A dear, brave conservative friend (yes, I have those) sent me an email:
“Well, I finally gave up and applied for a food stamp card. Made it a whole year on pride but finally said the hell with it and turned in the application.”
What I know about this man is that he has been malnourished for several years, living on Ramen noodles and one meal per day. He is a house painter in a cold state and thus cannot work for a significant part of the year. He also has some health problems. The world has changed around him and he doesn’t like it. I don’t blame him.
“I want to go to work but there isn’t any work. I want to paint but there is nothing to paint.”
I say he is brave because he practiced what he preached, right up to enduring genuine hunger for three years-unlike Ayn Rand who went on medicaid when she got sick and Paul Ryan, who went to college on social security.
I don’t expect him to go so far that he will admit that the government has some good programs, programs that prevent brave, decent folks like himself from actually starving to death.
But I will say it: Thank God for food stamps! A certain Christian leader says that depending on the government for food is idolatry. He is a hypocrite, because he thinks depending on the government for protection from foreign enemies is A-O.K.
I’m just glad that my friend will live. Where there’s life there’s hope, after all.
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