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We Can All Help Fight Poverty

To learn more about and find ways to become involved in this very worthwhile struggle, go to Mr. Kaufman's complete article HERE.

From: Greg Kaufman at The Nation.

This is a tough moment in the fight against poverty.

Sequester is the latest chapter in a time-honored tradition of kicking the poor when they are down. A do-nothing Congress certainly isn’t going to do something about poverty without pressure from the grassroots. And it seems that the only way most of the mainstream media will pay attention to the more than 1 out of 3 Americans living below twice the poverty line — on less than $36,000 for a family of three — is if their lives make good fodder for tabloid television or play out in a courtroom drama.

That said, there are still plenty of people and groups fighting for real change, and plenty of ways you can get involved or stay engaged. I reached out to a handful of folks who dedicate their lives to fighting poverty in different ways. Here is what they asked people to do:

1. “Support an increase in the minimum wage to more than $11 per hour.”

- Sister Simone Campbell,

 Sisters of Social Service, Executive Director of NETWORK.

2. “Tell Publix: Help end sexual harassment, wage theft and forced labor in the fields — join the Fair Food Program today.”

- the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

3. “Make a Personal Commitment to Helping Homeless Families”

- Ralph da Costa Nunez,

 President and CEO, Institute for Children, Poverty and Homelessness.

4. “Fund the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) at the maximum authorized level”
- Dr. Deborah Frank,
 Founder and Principal Investigator, Children’s HealthWatch.

5. “Support of a living wage and basic labor protections for home care workers”
- Sarita Gupta,
 Executive Director, Jobs with Justice/American Rights at Work and Co-Director, Caring Across Generations.

6. “Urge Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act (H.R. 1286/S.631) and a national paid leave program”
- Judith Lichtman,
 Senior Advisor, National Partnership for Women & Families.

7. “Increase regulation of private student loans and hold Sallie Mae accountable for its role in the student debt crisis.”
- Tiffany Loftin,
 President, United States Student Association (USSA).

8. “Support Pathways Back to Work”
- Elizabeth Lower-Basch, Policy Coordinator, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP).

9. “Invest in the Older Americans Act”
- Marci Phillips,
 Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, National Council on Aging.

10. “Tell Congress NO CUTS to Social Security and SSI through the Chained CPI”
- Rebecca Vallas,
 Staff Attorney/Policy Advocate, Community Legal Services.

11. “Tell Congress: Increase, Don’t Cut SNAP (Food Stamp) Benefits”
- Jim Weill,
 President, Food Research and Action Center.

12. “Tell Congress to stop harmful cuts to anti-poverty programs now”
- Debbie Weinstein,
 Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs.

If Only . . .

The REAL STORY at Orion Magazine.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

From The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

At the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on 3/31/1968.

~  ~  ~

Jesus told a parable one day, and he reminded us that a man went to hell because he didn’t see the poor.

His name was Dives. He was a rich man. And there was a man by the name of Lazarus who was a poor man, but not only was he poor, he was sick. Sores were all over his body, and he was so weak that he could hardly move. But he managed to get to the gate of Dives every day, wanting just to have the crumbs that would fall from his table. And Dives did nothing about it. And the parable ends saying, “Dives went to hell, and there were a fixed gulf now between Lazarus and Dives.”

There is nothing in that parable that said Dives went to hell because he was rich. Jesus never made a universal indictment against all wealth.

It is true that one day a rich young ruler came to him, and he advised him to sell all, but in that instance Jesus was prescribing individual surgery and not setting forth a universal diagnosis. And if you will look at that parable with all of its symbolism, you will remember that a conversation took place between heaven and hell, and on the other end of that long-distance call between heaven and hell was Abraham in heaven talking to Dives in hell.

Now Abraham was a very rich man. If you go back to the Old Testament, you see that he was the richest man of his day, so it was not a rich man in hell talking with a poor man in heaven; it was a little millionaire in hell talking with a multimillionaire in heaven. Dives didn’t go to hell because he was rich; Dives didn’t realize that his wealth was his opportunity. It was his opportunity to bridge the gulf that separated him from his brother Lazarus.

Dives went to hell because he was passed by Lazarus every day and he never really saw him. He went to hell because he allowed his brother to become invisible. Dives went to hell because he maximized the minimum and minimized the maximum. Indeed, Dives went to hell because he sought to be a conscientious objector in the war against poverty.

And this can happen to America, the richest nation in the world — and nothing’s wrong with that — this is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty.

What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will.

Poverty

by Jane Taylor

I saw an old cottage of clay,

   And only of mud was the floor;

It was all falling into decay,

   And the snow drifted in at the door.

Yet there a poor family dwelt,

   In a hovel so dismal and rude;

And though gnawing hunger they felt,

   They had not a morsel of food.

The children were crying for bread,

   And to their poor mother they’d run;

‘Oh, give us some breakfast,’ they said,

   Alas! their poor mother had none.

She viewed them with looks of despair,

   She said (and I’m sure it was true),

‘’Tis not for myself that I care,

   But, my poor little children, for you.’

O then, let the wealthy and gay

   But see such a hovel as this,

That in a poor cottage of clay

   They may know what true misery is.

And what I may have to bestow

   I never will squander away,

While many poor people I know

   Around me are wretched as they.