Why Do We Turn Away?

[bucklaw]

Wednesday, Jun. 04, 2008 By SEN. JOHN EDWARDS  John Edwards after a speech in the Upper Ninth Ward in New Orleans in January 2008
Matthew HINTON / AFP / Getty Images
Article ToolsPrintEmailReprintsSphereAddThisRSSYahoo! Buzz If we want to end the great moral shame of America — the 37 million Americans who are denied economic justice in our country — then we need to ask the most basic question: why? Not why are "they" struggling every day, but why do we accept things as they are?

Why do we accept that the waitress who just brought us lunch needs the church's food pantry to feed her daughter for the rest of the month? She's working and that should be enough.

Why do we accept that the man who just bagged our groceries is 72 years old and lost everything when his wife got sick? He's worked all of his life and retirement shouldn't mean more work.

Why do we accept that the men and women who wore our uniform are committing suicide in their trucks because they can't afford to see a doctor? They served us and they shouldn't even have to ask.

Why do we accept the family living in their car, the mentally ill and the addicts who die on our streets, and the children who go to school tired and hungry? Maybe we accept things as they are because poverty has always been with us and we think nothing will change. Or maybe we accept things as they are because it's so easy to look away.

And that demands that we ask another question: why has it been so easy for us to look away?

We didn't look away when Katrina hit. We looked right at the families on the rooftops, the children crying at the Super Dome, the seniors trying to stay alive. We saw that this was America. This was "us:" the struggle and the help.

But, the hard truth is that it's been 40 years since we have led a sustainable effort to fight for economic justice in this country. We had many successes and failures in the 1960s, but we've forgotten the most important lesson: in order to end poverty you have to make it a priority. Well, if Moses was able to find the Promised Land after 40 years in the desert, then certainly we can renew the cause after wandering in our own.

Our journey begins by letting Americans know that something can be done: that acceptance of the ways things are can be replaced with real actions that will build a just world.

Last week, I joined a new campaign called "Half in Ten" which focuses on the belief that we can cut the poverty rate in half in the next ten years.

Here's how. We can make sure that waitress earns enough by raising the minimum wage so that it's a livable wage. We can give her a tax break by expanding the Earned Income Tax and Child Tax Credits. We can ensure that parents all across this country don?t have to choose between the job they need and the heartache of leaving their child in substandard care by guaranteeing access to quality child care. And when hardship hits when a job is lost, we should expand eligibility for Unemployment Insurance so families don't slip deeper into trouble.

The "Half in Ten" proposals are practical, proven and effective measures to get us closer to that goal. They could be enacted tomorrow if Congress and the President chose to, and for a fraction of the cost of George Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy. This kind of leadership might not happen this year, but we can hope for the future. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have embraced these goals and with a Democratic President, I know they will be reached.

The common thread running through these proposals is work. In America, it's supposed to be enough. Most of the people I've met don?t need an economist to tell them that hard work isn't paying these days. You see it in their faces: the pride that comes from work and that panic about what tomorrow might bring.

I saw it in a mother in Kansas City who bundled her kids up at night with coats and hats because there was no heat and said to her children, "Don't tell the people at school or they'll take you away." I saw it in the great man I met in Virginia who went 50 years without speaking because he had no health insurance to correct a simple problem. He was so grateful and humble when someone fixed it for free and he could tell his story.

We don't want to look away from them anymore. We don't want to accept their daily struggles. We want to embrace their coming triumphs.

Four decades ago when Bobby Kennedy took a tour of the forgotten places in America, the image that lingers with me is him bending down and touching a young child whose stomach was swollen from malnutrition. He did not look away. He did not accept things as they are. He saw things as they could be and asked, "Why not."

And after 40 years, it is time for us to extend a hand, embrace our neighbors, co-workers, and friends and build One America that works for all of us.

Why not?

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

[Wolfgirl]

Good read Bucklaw, what ever we can do even something small we should do because it could be the one thing that day that keeps a person struggling going for one more day and who knows they may be able to turn things around if they are given that extra day.

I have experienced that in my own life, so I know that it is true. When I was at my lowest, I had some people just smile at me or say something kind and profound to me and it would lift up my spirit and give me strength to keep going forward and not give up. It made me realize I wasn't a failure after all and I was important too and the world needed me still and I still had things to do.

I try now to make eye contact with folks, give them a warm smile and speak to them. If people can give nothing else because they are struggling themselves, they can still give kindness and that matters too. Help feed their soul if you can't help feed their body. It matters more than you know.  

[bucklaw]

Pure Poetry. Beautiful just like you. Wolfie short story. One of my sisters was having trouble paying rent. She was frustrated, maybe depressed. I don't know where the words came from but I said, "You know how to talk, use that voice, to save your butt." It worked. So often we ignore our inner smarts.

Mine tells me to hold those corporations responsible and hold their feet to the fire. What if one corporation sponspored one vet, another corporation sponsored another, and so on and so forth? Problem gone, just like Nader did when he was young and does now. I think this process will work but it takes people like you and your smarts to help get the ball rolling.
So my final dedication on this site is too you and Destiny and Ommie and all those other people who heard the call, and answered that phone or made a call on those soldiers behalf. Remember it is not enough to sit idly by and cower in the corner. We must stand, stand in the place that you live, stand in the place that you love. Do it for the children, so that they will know that we lived a excellent life, and so that they too may someday say they planted so that I might flourish. Whatsoever you do... Just words and JUST words...

So as ratty as I am dealing with poverty, this video is dedicated to the above:




Thank you all for a blast. Addios. 24 Hour Lib I'll never slow done but I promise I'll come up for air sometimes and Destiny, Denny Crane, thanks you.

[destiny]

 

[Wolfgirl]

Thank you Bucklaw! 

Wonderful post you did as well. I hope you will stay here on the blog and continue to inform us on issues with the veterans. You have done a great job. I do enjoy your wonderful sense of humor and also your more serious heartfelt posts.

[24hrlib]

I once lived feeling all I had to do in life was work hard, encourage my children, be diligent in my love for human beings and the planet, live my life paying if forward, rise each day with optimism.  Then the 2000 Election theft changed everything for me.  Making me realize I lived a life of complacency.  When 9/11 rolled into our lives with gut twisting terror I was sad and pissed that I was told to go shopping.  When 2004 brought us the wrong candidate at the top of the ticket.  It broke my heart.  I thought politicians had at least some spine to deal with swift boating.  The worst of peoples lives was thrown on our plate, IE: Katrina and Veterans returning home.  It was then I understood the beat in my chest was in praise of a tune to do more than follow.  Now, in 2008 my heart does not break, but moans for the loss of values my party once carried like an eternal flame.  I miss the warmth of that flame.  My youngest daughter says, "Mom, if we fix the environment we'll fix the economy."  She is correct.  But this alone will not amend the injustice to so many who have suffered being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the past 8 years.  I cannot alone solve the problems of so many, or fix the many injustices.  Yet, I've found if a village can raise a child.  Then surely an Internet Blog can raise the issues of human suffering and injustice to new heights of awareness.  It sounds cornball, but I think it's true.  And it's important that we keep doing it together while sharing what we learn with others, paying it forward with respect and giving dignity back to those who deserve it most.

You best not be a stranger, Bucklaw.  You have raised the bar for many here.  While giving us laughter and strength through your many post and admirable words.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VMfRHbZ3dO4


See you.........
                           

[walkcub]

Thank You all.