Why I believe what I do
I grew up in a Christian home.
I still hold onto many of those beliefs.
I support the death penalty. I don’t like crime.
I believe the Second Amendment isn’t about personal protection or hunting and sporting rights. It is, and always was, about an armed citizenry keeping its government in check. As such, I will hold onto my guns.
I believe in personal responsibility.
But I’ve also lived in the real world. I’ve been in situations most of the people who read this couldn’t even imagine.
I was one of 467 good people dumped on their ass by a company that sold out to a competitor in 2003.
I was a security guard at the Holly Ridge bacon plant when Tyson bought it and closed it down in a month. I was the last employee to work there. I locked the gate at midnight on a Sunday.
An entire village of people grew up and lived their whole lives across the highway from the plant in a group of mobile homes. Hard working people who put their kids through college and contributed to their community. People who spent their entire lives working for a company that abandoned them in a day.
Some of those people went on to better jobs. Some of them went back to school to learn new skills. Some of them became criminals. Some of those people ended their existence with a shotgun or a handful of pills and a bottle of grain alcohol.
With no jobs available and the rent piling up, I finally moved. I lived for a time with my wife and children in my brother’s dining room in Shreveport, Louisiana.
I sought employment there in one of the few jobs that paid above minimum wage: casinos.
I worked security where I watched the rich throw more money away on gambling in an hour than I made all week.
I met a lot of hard working people too. They eked out living catering to the Houston oil crowd who treated them less than human sometimes.
Many of those people were making more money than they ever had. They were also stuck in a dead end job they would be doing the rest of their lives.
I wanted more for my kids. I worked all night and went to college all day.
I finally moved home and eventually landed the job I have now.
Without my family – my parents and often my siblings – I would have never made it through those rough years.
Did I take government assistance? You’re goddamn right I did.
Did I buy my kids new shoes for school instead of paying a credit card bill? Yes.
The other day someone questioned my self-respect for such things. A man with hungry children and a broke down car and the rent due and no job doesn’t have room for self-respect. Shame on anyone who has never been in such a situation and wants to question my self-respect.
I have been employed since I was 14 years old. I served with honor in the U.S. Navy. I have provided for a family of seven since my youngest son was born in 2005.
And I have needed help along the way. That’s why I think we should help others.
Welfare detractors want to talk about the anecdotal pregnant 19-year-old with three kids already soaking up tax dollars. Is it wrong? Sure it is. But should those kids not eat because their parents are not pulling their weight?
That’s what people are really saying. They talk about how they earned their way (many of them on their parents’ coattails) and everyone else should too, but what they are really saying is that they don’t want to help their fellow human beings.
For every person abusing the system there are many more making their lives better and better for their children. Isn’t that better for all of us? Unless you want to abandon entire segments of the population, which many of the smug people who read this would do.
I used to be a preacher. I went to Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. I think most so-called Christians today have forgotten what it means to be a Christian. They go to church on Sundays and spend the rest of their week coming up with reasons not to help people. The biggest lie ever told is that “God helps those who help themselves.” That isn’t Bible doctrine. It’s Greek philosophy.
Jesus called for Christians to feed the poor. He didn’t say feed the poor except for those who you think have parents that live a questionable lifestyle.
I knew a homeless man, strike that, a 19-year-old kid, who lived in a homeless camp behind the Piney Green Road K-Mart until the Christian owner kicked them out and tore down their tents.
This kid was abused by his father and sexually abused by foster parents and so had been on his own since he was 16. He migrated to Jacksonville like many homeless people in Southeastern North Carolina do. He did not use drugs. He did not drink much (many of you probably drink more than he did).
He cleaned up good too. So much so that he got a job at a local fast food restaurant. He was saving his money to travel out west where he believed his sister lived.
While I was covering the homeless living in the area, I got to know this kid. He was honest and earnest. Had he been born into one of your families he would most likely be on his way to being a doctor or lawyer now.
But that ain’t ever going to happen.
When the restaurant found out that he was homeless; he was fired.
