re: #692 Irish Rose

We did a sub for Santa program in 1993, and we were assigned to young woman in her late 20’s with 7 children by 5 different men. She’d hook up with new men while the other men were rotating through prison. She had been living on welfare for almost her entire life.

She had grown up on welfare - with 8 other brothers and sister. All of them had been incarcerated at one point or another. TWO of her brothers are on death row for gangland executions, as part of the Norte gang. When we met her her brother had been arrested for raping his younger niece - his 3rd strike.

I had grown up in the home of an IBM junior executive and had had piano lessons and riding lessons. I was dumbstruck by her lifestyle, and her continued poor choices that were very much enabled by welfare.

She lived in a one bedroom apartment with her 7 children and boyfriend. He was put in jail for domestic violence. When I took her shopping after she got her food stamps she put - I kid you not - 10 TEN t-bone stakes in the cart, and junk food like you couldn’t image. Almost no fruits or vegetables. She said that’s what the kids like to eat.

When she ran out of food stamps at the end of the month she would go to the food kitchens and get bags of donated food. This was during the time when Silicon Valley was booming, and they were importing workers and building factories.

Astounding.