This Thanksgiving, remember our commitment to address regional poverty

Facing the embarrassment of being rated the most impoverished large city in America, Cleveland community leaders became vocal looking for solutions. The following NYTimes editorial indicates we stand out in thinking about this issue at all, as 12 million American families are largely ignored in their struggles for enough to eat. Being ranked worst in poverty drove us to some higher consciousness, offering us the opportunity to address serious problems, if we expand the dialogue and act on good words. Have you thought about our chronic poverty lately? Thanksgiving is an excellent day to talk about that, so we may do more for those who are suffering before the new year.

Shhh, Don't Say 'Poverty'

By BOB HERBERT - New York Times - Published:
November 22, 2004 [1]

Former Senator Phil Gramm, a Republican from Texas who was
known for his orneriness, once said, "We're the only nation in the world
where all our poor people are fat."

That particular example of compassionate conservatism came
to mind as I looked over a report from the Department of Agriculture showing
that more than 12 million American families continue to struggle, and not
always successfully, to feed themselves.

The 12 million families represent 11.2 percent of all U.S.
households. "At some time during the year," the report said,
"these households were uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough
food for all their members because they had insufficient money or other
resources."

Of the 12 million families that worried about putting food
on the table, 3.9 million had members who actually went hungry at some point
last year. "The other two-thirds ... obtained enough food to avoid hunger
using a variety of coping strategies," the report said, "such as
eating less varied diets, participating in federal food assistance programs, or
getting emergency food from community food pantries or emergency
kitchens."

These are dismal statistics for a country as well-to-do as
the United States. But we don't hear much about them because hunger is
associated with poverty, and poverty is not even close to becoming part of our
national conversation. Swift boats, yes. Sex scenes on "Monday Night
Football," most definitely. The struggle of millions of Americans to feed
themselves? Oh no. Let's not go there.

What does that tell you about American values?

We are surrounded by poor and low-income people. (The
definitions can be elastic and easily blurred, but essentially we're talking
about individuals and families that don't have enough money to cover the
essentials - food, shelter, clothing, transportation and so forth.) Many of
them are full-time workers, and some have more than one job.

A new study by the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit
research group, found that more than 550,000 families in New York - a quarter
of all working families in the state - had incomes that were too low to cover
their basic needs.

We just had a bitterly contested presidential election, but
this very serious problem (it's hardly confined to New York) was not a major
part of the debate.

According to the study: "Most low-income working
families do not conform to the popular stereotype of the working poor as young,
single, fast-food workers: 88 percent of low-income working families include a
parent between 25 and 54 years old. Married couples head 53 percent of these
families nationwide. Important jobs such as health aide, janitor and child care
worker pay a poverty wage."

In its introduction, the study says, "The implied
bargain America offers its citizens is supposed to be that anyone who works
hard and plays by the rules can support his or her family and move onward and
upward."

If that was the bargain, we've broken it again and again.
Low-income workers have always been targets for exploitation, and that hasn't
changed. The Times's Steven Greenhouse had a troubling front-page article in
last Friday's paper about workers at restaurants, supermarkets, call centers
and other low-paying establishments who are forced to go off the clock and
continue working for periods of time without pay.

The federal government has not raised the minimum wage since
1997, and has made it easier for some employers to deny time-and-a-half pay to
employees who work overtime.

Franklin Roosevelt, in his second Inaugural Address, told a
rain-soaked crowd, "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to
the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those
who have too little."

I can hear the politicians in today's Washington having a
hearty laugh at that sentiment.

There are advocates and even some politicians hard at work
addressing the myriad problems faced by beleaguered workers and their families.
But they get very little in the way of attention or resources from the most
powerful sectors of society. So the health care workers who can't afford health
insurance will continue emptying bedpans for a pittance. And the janitors will
clean up faithfully after the big shots who ignore them.

These are rough times for the American dream. But times
change, and the people who have broken faith with the dream won't be in power
forever.