Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Anyone with an engaged brain understands that it’s better to be rich than poor. Anyone with an ounce of empathy knows that those who are poor did not choose to be in that condition. People make misguided decisions or life-changing decisions are made for them: they lose their jobs due to “downsizing,” medical conditions cause them to quit their jobs and they find themselves in the humbling position of having to apply for assistance from the government.

It is not a pleasant experience. Applicants sense they have failed to succeed in life like everyone around them. Then they must contend with people who haven’t a clue about their private circumstances, but who feel they can make erroneous assumptions about them. The complainers usually believe that since there have been instances of fraud in a given program, anyone who takes advantage of that program is, ergo, a fraud, taking something to which they have no right. Ap...