Welfare Mom Sparks Ire in Readers

With regard to the Dianne Klein column about the mother who has been on welfare for six years (“A Safe but Humiliating Life in Irvine,” Aug. 22), I had the following thoughts:

If she can not, or will not, support her children, then why isn’t their father supporting them? Or, if she will not support them, then why aren’t they living with their father?

In six years, this woman has not been able or willing to leave the welfare program, and yet she refers to herself as “intelligent.”

She says there hasn’t been work available for 14 months and yet she could afford to go to a private school for her master’s degree while she can’t afford to support her children.

You say Jenny did a funny thing in spending that money for a graduation dress. That’s funny?

Is this a general-interest story or am I supposed to be concerned about something? Yeah, I’m concerned all right. I’m concerned at the tone of this article, as if it’s totally all right that this woman refuses to support her children and society should be sympathetic.

I wonder if the experience of children in not being accepted has more to do with the attitude they have been taught than with their parent’s financial position.

NEIL REYNOLDS

Huntington Beach