Dear Rina,
I learned of a court settlement for living victims of the horrific forced sterilizations legally conducted in some Southern states; sterilizations conducted on people of color, including pre-teens. Because people of color were stereotyped as being lazy, and in large part stigmatized because they were poor, sterilization was an answer to the prejudiced population’s hatred for the poor. In turn, I submit, from my experience with being stereotyped as lazy or different because I have been extremely poor, I know firsthand that the appeal of the drug testing scenario for welfare recipients is a way to punish the poor and satisfy the inner demons of those who stereotype the poor.
First of all, ordering someone to be drug tested assumes and/or finds a poor person guilty from the start, by implying that they do drugs. That is a stereotype applied to lazy persons, and I was stereotyped as lazy because I was poor. Does a lawmaker have the right to imply that I am lazy, when in fact I have had a job and have been employed for 25 years, but prior to that I was poor and lawmakers and society stereotyped me back then. How then, being lazy, did I manage to work and attend school and graduate from MSU while a single mother?
God have mercy on those wicked lawmakers and those who stereotype and try to destroy the poor.
Lou Ann Thom
Lansing, MI
Editor’s note: This post is regarding recent news coverage on North Carolina’s common public health practice called eugenics (sterilization). A task force voted that the state compensate victims.
Hello, Rina,
I read in your newspaper this weekend of the item from Therese Hercher and how she contacted us for donation of books some years ago. Rina, we have developed a new strategy for getting materials into prison libraries now and we ship bunches of materials, both secular and Christian. One to librarians and other to chaplains. We sort and designate, contact librarians and chaplains and make it happen. If you have any interest in helping us gather materials for distribution, I would be honored and thrilled.
I send you blessings,
Len Hill, Pastor
New Directions Ministries
202 S. Creyts Road
Lansing, MI. 48917
Ph. 517-319-5741, #12
Website: www.newdirectionsministries.org
Fax: 517-319-5896
This was printed in the January 29, 2012 – February 11, 2012 Edition
