Dear Editor:
Judy Baumgartner, in a Your Opinion, suggests that conservatives need to have more tolerance.
I agree that there are people worthy of being supported by others but their numbers are small when compared to the number currently getting some type of government aid. If government is going to provide such assistance it should be funded and administered at the local, no higher than county, level. Federal and state taxes could be cut dramatically if we got the feds and the state out of the welfare business. The lower federal and state taxes would provide money for increases in local taxes to fund such programs. There would be much less waste and fraud if such programs were funded at local levels.
I agree that not everyone can be a brain surgeon, but I do expect people to work to become as self-supporting as possible. My younger brother owns a small concrete company in Michigan. Michigan's unemployment rate is high yet he is unable to find workers. He is willing to train them, all they have to do is show up for work on time, and work. He routinely finds that he must subject his nearly 60-year-old body to the rigors of concrete placement and finishing, because he can't find anyone willing to do such work. The able-bodied, unemployed would rather lay about collecting welfare rather than work as he does.
Baumgartner mentions women's freedom. I am a civil libertarian, everyone should have the freedom to live their lives as they choose, right up to the point where that freedom impacts the freedom of others. I believe life begins at conception and that an unborn child should have the freedom to be born. Any partner in a pregnancy who is unable to meet at least 50 percent of the emotional and financial needs of the child, should be sterilized. There is no need to be tolerant of the behavior of someone who refuses to obtain and use a condom.
My granddaughter worked her way through school to become an RN. Her husband paid the cost (in money, sweat and time) to learn and develop a trade. I await an explanation of why government should force them to not only support, but even accept as the norm, the behavior of others who are not equally as willing to work hard to support themselves?