THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 24, 1995 TAG: 9509210027
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
Two reports in your Sept. 14 issue - ``Senate rejects `family cap' in welfare bill'' (news) and ``That we force children to be street urchins is biggest problem'' (Another View) - motivated me to write.
Legislators are trying to determine if they should ``punish'' welfare mothers for having additional children while still on welfare, and the Christian Coalition has stated that such a punishment would ``strengthen American families.''
Phil Gramm claims there can be no welfare reform without dealing with illegitimacy, and he is absolutely correct. But we can't deal with it by punishing the children who never asked to be here.
To strengthen American families and really reform welfare, we must first recognize that the job of a parent is an important and necessary one. When a parent neglects the child, whether emotionally or financially, the results affect the rest of society. We all pay the price for neglect and abandonment.
Before there can be any welfare reform, we must decide whether or not both parents should be held fully accountable for feeding and supervising their own children. We cannot expect mothers alone to carry the brunt of child-rearing responsibilities. Where are the fathers of all these welfare children? Where are the mandatory training programs for them?
It seems to me that you can only expect trouble from unsupervised children whose mothers are forced to go to work without adequate funds for day care. Many of these women have court orders for child support that are not worth the paper they are written on. Nationally, only 18 percent of the $32 billion in child support owed to children on welfare is collected. Apparently our society doesn't mind that may of the fathers dispose of their own children as if they were used gum wrappers.
Neglect and abandonment should be a serious crime. If the message we want to send is one of parental responsibility, let's make it for both parents.
LISA PETRY
Virginia Beach, Sept. 14, 1995 by CNB