Using his line item, veto, Gov. Walker moved to demand drug testing for welfare recipients.   We should all hail this breakthrough  in our understanding of chemical dependency.  The Governor  has discovered that a single blood test can expose addiction.

Never mind that most people who use drugs and alcohol are recreational users.  Walker has concluded that there is something in the genetic makeup  of the underprivileged that without fail causes dependency.  Hence their  need for treatment.

I have heard people openly lobby for sterilization of poor people who are convicted of drug possession or drunk driving.  Apparently middle class and wealthy parents found guilty of such crimes are much more responsible.

Walker’s purpose in demanding drug tests for welfare recipients has nothing to do with improving their lives and work skills.  It is intended to create suspicion of the poor and divert it from the parasitic rich.  For that, he has a ready audience.

The Governor and his colleagues on the extreme right are only too eager to interpret the Bible for the rest of us.  I read the Bible nearly every day, and am struck by how often it stresses our duty to those in need.   Apparently Walker has overlooked this decree.

Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, states “It is easier for a camel to go    through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter Heaven.”  That quote fails to appear in Republican speeches, as does the Apostle  James’ criticism of the wealthy in his Epistle:  “Come now you rich,weep and howl for  your miseries  are coming upon you.”

Stanek is a former Hillsboro Sentry Enterprise reporter.