Politicians hold up the welfare mom as the second greatest threat to our way of life, only following the global terrorist. As if a tired, overworked (usually black), mother of three who can’t find a job is the equal of a bearded zealot with bombs strapped to his chest. This is laughable, and plays to the worst element in all of us; the fear that while we’re working so hard that someone else might be getting a free ride.

I would rather pay twenty, or thirty, or even fifty percent in taxes to support homeless, hungry, education, free medical care, and welfare moms, than I would to pay even one percent towards bombs, soldiers, or propping up corrupt foreign dictatorships. Right now the tax dollars you spend are oppressing someone in a Third-World country. Right now your tax dollars are going into the pocket of a weapons maker here in the United States. Right now your tax dollars are paying for the missile that’s going to land in an urban neighborhood in Iraq, killing children.

Currently a number of states have programs to force welfare mothers to pay back the money they are given after a period of time. They are forced into working two low-paying jobs, because nobody will hire them for a single high-paying one. Where there is a father paying child support, the checks are confiscated by the government to pay back the welfare, which is now considered a ‘loan’ to help get the poor mother on her feet. Forcing hungry, desperate people to take a loan and then putting them through extreme hardship to pay it back is not welfare or social justice; it’s loan-sharking.

I don’t want my money back. If you can’t find a job and need money to feed your hungry children until such time as the corporate dirtbags in America stop sending jobs to Third-World sweatshops, then by all means take it. Most of us would gladly sacrifice that small percent of our income or spending to help you through your rough time. It’s the thieves in Washington who have decided that you are a burden on society. They need the money more than you, to give back in tax cuts to the ridiculously rich or to pay Halliburton or Lockheed-Martin and the rest of the Beltway Bandits.

If you’re a welfare mom and you can get off work, or the pathetic public transportation system in your area will allow for it, please find time to go vote in this next election. Vote for someone compassionate. Vote for someone who loves peace. Vote for someone who believes that Americans are America’s greatest resource. And then drop me a line to let me know who that person is.