Pye and his brood seem to like subterranean locales.

The thot plickens.

I bet it is Joe Pye… but who’s Joe Pye?

Joe and his boys were the ones tunneling under the street into the bank a year or so ago when Skeezix inadvertently got sucked into their scheme. Everyone got arrested when the street caved into the hole, but there was never a follow-up about what happened to Joe and his sons (or why Skeezix got released).

Devinshade… call in the ACLU, they belong in the comics anyway stealing is wrong, poor or not!

At least if get caugth serve time meals may not be great but 3 of them and a bed and roof. Maybe why more robberies around. With no jobs.

I don’t think Jim has anything against poor folks as such. The Pyes’ most noticeable feature is not poverty. They are the sort commonly known as good-for-nothings and slackers. Wait and see….

These people are hiding in the attic. That is where Daddy and Red Tommy are now, while these two go down to raid the kitchen.

I’m already worried about “Red Tommy”. He sounds like a piece of work.

Gertie should of made more pies, one for each of them! Double the dose while at it! I’m not against homeless people that have lost their jobs and homes and can’t find work. But there is plenty of homeless people that REFUSE to work and steal from others!!

ORteka, is that a poodle? That’s what I have. Maybe we could do a round of “Welcome to Dog-Talk” if it gets slow around here.

Devonshade, don’t you realize that what you propose is COMMUNISM! and everybody in the world will sponge off ME! because I’m the only honest hard-working person on the PLANET!

At least that seems to be the prevailing wisdom around here…

Devonshade, you are living in a dream world, like all socialists. We have enough people living off the government now, who have learned that if they don’t work, they will always be entitled to a free handout.

What did I tell you?

As usual, the truth lies between the poles of rhetoric.

Like I said before Devonshade, I feel sorry for those that have lost their jobs and can’t find work, and actively looking for work. I’ll help them in any way I can. But the ones that refuse to work, get public assistance like food stamps, here its a food card in Oregon, and use that card just to buy booze, I do NOT feel sorry for. No way, no shape no how!!

People should take the time to learn what Communism, Fascism and Socialism are before they start screaming how our government is becoming Communist, Fascist and/or Socialist.

Communism is NOT taking money from tax payers and giving it to the unemployed. It’s not even socialism. The welfare program is a stupid idea that we came up with ourselves. Stupid because it created an entire class of Americans unable to get along without government support. Track down the science fiction short story “The Marching Morons” by Cyril Kornbluth. Written in 1951 he could have been writting about today.

ORteka:

Why so judgmental?

Many people on food stamps have been actively looking for work for months or more. Some people on food stamps are dependent families of the United States military, even. If the Army isn’t paying a man or woman enough to feed his/her family, how can you accuse people who have been laid off of being lazy because they get food stamp money?

Even if you get unemployment benefits, they’re only about half your regular pay, and that won’t go far if you have bills and children. You cannot buy liquour with food stamp cards. The system won’t let you in most states. I was a grocery checkout person 12 years ago, and the computerized system would only pay for certain things.

Any store that tries to get around the system to sell items that are not covered will lose its ability to accept the cards, and will pay a hefty fine, plus lose all the money that it acquired by cheating the system.

No doubt there are some cheaters, but no doubt there are a lot of people who are doing their best in an unfriendly economy. They did their best and still got laid off. There is no way I’m going to judge those people for accepting enough assistance to keep going, because once you are homeless, it becomes awfully hard to get a job because you don’t have an address. (Yeah, Catch-22 there.)

On the bright side there are success stories. I know somebody who was bringing Saturday lunch to the same homeless guy for a couple of years (the shelter didn’t serve food on Saturdays). She got to know him a little. He turned out to be a Vietnam Vet, a musician, and a really well spoken person, but with substance issues.

Last fall he told her he had been clean and sober for over a year, and was looking for work but he was having trouble getting hired because so many people were looking for work and he didn’t have a fixed address to write on applications. So my friend told another friend in county social services about the guy, and he went over there to meet him and got the guy into some transitional housing and got him to accept food stamps to help him eat properly to get healthier.

He disappeared from the street a few months ago and my friend got worried, but, it turned out he now has a job so he just isn’t out panhandling anymore. He is paying his own way and will soon be able to get an apartment of his own.

The guy did the very hardest thing, to get the monkeys off his back, but he needed assistance to get out of homelessness and into a job.

I’m sorry this post is so long, but it’s a true story and I think that is how public assistance is supposed to work.

That’s the kind of story I like to read, Michael!