There is always lots of crazy stuff being sent around e-mail to e-mail these days.

If you are like me, you get a lot more of it than you want.

But check out this little item that recently came through my e-mail, and may very well have been received by you as well. Please note….I am not writing this….just passing it along.

A Welfare Check?

Like a lot of folks in this state, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck, I am required to pass a random urine test with which I have no problem.

What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test. Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?

Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet. I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their lazy butts, doing drugs, while I work.

Can you imagine how much money the state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?

Pass this along if you agree or simply delete if you don’t. Hope you all will pass it along, though . . . Something has to change in this country — and soon!!!!!

Now please read this carefully. I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS.

But truthfully, I found it interesting enough to pass it along, just as food for thought.

I know that one person who sent it around, and put their own thoughts along with it, ended up catching some kind of heck from their employer.

But my little space here is for many things, including interesting items that I just think you might find worth reading.

So take it for what it’s worth.

I joined with others in my LaPlace Rotary Club on Tuesday, holding our regular meeting at the Southeast Louisiana War Veteran’s Home, where we put on a little Christmas party for the vets.

We began the tradition last year and it’s really a good way for us to make an extra visit out to the vet’s home, and bring them a little holiday cheer.

The LaPlace Bell Choir, a cute bunch of first graders, put on a performance for the residents, then we conducted a bingo game with the veterans and family members.

I ended up sitting down next to a lady who turned out to be Rita Feinberg, an 89-year-old who was a U.S. Army nurse, serving four years as she taught younger nurses and veterans how to be prepared for going overseas during World War II.

She has been a resident in the Southeast Veteran’s Home for six months, and said it “wasn’t too bad” for having to move into a home of some kind.

She was married to Dr. Edgar Leon Feinberg, who was a longtime general surgeon in New Orleans. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some residents here in the River Region know of Dr. Feinberg, since plenty of locals had to go to New Orleans decades ago to get surgery done before it was available here.

She and the good doctor had four children and were married for 37 years, with one of her children moving to the medical field as an internist.

Rita reminded me a lot of my former Aunt Rita who lived in New York. For that matter, they also looked a lot alike. Aunt Rita wasn’t actually my own aunt, she was the aunt for my wife. But you know how that goes—eventually I was just calling her Aunt Rita too.

But I digress.

Rita at the Southeast Vet’s Home got out of the service and worked for many years as an RN at Touro, Charity Hospital and Baptist Hospital among others.

Her advice to us young folks is the following:

“Live life as it is.”

And here is the one I like the best.

“Behave yourself—you know better.”

No kidding, that’s what Rita told me when I asked for a little worldly wisdom.

So Merry Christmas to you Rita, and all the others at the veteran’s home. It’s honestly becoming one of my favorite places to visit and see those who served our country. They certainly would welcome your time to visit with them.

Kevin Chiri is Publisher of L’Observateur and can be reached at (985) 652-9545 or at kchiri@bellsouth.net