W-2 a success? Welfare `reduction' not as good as it seems; Black women need self-respect I am a 38-year-old mother and grandmother with three beautiful daughters and five beautiful grandchildren. As a strong, intellectual individual, I feel we have forgotten the sound words of love, justice and morality. Have we turned our heads away from our children and their future? I feel that those elected to office are supposed to protect and represent their constituents. Instead, politicians neglect our safety and misrepresent us. They practice apathy toward us and practice injustice and immorality. An example is W-2. I recently talked to participants of W-2 and was told that they resent being disrespected, offered little help with job training and have become discouraged about ever finding a good-paying job that would provide them the means of supporting themselves and their children. The idea behind W-2 is fine, but some of those who run the W-2 program intimidate the young black women and put them down. Administrators seem to think that they are better than these recipients of W-2. Not all workers are like this, but there are some who simply do not care about the recipients who have certain aberrations that prohibit them from making their lives successful. If the W-2 workers make their clients feel that success is possible for them and that they can gain independence and respect, then they are fulfilling their job. My advice to my daughters and other young black women is that if you have faith in yourselves and have self-respect, you can become creative and become successful and gain the admiration of others. Never allow someone to make you feel inferior or less than human. We need to stand strong and keep the faith. Vida Washington Milwaukee; Governor seems out of touch Exactly what planet is Gov. Tommy Thompson living on? For him to say that families are better off without welfare is only to prove that he is completely out of touch with reality and is only listening to the information his policy advisers feed him. What about Juanita, whose son has severe, life-threatening asthma, and who has repeatedly been denied W-2? Because Juanita has a work history, she is told that there is no help for her, that she needs to get a job. Never mind staying with her child and protecting him from harm. And then there is Ruby, who, under W-2, was put to work unsupervised at a piece of equipment clearly marked "Do not use without supervision." Her hand was burned down to the bone. After Ruby had one week of hospitalization and one week of therapy, her case worker was calling her and telling her to get to work. In all the debate about W-2, what clearly comes through from those who support it are their overwhelming hatred and jealousy of women who are in such need that they have received government assistance. There is rarely anything said about the children, who are now poised to be a whole generation raised by day-care centers, baby sitters, preschools, anybody but their own mothers. There is little, if anything, said about the fathers, who cavalierly go their way without paying child support, leaving the mothers to be vilified as irresponsible. So before Thompson has a big party to celebrate the so-called "success" of W-2, I'd like to invite him to come to Milwaukee, sit down with the mothers I've mentioned, and many more, and find out what the reality is. For every W-2 success story, there are countless women who have been grievously failed by welfare reform. Mary Anderson Milwaukee