News
Star Parker's speech "Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats: The Stunning Transformation of a Former Welfare Queen" sparked heated debate from a crowd of nearly one hundred students yesterday evening.
Parker, president and founder of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education and former welfare mother, brought the libertarian ideas she recently espoused on the Oprah Winfrey talk show and the Senate floor to a rather critical Dartmouth audience.
According to Parker, due to the "failure" of 1960's Great Society legislation, both the welfare and Social Security systems are in need of large-scale reform, with the most important "steps out of poverty" being represented by personal responsibility and education.
Although the inflammatory title of the speech incited rumors of possible student protest yesterday afternoon, most attendees calmly listened to her mainstream Republican views.
Parker claimed that the current welfare system creates a sentiment of entitlement for recipients, most of whom live by the government -- prescribed mantra "don't work, don't save, don't get married."
"Can anyone name one [welfare] program that works?" Parker challenged the audience.
Indeed, she referred to the Social Security program as an illicit "pyramid scheme" in which "current workers pay for current retirees."
Her views on the state of the country's education system were equally grim, especially regarding inner-city schools.
"They're graduating kids who can't read the very condom packets they're passing out in the classroom," she said, making no secret of her Republican anti-abortion stance.
Although no members of the audience challenged Parker's assertion that government programs are in need of reform, in the subsequent question and answer session, many took issue with the conservative methods she advocated for it's future improvement -- privatization of retirement savings accounts and school vouchers.
One student pointed out that "there aren't enough schools" to accommodate the potential flood of students out of public education with the introduction of the voucher system.
Yet another student asked the former "welfare queen" how the government should deal with the immediate problems of welfare families while the nation waits for the invisible hand to reshape the system in the long run.
One of the more controversial aspects of Parker's speech was her emphasis on the role of religion in mainstreaming the lives of current welfare recipients.