So he moved on down the tracks. I haven’t seen him since 2010. One homeless friend of his told me recently that the kid died up in Fayetteville. Another told me the kid lives in New Bern and is cooking meth.
Come Judgment Day, Christ said he will make known to those who didn’t help the poor that it was really Him they weren’t helping.
Jesus didn’t talk a lot about supply-side economics, but you know what one of his favorite subjects was?
HYPOCRITES!
He spent a lot of time on them. He said the religious leaders of his day – Jerusalem about 2,000 years ago – were nothing but hypocrites.
He said they lived their lives like graves: nice and fancy and clean on the surface, but nothing but dead men’s bones beneath.
John the Baptist didn’t spend his time all dressed up in fine clothes in the King’s Court playing politics. He was out in the wilderness preaching God’s word, wearing camel hide.
Hey, you don’t want to help the poor? You want to trash people who are down on their luck? Fine. Just admit you’re a greedy, selfish prick and stop acting like you’re doing the Christian thing. Cause you ain’t.
Posted in straight up opinion | 7 Comments »
This ended up in the wrong category and should have been on the front page : )
Comment by Jen — March 23, 2012 @ 1:36 pm
Been there brother, I know where you are coming from. I worked to the bacon plant also stacking boxes of bacon off the belt all night long. I could do it with my eyes shut. I would have done anything to get away from farming. When I was a kid my family never had a car. No indoor plumbing. I remember we used kerosene lamps before we got electric lights. We had to sleep with all the windows and doors open at night in the summer time, damn mosquitos and bats. I am still traumatized from the night our big rooster came through the house at midnight with a dam possum chewing on his ass. Live that with no lights and as a kid you think the gates of hell just opened up. The only time I came to town was to get a damn needle stuck in my arm so I could stay in school. I had to wear old blue jeans with holes in the knees and ragged out. Only poor kids in school wore blue jeans with hole in them back then. I have never, say the last 45 years wore a pair of blue jeans. I will never wear a pair of blue jeans. I never seen the north carolina mountains until I was 28 Years old. I was 28 when I started my law enforcement career. And yes it is nice to be retired.
So now when we chat you will know where I came from. And I am proud of it. It was an education that money can’t buy. Maybe sometime we can sit and have coffee and share some real life stories, I really enjoyed reading your article.
Comment by Rayford Padgett — March 23, 2012 @ 9:54 pm
Reprinted from facebook:
Hans Miller: Well spoken, Lindell. We agree on many issues, disagree on some. I have no problem in helping people out who are down on their luck, or are unable to fend for themselves. But it flat pisses me off when I personally observe individuals who take advantage of hard working people over and over again, by taking and taking and taking, generation after generation – instead of picking themselves up and changing their situation for the better (as you did, my friend). The old saying about teaching a person to fish, instead of just feeding the person a fish, is as true now as it has been throughout history. Our welfare system is laden with fraud. Our challenge, as productive citizens, is to help those who truly need the help, and to wean those who are physically and mentally able to work off the public dole. We need to change a system where single parenthood is rewarded and marriage discouraged. Children suffer under irresponsible adults, and our system has made it all to easy to remain irresponsible. If that makes me a greedy, selfish prick in someone’s eyes, so be it. But, as a Christian, I see no conflict with reaching down and picking someone up, instead of letting some small change fall onto the ground and perpetuating irresponsibility.
I am also from a poor background, and can relate.
Comment by Hans Miller — March 24, 2012 @ 7:28 am
Lindell, it is not about not wanting to help those that need it, it is about not giving to those that as was said, “Take advantage of the System”. I found your comments very interesting and did not know all of this about you but as with Hans and Rayford, two men who as you, are on the top of my list of those that have my highest respect. There are many with a story like yours and theirs and there are those that share your point of view and then there are those that agree with some of it and disagree with some also. . I am one of those that agree and disagree.
