Day Twenty Seven of Organizing for RICLAPP. In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that the enemy we fought each day was poverty. I was wrong. The enemy we fight each day is ignorance. This was brought home to me recently when I read something that could only be characterized as welfare (i.e. poor people) bashing. Without trying to know or understand the lives of those who live in degrading conditions, its easy to characterize all of them as a group as a bunch of lazy, shiftless moochers living large on the public dole. Of course that shouldnt be surprising. We live in a political and social culture that values destruction over building, isolation over community, greed over generosity, and hatred over compassion. We honor bluster rather than debate, and value prejudice over fact. Its easy to say that all the poor man or woman needs to do is get a job. If s/he really wanted to work, s/he could. After all, isnt that what our parents and their parents before them did? We ignore that we currently exist in an economic climate where those entry level jobs, jobs that led to a better life, jobs that someone could build something on, no longer exist. Its easy to say that the poor should have studied harder, stayed in school, and gone to college or trade school. After all, isnt that the middle-class American dream? Of course this ignores the fact that the middle-class, comprised of folks who did just that, is imploding for reasons having nothing to do with the poor. But the poor are perfect whipping boys (and girls). Economically defenseless and politically powerless, they are the perfect foils for those to walk over and blame for all that ails us. The expanding number of poor people are truly victims of what RFK called the violence of institutions, where the economy fails to provide opportunity for all, where the courts too often dispense little justice, and the government fails in its obligation to serve and protect all the people. Since 2009 to the present, RICLAPP has stood with over 3300 poor people and their families and we will continue to stand with many more people until the last ounce of our organizational devotion is spent. I am proud to say that this is who we are and this is what we do. Normally Id ask you to support the legislation we have before the General Assembly, but not this time. If youve supported us, you have my heartfelt thanks and the thanks of all we serve. If youre thinking about it, I hope you will. And if youre not interested, theres nothing I can say to convince you. The box this is written in asks whats on your mind? Now you know.
Posted on: Tue, 13 May 2014 21:54:09 +0000
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