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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>I vehemently disagree with part of the first line of <st1:City w:st="on">Jackson</st1:City>’s
letter: </span></font></b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma'>Today's US Census report on poverty in the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is a clarion call to our nation and our elected leaders. </span></font><b><font
size=2 face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";
font-weight:bold'>The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Census Report’s figures on poverty are a clarion call to every single
American in this country who is hurting and struggling daily. Our elected
leaders couldn’t care less about impoverished Americans. They are so far
removed from the struggles of every day people that they cannot possibly
understand or care about anyone other than themselves, their own families and
the next greenback that ends up in their pocket or campaign coffer.</span></font></b><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>People are either already mired in poverty or sliding headlong into it at
break neck speed because a few people among us are taking way more than their
share and rigging the system so that the poor and middle class are in serfdom
for perpetuity. Ron and I are struggling every month on a retired educator’s
income because we help my kids out quite a bit when they’re struggling,
and we have our own bills to pay, as well. There is only so much money to go
around. It does not surprise me that an asshole like Mitch McConnell would say
that the rich are being hit hardest by the recession and that they MUST have a
tax cut or they won’t create jobs anymore. This rhetoric is all that B-movie
bad actor, brain dead Ronald Reagan trickle down, voodoo economics bullshit
that so many ignorant Americans have swallowed. The ONLY thing that has
trickled down, and it hasn’t trickled down, it has barrel assed down the
side of Shit Mountain, is just so much shit in the form of lost jobs, abysmally
low incomes, sickness, hopelessness, lost dreams, no dreams and the sad reality
for the poor and middle class that this is as good as it gets. What makes me
angry is that as good as it gets will be reality unless the poor and middle
class decide they are not going to take this lying down. We have GOT to get off
our knees and up on our feet ready to do whatever it takes to change our situations.
I don’t know about you guys, but I am sick of smelling shit, wallowing in
shit, eating shit and being covered in shit day in and day out. I’m ready
for a big breath of fresh air and a nice long bath. I want to be up on a
mountain and not at the bottom of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Shit</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Mountain</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. I don’t
mean I want to have more than anybody else, either. I just want to see that there
is a sky above me and a bright sun and fresh air and that we don’t have
to be sinking into unhappiness and desperation for the rest of our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>Now, as I see it, we can do one of two things. We can either turn our
backs on this system and start doing things locally among ourselves and
creating our own economic and social systems, or we can violently rise up and wreak
all kinds of havoc and rid the world of the wealthy scum.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>Those are the only options I see. Voting is not going to change a
goddamned thing, and I know it. That being said, I’ll probably go to the
polls and vote only for the Greens, but ONLY because I respect what they’re
trying to do and want to support their efforts. I like those Greens I know
personally, but I haven’t decided fully whether or not I’m even
going to vote. Frankly, I’m extraordinarily torn because I have a
visceral objection to participating in a sham system that only serves to
perpetuate inequity and criminality and lend legitimacy to said system. I think
even the Greens know that what they are doing in the way of running for office
and participating in this electoral system is a waste of time. I think we’d
all be better off meeting together and coming up with a game plan for how to utterly
reject this inequitable system and create our own economic, social, medical and
spiritual community. Bunches of heads with bunches of good ideas and bunches of
hands ready to get to work will help get us out of the mess we have helped
create. We cannot dismiss anyone who is willing to listen and learn and help
create something sustainable, equitable and sane. We will either swim together
or we will sink together. None of us is an island. None of us wants to take
this on alone. I think together, though, we can do this.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>I would appreciate feedback. Thanks.<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'>Kris<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:
bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
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face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Judith Emerson
[mailto:jemer3405@hotmail.com] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Saturday, September 18, 2010
10:24 PM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> kashimaecho@yahoo.com<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> <st1:country-region
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> POVERTY FIGURES - Jesse Jackson & <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State> Post</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><strong><b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>CENSUS REPORT ON
POVERTY</span></font></b></strong><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'><br>
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Rev. Jesse
Jackson: An Open Letter to Our Nation's Leaders</span></font></b></strong><br>
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jesse-jackson/an-open-letter-to-our-nat_b_720445.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=091710&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jesse-jackson/an-open-letter-to-our-nat_b_720445.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=091710&utm_medium=email&utm_content=BlogEntry</a></span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
Today's US Census report on poverty in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a clarion call to
our nation and our elected leaders. <br>
<br>
We in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
possess the greatest resources and wealth ever known to humankind. So to have
over <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>44 million
people -- 14% of our population -- & 20% of our children living in poverty</span></font></b></strong>
strains the soul of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
That fully <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>1
in 4 Americans -- 72 million people -- are "near poor"</span></font></b></strong>
(officially, a <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>family
of 4 earning just $32,634 in 2009)</span></font></b></strong> should call us
into action. It's a moral disgrace. <br>
<br>
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>The American
Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 is credited w/saving or creating 1.4
million to 3.3 million jobs, & kept more than 6 million additional
people from falling into poverty.</span></font></b></strong> Despite these
efforts, it is unfathomable to think that poverty continues to grow in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>: three
million more in 2009, and <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:
Tahoma'>more people liviing in poverty now than 50 yrs ago</span></font></b></strong>
when data was first published.<br>
<br>
These realities are devastating. <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>In 2009, poverty jumped to 14.3%, & the number
of people w/o health-care insrance broke 50 million for the very first
time. The unemployment rate swelled from 7.7% at the beginning of the
year to 10%. the unemployment rate of African-Americans & Latinos is
nearly double & sometimes even triple the national average. </span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
The middle class continues to sink. Major cities around the country are losing
public transportation jobs, public school teachers, public housing and home
foreclosures are on the rise. The effect of such devastating poverty is <strong><b><font
face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>undercutting excellence in public
education & it is overwhelming American families. </span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
I just spent a week on a bus tour meeting and with congregations, students, and
workers at plant gates in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Michigan</st1:place></st1:State>.
