Lea Hudson

Contributed

EDITOR'S NOTE: We at The Tennessean and our sister publications across the state pride ourselves on creating spaces for community members to engage in conversations with wide latitude for debate and disagreement, ideally in a respectful way.

That did not happen recently when a column by contributing writer and Cheatham County resident Lea Hudson titled “Feeding ‘the animals’ makes them dependent” appeared in the Ashland City Times on Sept. 14 and on Tennessean.com last Sunday.

Her argument lost impact and credibility because she compared the government giving welfare recipients benefits to feeding animals at the zoo – something many readers considered a racist attack from Hudson, who is white, against African Americans.

We apologize.

Hudson had written a monthly conservative guest op-ed for the Ashland City Times since November 2014.

She said she did not intend to send a message of ill-will or racism. However, given the circumstances, she will no longer be writing for the paper.

We know that readers expect The Tennessean and tnMedia to maintain the highest standards of journalistic excellence.

— The Tennessean senior leadership team

Read the original column below:

“Any park ranger will tell you: don’t feed wildlife. The reason behind this is that they become dependent and will not forage for themselves any longer. A disturbing trend is affecting American wildlife. Animals that formerly were self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democratic Party. They have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance.” (The Unpopular Truth, March 14, 2012)

Isn’t this what Hillary and the Democratic Party are doing — continuing to make more and more people dependent by continuing to “feed them?”

Food stamps, children’s lunch programs, child care programs, housing subsidies, farm subsidies, student loans — the list is endless.

In fact, there are over 1,800 social welfare programs funded by hard-working taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Reader astonished by columnist's 'feeding animals' remarks

Can you even imagine the opportunities for fraud and abuse? According to Downsizing the Federal Government’s website, “Losses to federal taxpayers from fraud, abuse, and other types of improper payments are in the ballpark of $100 billion a year or more.”

It’s like animals at the zoo — they are totally taken care of — food, shelter, medical help, etc. As you all know, they can never be released back into their natural environment to fend for themselves and be productive in any way.

It is no different than the generations of Americans, born into an environment on the dole from government handouts . . . no longer able to fend for themselves and be productive in any way. And they have lost the distinction between right and wrong.

And what are Hillary and the Democrats proposing for our country? More of the same and expansions on all kinds of handouts.

What good is a “free education” if one is not willing to work? Expand Social Security? There is so much fraud in this program alone it may be incalculable.

And let’s expand handouts to students, homeowners, any voting body of people — “buying Democrats!” Of course once again, who pays for all of these programs? The productive, working, honest American who believes in the America our forefathers created.

I feel like I am in a science fiction movie where the masses (Democrats and those with no idea who they are) have been hypnotized and blindly march along, having all of their needs met by a mega-monster leader . . . until he unleashes them on some horrific task.

Folks, this is the most important election of our time — we must stop the pathway the Democrats/Socialists are leading us down.

Our grandchildren don’t stand a chance! Will working for a living become obsolete? Will the rest of us who have worked hard for our whole lives find our ability to hang onto what we have impossible?

Will we lose our basic freedoms like the Second Amendment, freedom of religion and freedom of speech?

So please don’t feed the animals. America deserves better. We all deserve better!

This opinion piece was contributed to The Ashland City Times by Lea Hudson, a Cheatham County Republican.