POVERTY'S VICTIMS

OAK PARK -- Barbara Ransby has replaced logic with emotion in her
protests of Michigan's pilot program for administering drug tests to
new welfare applicants (Commentary, June 11). She asserts that the
welfare application process discriminates by class and race. What an
illogical notion it is to give the poor class welfare and not the rich
class.

But she fatally stumbles when she argues that drug tests for new
welfare applicants presumes all poor people are drug users. By using a
radar gun on the highway, does a state trooper presume everyone is
speeding? Further, is it inappropriate to punish a truck driver who
arrives at work drunk? No on both accounts.

Welfare recipients are accepting money from taxpayers, and there is
nothing wrong with attaching strings to that money. Why should I have
to pay for a junkie's habit? Until the addict improves his behavior,
then I see no reason to support his habit.

Could this create an incentive for a potential welfare recipient to
drop a drug habit? Hopefully. Welfare budgets are a zero-sum game, so
every dollar spent on crack is another dollar not spent on baby
formula for a deserving, law-abiding recipient.

I applaud Michigan's efforts to get welfare checks into the hands of
the right people. Instead of arguing for the not-so-innocent junkies,
maybe Barbara Ransby should see what we can do to help poverty's
innocent victims.

Michael Meyer