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Astonishingly, <st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Detroit</st1:place></st1:City> has 90,000 vacant
homes &/or lots & not one nat'l chain grocery or retailer.</span></font></b></strong>
While <st1:City w:st="on">Detroit</st1:City> faces mounting hardships, we
bailed out General Motors, a company whose <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>#1 market for Buick is <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region>,</span></font></b></strong>
and <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>new
manufacturing plants are being built there & in</span></font></b></strong> <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>Mexico</span></font></b></strong></st1:place></st1:country-region>.
<br>
<br>
The cries of babies in Appalachia, the tears of mothers in the rural South, and
the frustration of workers laid off in cities across America -- is this the
face of America in 2010?<br>
<br>
As people of conscience, as elected leaders of the greatest democracy in the
world, we ask ourselves, is there not a need for <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>a new War on Poverty</span></font></b></strong> or a
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Great Society
plan</span></font></b></strong> similar to that enacted by President Lyndon B.
Johnson? Dr. King's cry for a Poor People's Campaign has come full circle. <br>
<br>
There must be a sense of urgency to address this <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>moral & economic crisis.</span></font></b></strong>
In Stimulus I, we have watered the leaves. We need Stimulus II to water the
roots. <br>
<br>
In <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>, we
had a plan for security, stability, investment, reconstruction, and rebuilding
infrastructure. Our people, our cities, our nation deserve nothing less.<br>
<br>
The Poverty Report is a call to Congress to create a FY 2011 budget that
expands funding to "war on poverty" programs supporting <strong><b><font
face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>employment, education, & basic
human needs.</span></font></b></strong> Focus on the least of these, and <strong><b><font
face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>extend the TANF Emergency Fund</span></font></b></strong>
-- not the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans -- to expand subsidized
jobs programs. Extend the reforms to the earned income tax credit, or EITC, and
the child tax credit, or CTC. Focus on extending programs that support the
least of these, not those with the most. <br>
<br>
Expand the weatherization program -- and enact a modern-day urban homesteading
program where the urban unemployed can reclaim lost homes, learn carpentry,
plumbing and green job skills to rebuild <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>. We can begin to work our
way out.<br>
<br>
Congressional leaders, take the bold step of <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>committing to reduce poverty by 50% over the next 10
yrs -- half in ten!</span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
give us a listening ear. The people are restless and rising up. <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, please
hear our plea. There is not time to waste. It's time for a change. <br>
<br>
===================================================================<br>
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Capitol
Hill Reaction to Poverty Figures Sidetracked by Political
Concerns </span></font></b></strong><br>
<a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091707346.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091707346.html</a><br>
by Michael A. Fletcher<br>
<st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>
Post Staff Writer <br>
Friday, September 17, 2010; 10:59 PM<br>
<br>
Deborah Weinstein, a longtime advocate for the poor, calls the news that one in
seven Americans is living in poverty "a national emergency." <br>
<br>
But for much of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>'s
political class, the shocking new poverty numbers provoked not alarm about the
poor but further debate over tax cuts for the middle class. <br>
<br>
<strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>"We know
that a strong middle class leads a strong economy," President Obama told
reporters in the Rose Garden on Friday, as he used the new census report, which
also showed that middle-class income has dipped slightly over the past decade,
to continue making his case for limiting the cuts to family incomes under
$250,000. </span></font></b></strong> <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, Republican leaders in the House and Senate had no reaction to the
poverty report. But earlier in the week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.) took the Senate floor to argue for extending the tax breaks to
everyone, saying, "We can't let the people who have been hit hardest by
this recession and who we need to create jobs to get us out of it" be subject
to a tax increase. <br>
<br>
McConnell's spokesman later clarified the statement, saying that McConnell
indeed believes the economic downturn has hit the poor harder than it has
high-income business owners, who also have suffered. <br>
<br>
The reluctance of political leaders on both sides of the aisle to directly
confront the fact that growing numbers of Americans are slipping into poverty
reflects a stubborn reality about the poor: They are not much of a political
