I recently posted about "The 'Affluent Beggars' of Ashland," Oregon; a mom and dad with three kids who live in hotels, send their school-age child to local schools, and say they make between $30,000 and $40,000 a year panhandling in Ashland. Of course it helps to have the younger kids in tow. As you can see in the above-linked post, I wasn't too enamored of the parents' approach. Here's the gist of what I wrote:

I'm glad their kids are well fed, and the parents responsive to the school. But they're teaching their kids a rotten lesson in the end, about abusing the perception of need. It says something that no one in the original Medford Mail Tribune story (first link in this post) would allow their full name to be used. Afraid of seeming "not compassionate" enough? Sheesh. This gets to the heart of the matter: enablement borne of liberal guilt. It is the good people of Ashland who are showering the family with an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 a year, even though it's now clear they are also getting food stamps, and more importantly, making no effort to get by on their own.

Well, the dad, Jason Pancoast, has replied to me, in a comment appended to that post, which arrived this afternoon. Jason writes:

First of all for being so informed you seem a tad bit naive to suggest that what the paper said we said was actually representational of our statements concerning our plight. We are offended by your seeming unwillingness to recognize that the colonization of most families on this planet is actually what is the "leech" that feeds this tyranny of rugged individualism masking the agenda of a global elite dead set on setting up the techno-fascist metaphysical police state neccesary for its ultimate goal goal of complete contol over all forms of domesticity.

We believe that within our diaspora from this spiritually fascist climate we developed the ability to develop perspectives that allowed us to break our socio-economic chains and reinvent our self identification process. And thru having a family on the road we have reclaimated our family's deity from our ancestry who we believe by practising the way they did put us as individuals in a position of being underlings and in servitude spiritually to those overlassmen who represent the people who have emasculated our families for generations. The parameters of our so called local papers are controlled systematically by these same folks which is why the article was framed (the way) it was. We have a story that must really be told even if its parameters indict the pseudo secular civil society we live in. Hopefully in the future we (will) get our oppurtunity.

Jason: I understand, from other news reports, that both you and your wife had difficult family lives, as children, and have been through periods of experimentation before settling down to affluent begging and raising children. But the only force still emasculating your ancestors is yourself.

Your kids don't want to live in a hotel room. They want a home, with a large, well-stocked refrigerator manufactured by a multinational corporation, and they want their own beds. I'm sure of it.

Now, I see you have clearly taken humanities courses at a liberal arts college, or at least done some of the emotional work. When you say: "within our diaspora from this spiritually fascist climate we developed the ability to develop perspectives that allowed us to break our socio-economic chains and reinvent our self identification process," I am struck with awe. M-E-A-L T-I-C-K-E-T, dude! You obviously could win a full scholarship, earn a doctorate, and attain full tenured professorship at any one of dozens of prestigious universities. Light work load, congenial collagues, a great platform for advancing your highly-nuanced cultural perspectives, plus family health care and a living wage. Go for it, Big Guy! Time to re-vision your paradigm.

TECHNORATI TAGS: AFFLUENT BEGGAR, ASHLAND, OREGON, JASON PANCOAST, CAREER ADVICE