Scary words, no? Did you know that after 50 years, statistics show that the same relative number of people are poor as when the “War on Poverty” began  (Poverty Statistics) ? Over a Trillion dollars spent and no headway whatsoever.

Could it be that the war on poverty uses policies which, rather than help people climb permanently out of poverty, instead perpetuates it? Could it be that, when you strip away good intentions and feel-good ideas, you find no progress at all.

Imagine you are a single mother living in an urban environment. The government provides you with food stamps, WIC , medical assistance, a welfare check. And the assistance increases if you should have another child. What would you do?

During the Clinton term the republican congress voted for and passed the Welfare to Work program, and although Clinton disapproved of it at the time, he later claimed credit for it when he saw the results.

Welfare to work gave that mother hope, showed her that with effort, she could move from a subsidized existence by the state to a better life created by her own hard work.

No, it isn’t easy. And as a privileged white person from the suburbs I certainly do not pretend to know what such a life would be like.

It’s tough when you are on welfare. But when you are born into welfare, when the government tells you that you will never make it on your own (for whatever reason), people believe it and act accordingly.

That means the creation of a self perpetuating welfare state where people trade dreams of excelling for their next check from a bankrupt government. They feel “entitled” to money earned by producers.

Never tell a mother or a child that they can’t make it in this country. It should be a crime to put such an idea in the mind of anyone.

While it’s true that the starting point in life is clearly unequal, it should not be an excuse not to try. Some of our greatest citizens were born in poverty; they simply refused to stay in that zip code.

My dad was one such person. Despite the confiscatory taxes of the Carter administration, despite ever increasing regulations, my dad somehow made a huge success of his restaurant. He saw the government as a hindrance. He wished they would have gotten out of his way.

During my dad’s years running his restaurant he provided many jobs and had many cooks and waitresses that were there almost from the beginning. He saw kids fund their college educations in part due to the money earned working in the restaurant.

The town profited from increased tax revenue, the employees had steady work and a fun, family atmosphere; no one expected anything without first making an effort.

When I began working for my dad, me – the owner’s son – I started by picking up cigarette butts in the parking lot. Later, I washed pots and dishes.

Only after demonstrating that I could, pardon the pun, take the heat, was I promoted to  line cook and even waiter.

The pursuit of happiness is not a guarantee of happiness. No on said that life would be a painless exercise of rainbows and great music.

Only hard work, persistence and determination gets you to where you want to go. If you look to the government for a solution, you are looking to a life of subsistence.

My dad looked to no one but himself. He made it. Others can too.

Back in BC (Before Conservative), I was an emotional, scatological debater. When discussing political issues with republicans or conservatives, I would paint with a very broad brush, making a suspicious number of general statements void of any specificity, and would become frustrated when my opponent would confront me with facts and razor-sharp examples that destroyed my entire premise.

That would ultimately lead to my committing the worst of debating sins, the ad homonym attack. Sometimes I would simply remain aloof and claim that my opponent was simply uninformed, when in fact he had been the one making clear, supportable statements.

That was many years ago, and I share this with you because I now find myself on the other side, taking pride in my research, happy to provide quantifiable facts, figures and examples to support my point-of-view, and I am amazed at how many people cave when confronted with irrefutable evidence directly conflicting with either their opinion or world view.

One tactic I see repeated is where a liberal or progressive begins with a general statement. I tell them they are incorrect and provide plenty of evidence to support the exact opposite position. Rather than concede, they invariable state that the topic in question is less important than THIS comment, this one over here, let’s talk about THIS! They divert, but never acknowledge.

Or they engage in a sort-of bi-polar semantic dance where, although the topic of the discussion was clearly stated and understood at the onset, once they find themselves defending a weak position they begin to parse and slice, chop and dice, until the original point is lost.

Here’s a simple example:

I recently had a conversation with a dear friend. I stated that Obama blames Bush on a regular basis. He was genuinely astonished at my assertion and boldly told me I was incorrect. After laughing at my comment he told me to provide him with three examples of Obama blaming Bush.

Within ten minutes I had assembled an email containing a dozen articles from all over the political spectrum. Indeed, the examples even had the phrase “Obama blames Bush” in the title and the body of the article.

So,  how did my friend respond? You won’t believe this. He exclaimed that the articles I sent dealt with Obama criticizing the Bush ADMINISTRATION, or Bush POLICIES.

What did he think I meant? You don’t know? I don’t know! Heck, I asked him what on earth he was talking about. What was it he thought I meant. Now, walk with me here. At this point my friend shifted the discussion away from the fact that I had indeed provided him with many examples of Obama criticizing Bush to a discussion about my “tone” in the discussion.

And so it went folks. My dear friend simply could not conceed a very simple truth, namely that Obama has and continues to blame Bush for most everything.

I still think the world of my friend. In fact I empathize; I recall the frustration I felt when I was a liberal. Unable to debate on facts and dates I would resort to any possible tactic. In this case my friend bisected, disected and parced his point until I had lost all interest.

I suppose one lesson here is that, when debating a liberal or a progressive, define terms with anal specificity. Ask lots of questions and repeat what they say. Make sure you both agree at the front-end of the debate on what is being discussed.

And smile. Smile and pat yourself on the back for taking the time to move beyond emotion to reason.

The recent national display of tax protesters received horrendously biased coverage in the media.

MSNBC and other news outlets happily referred to protesters with the derogatory and sexually explict term “teabaggers”. Moveover, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi falsely stated that this national uprising of concerned citizens was being orchastrated entirely by wealthy republicans.

The fact is that the tea parties were a truly grass roots effort as concerned citizens stumbled through the process of typing emails, talking to friends, printing flyers, building websites, calling neighbors and slowly came together in a common cause, namely, a fearsome distain for the manner in which our current adminstration is spending money we don’t have to do things that shouldn’t be done.

As a particpant in this wonderful display of patriotic, bottom-up mobilizing, I saw first-hand that those showing up to rallies, including the one I attended in Rome, NY, were kind, thoughtful people who were engaged politically. And yes, most of the folks were likely of the republican or conservative persuasion, but interestingly, there were a number of democrats and independants as well.

If you are concerned with the manner in which your tax dollars are being spent, if you are angered at the debt being foist upon our kids, then participate. The next round of Tax Tea Parties will occur on July 4th.

You can learn more by visiting http://www.teapartyday.com/ More…

Since the inauguration of President Obama we’ve seen tremendous, rapid changes take place in the U.S.; in a bastion of free enterprise and freedom we are witnessing an administration moving our country toward socialism.

Even as the pundits and talking heads debate the merits or drawbacks of each sweeping change in policy, many are still trying to get their minds around the fact that we are, indeed, on the verge of giving up the fundamental elements that set our country apart from the monarchies, theocracies and tyrannies that dot this planet.

If you are concerned, if what you see unfolding troubles you, there is much you can do. Join a local Tax Tea Party effort, discuss current politcal events with friends and explain to them how current and proposed polices will impact them and make sure you vote in the upcoming 2010 midterm elections.

As Dante so famously said, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of crisis, do nothing.”

More to come. Be strong.