WELFARE, ALCOHOL AND ICE IN HAWAII

Editor:

Anyone applying for welfare should submit to mandatory drug testing. I read
where the state of Hawaii has received millions of government money to help
with the ice problem here in Hawaii. I don't think it is realized that the
government is helping users buy these drugs in the first place, as many users
are purchasing the drugs and alcohol with welfare money to begin with. Check
with and visit the local bars at the first of the month. Even they will tell
you business booms when the welfare checks arrive.

What is wrong with drug testing all welfare applicants? Are the liberals afraid
that this would be a "rights" issue? Just think of the money that would be
saved in the long run, if drug and alcohol testing were implemented.

Something to think about, as I certainly don't want my tax dollars being wasted
on ice or booze, then even more of our tax dollars being used to rehabilitate
the very people we enable in the first place.

The welfare system is overly abused in this state. I thought Florida was bad
until I came here.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a
lifetime. I have been here only three years and the mentality here is
disgraceful at best. Not too many people are willing to work, although they are
more than capable. On many occasions I have tried to hire people to work and
they either never call back, or don't show altogether. Just about everyone I
have met is either on workman's comp and/or welfare though one can clearly see
they are physically capable of working.

I have come to the conclusion that half the classifieds entered in the
newspaper are a fictitious cover to perhaps prove to the state that they are
trying to work in order to continue their benefits. Every time I have contacted
people who claim to do yard service, etc., I never get a returned call - or
they just don't want to drive to Ocean View, even though I offer to pay
whatever it is they ask. I think they just prefer to sit back, and collect the
welfare that is so easily placed in their mail boxes each month. Guess my
family could try and milk the system, too, but I was just not brought up that
way. I was "taught to fish," so to speak. If anyone has another reasonable
answer to change my opinion of this issue, I'd sure like to hear it.

Laurie Heller

Ocean View