Tales of the good life draw Chicagoans

Des Moines Register ^ | 02/02/2004 | Lee Rood

[cspackler]

Chicago, Ill. - Ernestine Williams can't remember when she first began feeling she'd become a prisoner.

Was it, she wonders, when gangs commandeered what was left of her battered neighborhood? Or later, when diabetes, then congestive heart failure and failed kidneys, left her confined to her three-story walk-up, unable to manage the steps outside?

[cspackler]

I'm not sure if it was real or not, but if it is the rock in the ear of her 27 year old unemployed son had to be worth at least 10K.

[KantianBurke]

"when diabetes, then congestive heart failure and failed kidneys, left her confined to her three-story walk-up, unable to manage the steps outside?"

She's 53 and has all of these ailments? How the F#$%^ does that happen? BS alert.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

From Field of Dreams---

Shoeless Joe Jackson: "Is this Heaven?
Ray Kinsella : "No...it's Iowa."

Been there (the 'Field') and Ray was wrong.

Semper Fi,

[GovernmentShrinker]

Oh I'm sure she really has all these ailments. And she's no doubt obese as well, since that's the primary cause of these ailments in anyone under 80. Why should taxpayers bail her out after she ate herself into premature disability?

[newgeezer]

She's 53 and has all of these ailments? How the F#$%^ does that happen? BS alert.

One possible explanation comes to mind. I'm betting she's at least 100 pounds overweight.

[ikka]

I don't quite understand why someone moving from one state to another is immediately eligible for aid from that state.

In this case, the woman has applied for Section 8 housing aid before she ever moves there!

[Alberta's Child]

It's pretty amazing when you read stories of people like this. It's as if you're reading about the travails of some tribe of Native Americans on the prairie somewhere -- moving from one government-funded reservation to another while the world just passes them by.

The state of Iowa should see this as a warning sign. Nothing is going to drive that place into the toilet faster than a mass migration from Chicago.

[RicocheT]

Shai Williams' last job, unloading trucks at UPS...earned no benefits at the $8.25-an-hour position. "I couldn't handle the bus rides and the hours. I wasn't making enough money."

Shai is hosing us. The UPS truck job is 4 hours a night and has full health and college/trade school tuition pay if you make probation. Making probation is showing up and working for 2+ months.

With the night job, he could worked while mama slept and cared for her in the day.

[cspackler]

Here's a link to a picture, the same photo from the front page of the paper.

Link

I'm no expert, but I could swear that this photo has been altered to remove the earring from his ear. My copy of the paper has at least a 1 caret rock on it, and the photo on this page is so small you either can't tell, or it was altered.

[newgeezer]

"A Chicago gangsta is a person in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood, in your neighborhood" ping.

"Opportunity" attracts many young Chicagoans to Cedar Rapids. Any murders in your 'hood lately?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

By far, Illinois and California fed more residents to Iowa than any other state from 1995 to 2000. Many of them are former residents of Cook County, Ill., Los Angeles, or other urban areas in California.

The word has spread all the way out to California?
IOWA must be an easy touch, course there is the weather.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Iowa weather is SO much better than Chicago's...

[newgeezer]

Here's a link to a picture, the same photo from the front page of the paper.

Thanks. That seems to confirm my suspicions about the possible source of her ailments.

My copy of the paper

Shame on you. De-fund the Left! ;-)

... has at least a 1 caret rock on it

Cubic zirconium is a wonderful thing.

[ikka]

I'm no expert, but I could swear that this photo has been altered to remove the earring from his ear.

He don't gots no munny, but he gots a Phat Farm brand sweatshirt ...

[newgeezer]

Point taken.