Being a Yankee from Chicago, I may not of grown up in the local tobacco fields or worked a hog farm, but I also did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth and worked very hard to get where I am now, however insignificant that may be. I learned a lot of my work ethics from my Dad who passed away several years ago and who I think about all the time. I remember him working two jobs at times just to try to make ends meet. He was a Machinist and would work a Convenient store in the evenings. I remember that old Buick, a 54 I believe, all beaten up and looking like it was just pulled from the junk yard. I remember at one point us being on food stamps and my Dad working very hard to get off of them. I remember him having only a couple pairs of pants and wearing them till they were unbearable. He always put his family first. He always worked hard for us and for that I will always love him for. So yes, we accepted assistance but my Dad worked hard to get us off it, and he did. He could have taken advantage of the system and stayed on them but he did the right thing and picked himself up as you did.
You know where I work and I do not make that much money. I got left behind when it came to pay raises mainly because of that faulty Springstead study the county did. Heck there are junior employees of lesser rank and who have been there less time than I have, that make more money than me. But still myself and my wife give to those in need, family members and strangers. And I do not mind because that is the proper thing to do. Sometimes I give to a fault and have gone in debt because I have never said no and really don’t think I could if it was for a good reason. I work at my main job and as many secondary jobs as I can just to try to make ends meet and sometimes we cant. But still we always find a way to help out when asked. And I am not ashamed to say my brothers have helped me out on several occasions as I have for them just as your siblings did because that is what family does for each other.
My point in all of this is that those of us that want further welfare reform don’t want those that truly need help to be forgotten. There is a true need for welfare and we should help those that need it, that I have no problem with. The problem I have is with those that are blatantly taking advantage of the system. At one of my secondary employments, I was doing security when a lady came in and was bragging how she just got her welfare check and that now she can use it to play online gambling games. That really pissed me off but what pissed me off even more is when her husband came by in a new Cadillac to pick her up. This same lady said it another time when a different officer was there. I have also been in the magistrates office on several occasions and have heard drug dealers talk about how they are going to make bond in a couple of days because that’s when they get their monthly welfare check. This after I had seized thousands of dollars’ worth of drug money from them. Like Hans said, If me wanting that to stop makes me a self-righteous prick, I guess I’m a prick. I have been called worse.
With that said, We as Americans have an obligation to our fellow citizens to help those that truly need helping. We should help the father or mother that has just lost their job, or help that single mother who due to a dead beat dad needs food stamps and a monthly check or free medical care. I have no problem helping that young homeless man that you talk about who’s tragic events in his life has brought him to that point. There have been many occasions where while on duty I have fed the homeless that I have ran into or given the a few bucks. I even once paid for and put a young man on a bus after making contact with his brother in Oregon. He was embarrassed and afraid to talk to family because he had spent some time in prison and thought that they did not want to associate with him but they were actually looking for him. I have also paid to have electricity turned back on for families that I have met through calls that got behind on the bill. I am not saying these things to brag because I truly believe that charity should be done as often as possible in secret. But I said it to prove a point that even though I truly believe that we need to reform our welfare system, I still believe we need to help those that truly need it and at the same time weed out those that abuse it and take advantage of hard working Americans. We need to come up with a system that denies those like the lady with the Cadillac or the drug dealer who is too lazy to get a job like the ones on Frost Lane. And as far as the single mother with the three kids, No we should not let those children starve and we should make sure they don’t. But, we should also make sure that the mother works and those dead beat dads pay. If I was told tomorrow that my services are no longer needed at my place of employment, I would work as many jobs as needed to try to make ends meet. But, I am also sure that I would need some assistance but would try not to and would work very hard to get off of it.
I don’t know who the person you are talking about in the article is that you state is hiding behind his Christian persona , but I can’t stand it when people do. There are way too many now false profits, but that really doesn’t matter. The thing is, I am tired of paying for that ladies Cadillac and that drug dealers bond and so should you. Keep doing the job you are doing Lindell and great article. I agree with Jen this should be on the front page.
Comment by Bob Ides — March 25, 2012 @ 3:05 am
Hans, Bob, Rayford and everyone else,
Thanks for reading this post and thoughtfully commenting.
