We also agree that welfare reform should not be about punishing poor children for their parents' past mistakes. Of course, you didn't need someone from a Washington think tank to help you come to these conclusions. You're the ones who understand our welfare system from the inside. It is amazing to me how many self-proclaimed experts, who have never set foot in a welfare office, seem to know so much about the system. It is remarkable that so many who have never witnessed, much less experienced, the pain and shame of needing to ask someone for help feeding one's children can claim to have all the answers.
Welfare reform is a subject that is rife with experts.
200,000 teen pregnancies each year. The statistical dimensions of this issue are well documented. But let's not get so caught up in the numbers that we forget the human dimensions of this challenge. Behind every statistic is a face. The face of a terrified and desperate single mother.