Interaction on a couple of Australian newsgroups: > >> > >>>>And before you complain about the cost, consider that a significant > >>>>number of the unemployed smoke and gamble and drink. > >>> > >>> You have evidence of this? Or is it just your prejudice? > >> > >>Too easy - get your deck chair out and go sit outside any Centerlink > >>office for an hour. > >> > >>Go volunteer at your local Neibourhood Center - watch them come in, > >>chain smoking, leave their beer can at the door and ask for a handout > >>because they have no food for the kids or can't pay the electricity > >>bill. > >> > >>Watch them then abuse the volunteer helper when they refuse to give > >>them cash and give them a voucher for food instead... > > I take it you've seen this happen? Often? > > > > Yes. My response: I've seen it too. Last week in the Ringwood Centrelink in Melbourne a young man abused the public servant trying to help him, stormed out and kicked over a row a chairs. She simply walked over and stood them up again... I'm counselling a few heroin addicts - and recovering heroin addicts - who are addicted also to grog and marijuana and cigarettes, and can't organize their lives or feed their children properly. The effort and humiliation associated with going to the Salvation Army for a food handout (one of my adult daughters is a volunteer there) is huge for them. My attitude (I hope) is one of 'helpful compassion' and 'tough love'. I don't give them money, but understanding. And it's paying dividends. Now why was I at Centrelink? Organizing for the government to pay me an 'old-age pension' as they used to be called. -- Shalom! Rowland Croucher