WELFARE: DRUG TESTING DEGRADES APPLICANTS

The editorial Monday regarding mandatory drug testing to determine welfare
eligibility was alarming, especially since the Times-Union appears to
support such tyrannical methods being used by our government.

This was a unanimous decision of a three-judge appeal panel, the decision
to de-humanize and degrade our fellow citizens by "testing for drugs" and
to subject welfare applicants to tests that could and most likely will be
used to compile data that will be used to the individual's and general
public's detriment. Three judges made their pronouncement, a triumvirate of
despotic social engineers, not a freedom-loving or
respecter-of-human-dignity panel.

Information garnered from blood, urine and hair testing is currently used
by insurance companies to define those that present no risk of profit loss
to the insurance industry. People with genetic markers for particular
diseases or a past history of the current "anti-social substance" abuse, or
even prescribed drugs for any red flag ailment such as depression, are at
the mercy of those in the positions that could decide their economic,
social and political fate. These decision makers are playing God using
information that is at the core of our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

Didn't we all learn that the highest indicator of civilization is the care
and respect given to the weak, the ill and injured and those who were
unable to care for themselves whether physically or financially? Are we so
inhumane that now those that need help must prove eligibility and
worthiness with drug testing? A better solution would be to provide a
specific amount of help in money or in kind with a term limit or evidence
of that person now pulling his own weight (not children, the aged or the
disabled.)

Are we civilized or not? Do we swallow this insult to our human dignity? Do
we help our fellow humans to help themselves? The Times- Union has done a
terrible disservice to its readers in supporting this assault on the weak
and helpless.

Reassess your position and you will see that the long term consequences of
a drug testing policy for welfare eligibility can only degrade and
dehumanize American society.