Cornucopia
Ever get stuck in a slow checkout line at Walmart? No fun!
But I did have an opportunity to observe a young Hispanic/latino couple with
an infant in front of me.
Their basket was full to the brim, almost
flowing over. The food looked
delicious; a wide variety of products, some for baby, but mostly edibles, even packages
of steak. There was even a coconut! It reminded me of the images of cornucopia at
Thanksgiving, the horn shaped basket brimming with mouthwatering edibles. I thought to myself, “I am glad I am not
paying that bill!”
It took a long time for the clerk to make
it through all their groceries. I had
3 humble bananas and 2 small, very
small, ears of corn. I was wishing I had
gone to the speedy checkout. But, I observed something very interesting. The young gal pulled out a credit card and
gave it a swipe. But there was a
glitch. The clerk went over the receipt and
found that one of the items was being “rejected”. One of the packages of steak was not accepted
by the food stamp debit card. They had to return the package. But, not too bad, a whole basketful of plenty
was magically paid!
At that moment, I thought about the
$1400.00 tax bill I just paid because the IRS was threatening seizure of my property,
perhaps my home. I thought to myself, “There
is no magic dummy, you just witnessed a food stamp purchase and, if you
consider where your taxes go, you paid for that!” I wondered if the young couple was
employed? I wondered if they were
married or just shacking up and taking advantage of a favored single mother welfare
system? I wondered if they had hopes and
dreams of being off food stamps and being productive Americans one day? I wondered if they were at all grateful that
I, a hardworking taxpayer, along with all the other hardworking taxpaying fools,
just paid for their cornucopia of groceries? I wondered how great that coconut
was going to taste when they opened it!
Mario diGesu Truth or Consequences 8.7.13
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