A check-out clerk once wrote columnist Ann Landers a letter of complaint: she had seen shoppers with food stamps buy luxury items like birthday cakes and bags of shrimp. The angry woman went on to say that people on welfare who treat themselves to non-necessities were “lazy and wasteful."

A few weeks later Lander's column was devoted entirely to people who responded to the grocery clerk with letters of their own. One woman wrote:

“I didn't buy a cake, but I did buy a big bag of shrimp with food stamps. So what? My husband had been working at a plant for fifteen years when it shut down. The shrimp casserole was for our wedding anniversary dinner and lasted three days. Perhaps the grocery clerk who criticized that woman would have a different view... after walking a mile in my shoes.”

Ano…