Homestead mailing list

[Lisa Perry <lkvp AT floydva.net>]

Gene GeRue wrote:

> We do so many things based on ideology that hurt people and weaken our 
> country. For instance, putting fathers and mothers in jail for 
> non-violent drug use essentially orphans children, with high attendant 
> and subsequent costs to society. 

Our contractor's helper this summer didn't show up on Monday and then we 
learned that he was incarcerated for 30 days due to owing back child 
support.  This helper was very knowledgeable and really a good worker, 
we would have gladly docked his pay (had we known) to help begin getting 
the back child support caught up.  We agree that had a duty to pay child 
support, but how was sticking him in jail for a month where he was 
unable to earn a dime--and getting even further behind--going to help?  
We figure that after serving his month in jail, he then had to look for 
a new job (with a prison record) and he was likely going to be behind on 
every bill he had, not just child support.  How many of us can skip 
earning income for a full month and not suffer?  Of course we didn't 
know the full story, but over time he had disclosed to us that he had an 
ex-wife and two kids and that he had moved here to earn $10/hr doing 
carpentry work instead of $7/hr in the area where he was from.

Unfortunately, our contractor never found a worker that was as 
knowledgeable or worked as hard as that guy did.  We still wonder what 
happened to Billy. 

Lisa