I already know the answer to that one. But they really need to get their act together, they’re US Senators for cryin’ out loud! It looks like they just passed an amendment to the yearly bloat called the farm bill to stop felons from receiving food stamps. Now, at first glance it sounds like a fantastic idea! Lets stop convicted felons from taking government aid! But if you stop for a bit longer and think about it you realize that it will likely just throw them back in prison. You see, if you’re eligible for food stamps you’re pretty down on your luck and if you’re a felon its nearly impossible to get a job. So you’re basically punishing someone for LIFE for something they already served time for. It really seems like a backward idea to make sure felons are stuck in prison forever. Let’s not forget as well that some prisons in the United States are run by profit-seeking entities.
I’m sure you’ve heard some variation of these:
“It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” — Nelson Mandela
“Any society, any nation, is judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members ; the last, the least, the littlest.” — Cardinal Roger Mahoney
“…the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. ” — Hubert H. Humphrey