I got a number of these emails attacking SNAP, food stamp, recipients. I thought I would post what I responded.
My response. The original email is at the bottom.
I thought I would ask you to reconsider what you sent as not being ironic but just silly.
I don't see the irony. To me it is like saying,
"Fire extinguishers are distributed widely and as in no other time in history. Because extinguishers are often at hand when fires happen, they must cause fires. So we must do away with fire extinguishers to protect against the threat of fire."
and then saying something very loosely related,
"Please don't throw cigarettes out the window as they may cause fires that hurt the animals."
The only similarity is found in that the first item, while being unfathomably illogical, also contains a reference to a very broad commonality. A more appropriate comparison might be:
Recession has caused that "The SNAP/Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is ... distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever." Providing much needed relief to those hit hardest by these tough economic times.
Meanwhile, the recession has also harshly affected the National Park Service which is also administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. However, [] the unsung hero's of the park service, our public servants, have acted with forethought to the animals' welfare and the animals have been impacted slightly less adversely than the public servants themselves. Their foresight will preserve the animals so that we can see the wonders of our great nation one day - when we can afford a vacation.
A smoke screen that implies that the rise in the need for food assistance is anything other than a result of a partially collapsed economy, brought on by unwise deregulation, is just that - a smoke screen to put the focus falsely somewhere else. (I prefer that possibility over accepting that the original author is ... well, something better left unsaid.)
Sorry if that sounds terse but you hit [o]n a nerve. I'm a believer that a small measure of common sense regulation is worth the billions in bailouts that it protects against.
If we had taken serious the actions of our forefathers after the Great Depression and quickly reestablished [their remedies], we would have been back on solid ground faster. However, we could have also avoided this mess entirely had we left well enough alone.
Our representatives acted unwisely in removing the regulations that were in place to protect against the very thing we are recovering from. Thank God, we are coming out of this painful partial market collapse, a Great Recession.
Also worth noting, it is only a Great Recession and not a Great Depression because many of the programs our forefathers but in place to relieve suffering, are still in place. The elderly were the worst hit in the Great Depression and in this Great Recession the elderly have not fallen nearly as much as they would have had social security not been in place to protect them.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Irony
The SNAP/Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of free meals and food stamps ever.
Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us to "Please Do Not Feed The Animals." This is because the animals may grow dependent on handouts and not learn to take care of themselves.
Thus endeth today’s lesson.