Remember the story I wrote on the "FSA" - free shit army - including one woman who won the lottery and was still collecting food stamps?
Well, the state (finally) came after her -- but there's more to it.
It seems that all those "food stamps" (really, a nice VISA card that is indistinguishable from any other credit card -- after all, we wouldn't want people to feel any shame in being on the dole, right?) along with the lottery money may have made possible quite a drug habit.
ECORSE, Mich. – Police say a Detroit-area woman who collected welfare benefits despite winning a $735,000 lottery prize has died of a possible drug overdose.
Ecorse police Sgt. Cornelius Herring confirmed that 25-year-old Amanda Clayton was found dead about 9 a.m. Saturday at a home in the community southwest of Detroit.
"The Amanda I knew was a caring person," Josh Ormanian, Clayton's former boyfriend, told MyFoxDetroit.com. "She did care. She went down the wrong path, she got the money, got the freedom and felt like she could do whatever she wanted."
Yeah, well, you can do whatever you want.
But doing so has consequences. In this case, the consequence was her life.
Rest in peace Amanda.
For those of us who have paid the check for many Amanada's, this is a system that urgently needs reform. It is long past the time that coddling people's egos should be part of the equation; indeed, we should exactly the opposite.
I have no quarrel with helping people who are in need. But they should have to admit they've got a problem and shelve their ego at the door. Get rid of EBT and Food Stamps and go back to what we used to do -- run soup kitchens in which you stand in line with your cup out; open to all, but everyone can see that you're asking for help instead of you reaching your hand into the back pocket of every American under the cover of night and invisible taxation to steal what you claim to need.