By Jennifer Thomas
The Dartmouth
Dartmouth College
(U-WIRE) HANOVER, N.H. -- 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 100 Dartmouth students Monday 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 1960s 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 Monday 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 its 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. According to Parker, at-risk welfare families from religious homes tend to be more likely to break free of the dependence cycle because they better understand their "moral obligation" to be independent of their neighbors' financial charity.
Parker called the current welfare system an "equal-opportunity destroyer," and employed the metaphor of a slave plantation in which she referred to the Democratic Party as the "master" of "field hand" benefit recipients who are unable to escape the cycle of government dependence.
In an attempt to defend her views in the face of audience criticism, Parker described other countries in which she viewed the privatization of retirement funds as a success.
"Look at the Chilean worker. He's got a Chase Manhattan bank book in his pocket," she said.
In contrast, Parker said that, in the United States, taxpayers -- and especially the urban poor -- are tossing their money into a "black hole" of government waste and corruption.
"There's nothing in our history as you study through the facts that has broken down the black family more than the welfare system," she stated.
Parker's lecture was funded by the Ivy Leaguers for Freedom and the College Republicans.
(C) 2001 The Dartmouth via U-WIRE
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