constituency. <br>
<br>
"We talk to many people on Capitol Hill who do believe poverty is
important and is a blight on our nation," said Weinstein, executive
director of the <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Coalition
on Human Needs, <a
href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/125/t/3748/signUp.jsp?key=4631">http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/125/t/3748/signUp.jsp?key=4631</a>
</span></font></b></strong> an alliance of national organizations that
advocates for the poor. "But we are also up against a general recognition
that <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>poor people
don't vote in great numbers. And they certainly aren't going to be making
campaign contributions. That definitely puts them behind many other
people & interests when decisions are being made around
here." </span></font></b></strong> <br>
<br>
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), who counts among his legislative accomplishments
bills to extend unemployment insurance and to provide housing for people
suffering from AIDS, said that the current downturn has expanded the definition
of the poor. No longer are the poor the chronically impoverished who scrape
along at the bottom of the economic pecking order in good times and bad. They
now include many working people who have been thrown out of their jobs by a
brutal recession. <br>
<br>
"The fact is, increasingly, we are talking about people we know,"
McDermott said. Still, he said, "For most elected officials, there is
nothing politically in talking about the poor. In fact, they don't vote very
well and they are not very participatory in political life. <strong><b><font
face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Politicians tend to talk to people
who get involved."</span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
McDermott said he has been urging his colleagues to take a fresh look at
poverty. The new report showed that the ranks of the American poor soared to
their highest level in half a century in 2009. Meanwhile, <strong><b><font
face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>millions more are existing just
beyond the poverty line,</span></font></b></strong> which is about <strong><b><font
face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>$22,000 a yr for a family of
4. </span></font></b></strong> <br>
<br>
The official poverty rate is just one aspect of the economic upheaval unleashed
by the recession. <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span style='font-family:Tahoma'>Since
2007, the country has lost almost 4 million wage earners.</span></font></b></strong>
And for the first time since the government began tracking health insurance in
1987, the number of people who have health coverage declined, a circumstance
destined to change when the Obama-led health-care overhaul fully kicks in by
2014. <br>
<br>
With foreclosures continuing to rise and long-term unemployment at record
levels, McDermott said, the legacy of the economic crisis will affect society
in a way the country has not experienced since the aftermath of the Great
Depression. <br>
<br>
Even amid the devastating downturn, Americans seem ambivalent toward the needy.
The instinct to help those in tough straits is often constrained by a lurking
feeling that the poor are to blame for their own problems. Or, that what helps
the needy might take something away from everyone else. <br>
<br>
<span id=aptureEndContent></span><!-- sphereit end -->The debate over extending
unemployment benefits, which now last as long as 99 weeks, generated increasing
commentary that the benefit was sapping people of the desire to work. <br>
<br>
Andrew Kohut, president of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pew</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Research</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>,
said that more than two decades of polling shows that a solid, if fluctuating,
majority of Americans believe government has a responsibility to care for the
poor. <br>
<br>
"But as you begin to ask more specific questions, you get lower levels of
support for specific programs as people worry about costs, taxes and the rise
of government," Kohut added. "Plus, there is a great deal of
political polarization of this." <br>
<br>
A 2009 Pew survey found that <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>63% of Americans believed government should take
care of those who cannot take care of themselves. But that number fell to
48% when people were asked whether government should help the needy even if it
increases the debt. Nearly 2 in 3 Democrats, 43% of independents &
29% of Republicans agreed with that statement. </span></font></b></strong><br>
<br>
All of which explains why even many staunch Democrats have not talked much
about poverty. <br>
<br>
On Thursday, hours after the Census Bureau released the poverty numbers, Obama
issued a written statement that quickly broadened the discussion beyond the
poor. <br>
<br>
"Today, the Census Bureau released data that illustrates just how tough
2009 was," the statement said. <strong><b><font face=Tahoma><span
style='font-family:Tahoma'>"Even before the recession hit, middle class
incomes had been stagnant & the number of psople living in poverty in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> was
unacceptably high, & today's numbers make it clear that our work is just
beginning." </span></font></b></strong> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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