Unconstitutional: working for welfare ?

No surprise here : " Recession may force closer look at welfare ".

       Apart from the idea of a RIGHT to welfare - with which no humanist will

    quarrel, this idea or practice of having to WORK for a welfare check is

    highly questionable from a constitutional point of view.

                 It clearly implies two separate  WORKING classes in a free and

    democratic country that outlawed  SLAVERY a long time ago.

               Anybody who  WORKS for a welfare check should simply be considered

    a state employee - with all the rights and benefits of any other state

    employee. The state has no right to punish an individual for being jobless.

                And what ever became of the NEW DEAL mentality ? So the State

    owes us nothing and corporate America owes us nothing ?

              Do we  perhaps owe ourselves a second American Revolution ?

Still there-the GOOD parish priest

             My 80 year old widowed mother said she was cheered up recently

    by a visit from the parish priest. She belongs to St.Mathews Church in

    Cranston, Rhode Island.

                 In sad and difficult times these priests were always there

    for people. Never a hint of scandal about them. I guess they did keep

    the faith all these years, after all.

               You never forget the GOOD people that pass through your life.

             There is some INSPIRATION out there. The Prince of Darkness is

    not yet running the whole show ! When we no longer trust ANYBODY , the

    world will be his for the taking.

Sympathy for Sarah Jane Olson

              If  Sept. 11 had not happened, poor old Sarah Jane Olson - now

    a typical middle class mom -beloved by her family - would probably  have

    been dismissed as a  60s relic. It is not clear to this reader the extent

    of her guilt for the SLA lunacy a long, long time ago.

               USA Today reader  Michael J. Gorman - one of New York's finest-

    brings a typical cop mentality to the case : forgive and forget nothing !

                Apart from the question of her crime, there is an overlooked

    error in political theory by the Sarah Jane of long ago : the belief that

    an elite few - independent of the majority - and of all things, in alliance

    with thugs and gangsters - could  constitute a revolutionary force in our

    flawed but real democracy.

                    People nowadays forget or want to forget everything great

    and good - and even extraordinary ! - about the feverish 60s.

                One sad lesson we learned : never trust upper class spoiled

    brats - in a slumming frenzy.

                  Revolution for the hell of it was not a good idea.

              Perhaps in a year or two Sarah Jane Olson might get more

    understanding.

Elegy for Stuart Denton -" caught "

Tragic news story in the Boston Herald today: " Suspect in sex

    case commits suicide ".  I guess the embarrassment was too much for 55

    year old Stuart Denton - being caught by the police in some kinky group

    sex  with other males in the theater of a Rhode Island "  Amazing ".

              I wonder if some malicious dime dropper will now sleep well

    at night.  Was it even possible that the dime dropper never visited

    " Amazing Video " in  Johnston, Rhode Island ? Was he the puritanical

    type ? Or it didn't matter to him making life a horror show for harmless

    gays or bisexuals ?

                Watch out now all you straight or gay people in your parked

    cars after midnight. The dime dropper has you in sight !

           A while back I re-read " Peyton Place " by Grace Metalious. Said

    a book critic : " The novel teaches us the wisdom of minding our own

    business. "