W-b Owes To Two Firefighters

Albert Stravinsky 
Feb. 5, 1994 
Albert J. Stravinsky, Of Walnut Street, Luzerne, Died Saturday At Riverstreet 
Manor, Wilkes-barre.

Tuesday, February 08, 1994 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Page: 





Debris of big government lies on floor of apartment &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 You could hear the scorn dripping from the first lady's voiceOn page 4A in
Saturday's Times Leader, Hillary Rodham Clinton and House Majority Leader
Richard Gephardt took turns slashing critics of the president's health care
plan. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Gephardt spoke for them both when he said, "Every time our government tries
to improve people's lives, they (Republicans) say it's `socialism' or `big
government' or `tax and spend."' &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 You know what? Gephardt and the first lady are right. Republicans, among
others, do yell "big government" at even the most well-intentioned plans. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 And a story on Page One of the same paper showed why. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 "Filth-ridden children shock you? Welcome to Chicago," the headline read. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In the 1960's, the federal government vastly expanded the welfare system.
It did so for all the right reasons: a crisis in "The Other America," poor
kids living down the street from the White House, the mockery that poverty
makes of equal opportunity, etc. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Some of the architects of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society thought their
programs would eliminate poverty. Others merely thought poverty would be
reduced. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 But the fates thought differently. For whatever reason, poverty became more
entrenched than ever before in American history -- more entrenched even than
during the Great Depression, when we had a far higher percentage of poor
people but far less poverty of values. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Ask anyone who grew up poor in the Depression, and they'll tell you of the
legendary work ethic they learned at their parents' knees. The poor back then
had middle-class values. They needed only a strong economy for their American
dreams to come true. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 In contrast, vast numbers of the poor today stay poor in strong and weak
economies alike. They are a true "underclass" -- that's a modern, not a
Depression, term -- whose seeming worship of drugs and violence leaves them
unable to set foot on even the bottom rung of the American success ladder. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Too harsh? Not if you saw the pictures and read the stories of that Chicago
hovel. Poverty can explain living in a crowded apartment. Poverty cannot
explain letting 19 children play amidst rat droppings, dog feces and dirty
diapers, and having them gnaw on the same bone as a dog. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Neglect of that kind speaks to an almost Satanic poverty of spirit that no
amount of money could fix. No wonder that the first question one of the
children asked a policewoman was, "Will you be my mommy?" &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The Saturday Page One article also nicely dismissed the argument that such
conditions are unusual. "Social workers, state caseworkers, and others whose
jobs take them inside the homes of families whose lives are mired in grinding
poverty routinely find situations that are just as bad, just as entrenched,
and often far worse," the story reported. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 The point is not that the Great Society patrons were malicious or evil. The
point is that the programs they started with the best of intentions quite
possibly made things worse. They helped trigger a downward spiral that crash
landed in Chicago, perhaps at the moment last week when one of the apartment's
young mothers gave birth to a baby girl addicted to drugs. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 So you're quite right, Madame First Lady and Mr. Majority Leader.
Republicans are suspicious of big government. Millions of Democrats are as
well. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 If you had seen a young beneficiary of big government look you in the eyes
and say, "Will you be my mommy," you'd be suspicious, too.

Debris Of Big Government Lies On Floor Of Apartment You Could Hear The Scorn Dripping From The First Lady's Voice.