I would hope none of you think I support the Cadillac-riding woman Bob mentioned who brags on abusing the welfare system. Of course I’m against folks who take more than they should from the government. Not only is it morally wrong, but it steals tax dollars from other citizens and takes benefits from those who actually need it.
My point is that I’m afraid too many conservatives are willing to toss out the baby with the bath water. When welfare is discussed in the market of ideas it is always portrayed as a cumbersome impersonal monster that exists solely to be bilked by project hoes with six kids looking for stamps to trade for crack.
While that happens, it’s not as prevalent as detractors of the welfare system want us to believe.
Conservatives tend to portray welfare recipients as life-long relief riders who make no effort to get off the government dole. In fact, most people don’t receive welfare for more than two years at a time. There is no reliable research that substantiates the “welfare trap” theory. Nor does welfare provide enough for people to live off of without other means.
The most typical family size of single-mother welfare recipients is one child and their birth rate is usually lower than the rest of the non-welfare receiving population.
Another myth is people on welfare don’t work when the facts show that two-thirds of the people on welfare are employed or recently jobless.
And the biggest myth of them all: Most welfare recipients are black. Nope. The majority of welfare recipients are white.
This information comes from the National Center for Law and Equal Justice. You can question the analysis of this organization, which has an agenda of looking out for the poor. But it’s hard to argue with the stats which come from the U.S. Labor Department and other government agencies.
And finally, according to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, of the 2011 federal budget, 20 percent went to defense, 20 percent to Social Security and 20 percent went to health programs (with two-thirds going to medicare for those more than 65). Out of the annual budget, 14 percent went to welfare programs including earned income credit and unemployment benefits.
Are the people who are complaining so much about welfare willing to forgo Social Security and Medicare when they are older? Or unemployment insurance when they lose a job?
And if those people really cared about government waste they would be combing through the Defense Department budget.
Let’s reform the welfare system without punishing the folks who are trying to improve their lives.
Comment by Lindell Kay — March 25, 2012 @ 1:04 pm
Right on target, Lindell. We DO need to help others, and that usually means taking them right as they are without making judgements!!! I like to think of ‘programs’ as helping hands, rather than handouts.
Years ago, and thousands of miles away, seaside resorts sold candy known as sticks of rock. The sticks of rock had the name of the town ‘written’ into it and the name was all the way through that stick of rock right to the very other end. No matter how long the stick of rock was. If I remember correctly, the average stick of rock was about a foot long, As you ate it the letters blurred a bit, but the name was there all the way through.
Lindell, you are like those sticks of rock, solid and decent all the way through. I know you won’t like it, but I have to say it, you ARE a Christian, all the way through. Followers of Christ aren’t limited to any particular group, it’s living the teachings that matters.
One of my sons was laid off his job for 18 months, so we know all about how that goes!!!
OF COURSE he took unemployment benefits.
All of these posts were right on target. I consider all of you the ‘backbone of America’ and that’s what will continue to make our country great, the decency and common sense of the common people.
Comment by justice4all — March 27, 2012 @ 2:35 am
As an agnostic northerner who migrated here 20 years ago, I have grown accustomed to, and appreciative of, southern Christian values and all around culture. While I too have a great disdain for criminals and those that would harm others for gain, one aspect of the belief system is perplexing. When one claims Christianity while openly supporting the death penalty, a second must wonder about the cognitive dissonance…..or if there is any.
I think the irony is in that this lowly heathen non-believer could never support such a premise; the deliberate taking of a human life…..no matter what the motivation. At the hands of a violent criminal, I have suffered loss and felt hate because of it. In the end, death is always bad…even if it is deserved.
I will never judge one’s beliefs, nor proclaim that mine are correct. I just find some degree of hypocrisy and irony in any God fearing person that supports the death penalty. As long as we are human, mistakes will always be made; innocent people will be put to death.
I certainly do not mean this input to be derogatory or insulting; it is merely something that has always made me think. So, I submit my thoughts respectfully.
Comment by Mike — June 5, 2012 @ 2:14 pm