On the Edge
I hit a wall yesterday.
One of my many friends on Facebook posted a ‘repost this!’ sort of thing; lots of those go around, after all. This one read:
Here….. Let me Piss some people off…..Thank you Florida, Kentucky and Missouri, which are the first states that will require drug testing when applying for Welfare. Some people are crying and calling it unconstitutional, How is this unconstitutional? It’s OK to drug test people who WORK for their money but not those who don’t? Re-post this if you’d like to see this done in all 50 states.
I managed to reel myself in from plastering his wall with ‘Shame on you!’, and instead posted to my own wall instead. The amount of mis-logic and classism on this subject just tears my head apart – why should people at the bottom continue to be kicked for being at the bottom? And I’m pretty sure that most Brits would jawdrop to realize that most US jobs, apparently, make you drug test. I avoided jobs that did that (my military time being the obvious and beyond acceptable exception) because frankly? How DARE you assume I’m guilty before I’m innocent. And even if I wanted to be smoking pot 100% of my off work time, if I’m doing you good work – why should it matter what I do?
‘But these people are living off of my tax money and should never smoke/drink/have nice things’ Oh sure. There are always always always going to be people exploiting the system. That happens at the top, it happens at the bottom, and you’ve probably stolen a few office supplies from work too. But how would you like it if your boss told you that you weren’t allowed to have cake, or soda, or that dress you like that your friend bought you as a present? So then, what makes you the company store over the poor, hrm? Hrm?
If people are truly concerned about their tax money at work, then by all means – talk to your Senators and Congresspeople. Tell them to quit wasting your money on sexually assaulting grannies and children (the TSA), and FEMA. Tell them to quit spending your money on overseas aid and to bring it back home to help people at the bottom of the pile. Tell them to give you ‘communist’ universal health care rather than funding it in the Middle East. Tell them to quit being the World Police and to bring our folks in uniform and their toys back home where they should be.
And most importantly, tell them to make the rich pay their share. The government, advertising agencies, etc – they all take advantage of this incredibly foolish idea that most Americans have that they’ll all make it rich someday. Because so many of us think that we ARE going to be rich, there’s too much damned leeway given, ’cause ‘That could be me!’. Where, much like death, it is significantly more probable that you and me will be poor and needing a handout; who wants to be adult enough to face up to and admit to that?!
Anyways, I could go on about other things, but I don’t want to spam your feeds. Suffices to say, it boils down to the golden rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 😉
I don’t really have anything to say that I haven’t already in your previous blog posting or yesterday. But, I did want to comment on one sentence in this.
“And even if I wanted to be smoking pot 100% of my off work time, if I’m doing you good work – why should it matter what I do?”
From the company’s standpoint: if you are breaking one law then how can we be sure you won’t break more and thus be a liability for us?
Not saying it’s right or valid but that’s where they are coming from. Same reason they do background checks and FBI fingerprinting and more interrogations/interviews than I’d ever care to do and everything else (yes, I had to do all of this for my bank jobs, but that’s a special circumstance I’m sure). They want to make sure I’m honest all around before they invest money in me by hiring and training me. So, they test for illegal drugs as part of that process. Again, not saying I agree with the process or their justifications. Just explaining it.
Ah, but I refute by pointing at this past century’s increasing criminalization of the average man, because it is profitable to the United States government. Read up on the prison industrial complex sometime if you want your mind to melt in terror… but it basically boils down to the fact that incredibly ridiculous sentences are handed down for things like drugs (exploiting the ‘Christian’ mentality of many Americans), even in cases where it’s obviously NOT dealing, because slave labour is a great way to keep a great nation running. *shakes head*
So yes, while I get the so-called reasons, I still call bollocks. 🙂
I will have lifelong mental issues because of the mistreatment and abuse I’ve experienced at the hand of people abusing drugs. My parents didn’t give a crap about me growing up and because of it, I go to the other extreme with my child which isn’t any good for him either. I’ve had guns pointed at me numerous times during bank robberies, including the time I was held hostage for half a day, because of a group of guys that were strung out on something. I hate drugs, I think there’s a reason why they are illegal. I wish they could somehow be wiped from existence but that’s just me living in a dream world. But, I think the punishments for drug abuse are oftentimes not strict enough. The guys that locked us in the bank vault for half a day and kept waiving loaded guns at us? (oh and shot and killed a coworker in the head 3 ft away from me) They got 6 months in jail. So, I don’t agree with you that drug cases are often given ridiculous sentences. But, either way, that’s getting into our incredibly fucked up judicial system and that’s not the topic of conversation here at all. 🙂
I have lesser issues with drugs, and don’t generally equate marijuana to the rest. I definitely emphatically despise cocaine and it users. But I also believe that the criminalization of things tends to make situations worse, and that the War on Drugs as such doesn’t work.
I’ll also say that you’ve accidentally hit upon the crux of the issue in your first line – mental problems. Health care is terrible in the USA, and mental healthcare even worse. I know that, personally, most of my drink and drug problems through the years were because of depression and other such issues, and I suspect that’s a common theme. Don’t think I’m justifying them as coping mechanisms, though – I think my lack of use of all substances in this day and age stands testament to my disapproval of such. 🙂
And geez… I’ll tell you some stories someday, ’cause I do empathise even if I won’t talk about it here.
I’m currently working at a really big construction site and there is drug testing here, but it would seem to make sense to me – if you’re operating huge plant (or have access to the site), then you may be a health and safety hazard (alcohol testing is included in drugs, so it’s about fitness to function, not legal/illegal usage). But testing as a blanket requirement for work or welfare does seem entirely repugnant. Even if you’ve never suffered mental illness before, being made jobless can severely impact your self-worth and make escape from reality look attractive, the time when you need as much support as possible – welfare is really not the life choice that complacent middle-class aspirants and narrow minded bigots (not to mention the carrion media) would have everyone believe.
Indeed! One thing that keeps coming up on Facebook to validate peoples’ opinions is that they see Welfare recipients with fancy things. Erm… hrm… anyone notice what sort of things were looted in the riots here? Oh hrm… the things that people are pummelled with, told they have to have to be happy, to belong… *sighs* It takes a lot of strength to stand outside of that stream of messages and whisperings of happiness being a purchase away; I know this, and definitely have compassion towards the difficulty of ignoring what looks like the way to belong…
But yes – drug/booze use + heavy machinery = not a lark!