Corey Booker High Hopes

Corey Booker will be a Democratic candidate for President of the United States at some point in his life.  But this week he launches a well publicized stunt to live on the food stamp allocation.  He said he thinks he will starve.  Some folks hope he does, I do not, but I do think his is a cheap stunt.

He is educated, good looking, has some charm, polish and has been visited by both Obama and the Prime Minister of England .  I am sure the visits came  about as he sits in that most important of American Political positions.  Mayor of Newark, NJ..

  I mean I can't count how many times the Prime Minister of England pays a call on Newark NJ. bcause it is only one.  And I know that the POTUS has come through before, cause I saw the picture of when Teddy Roosevelt came into Newark to dedicate the statue of Abe Lincoln that sits in front of the Court House.

 Oh, would it be that anyone of these guys got a real job, like doctor, lawyer, bricklayer, truck driver, farmer, logger , mechanic---nah, they just go into politics.  Corey is educated as a lawyer, but he never worked as one--despite his resume saying he worked in a legal clinic. 

Many a kingmaker has been launched from Newark.  Hopefully, he will  have sense enough to occupy Sen Lauttenberg's seat for at least a few years before making the runfor President.

Hopefully he will avoid the Governor's run which is the hidden shoals of politics and ship wrecks many a pol on his way to the national stage, Mc Greevey, Corzine to name but two.

 But in the mean time, he is revving up his street cred.  He has assisted at a car accident , he has run into a burning building and now he is starving himself ---all of this in one year.  His city still burns with shootings and violence, the schools still are a monumnetal failure supported entirely by the state, his streets still a mess despite billions dumped into the coffers. But that does not give him pause.

See, Mr. Booker is going to try and live on the average food stamp allotment.  The obvious idea being that he will come out of it saying that it is very difficult to survive on what food stamps providess.  He will wring his hands and say that we must do more for people and get a few amens and accolades.

   Well Corey, here is the real story.  Food stamps are supposed to supplement that which you contribute toward your own support.  Food stamps are not intended to feed you all the time, 24/7/ 365.  We are a beneficient nation, more so than most.  But we are increasingly at odds  as to what sense of responsibility we have to have toward our individual self..  Do we need to feed the children of parents who do not provide breakfast or lunch  during the school day, how about dental care or eyeglasses.  The debate is increasingly rancorous  over the your breed em, you feed em line.  But surely we are fast approaching the end of the line, no one denies that.

We need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start all over again-----much like the proverbial ant from the song--High Hopes.  So when you go off on this charade  be sure to add some of the Hope and Change language of the song

So any time your gettin low
Stead of lettin go
Just remember that ant
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant

High Hopes does not mean that you hope someone will come and take you by the hand and lead you through life, it means that you will butt your head against that dam, just like a ram, or you will work until you succeed like the ant. 

And Corey, start banging that drum because if you don't, there will be a lot of us who will be ringing the phoney bell about this publicity stunt involving food stamps.