Letters from Linden
by JACK LINDEN
The recent hullabaloo over Shirley Sherrod has raised many issues in the body politic and the general public. There is the issue of racism that the entertainers and others have raised. Racism has been charged against President Obama by the entertainers, and some in the media have criticized others in the media for racism. I have my own opinion about who is correct but it is irrelevant.
Many people have stated that the incident is a good point to begin a discussion of racism in America. They cite the quick reactions of all parties as a reason. Others argue that we should begin discussing how the media gets their news, or more importantly, how they report the news. There are some who even go to the extreme that the government should do more censoring of or shutting down specific media.
The entertainers have been discussing the fairness doctrine about the media since President Obama took office but they seem to have been the only ones concerned about it. Some on the left have advocated the censoring of Fox News and certain websites and putting limits on local radio. Shutting down or censoring any agency is anathema to anyone who truly believes in the freedom of the press. Let the media hang themselves. If others are watching and countering their statements, half-truths and rumors can be exposed. Exposure is the best method of getting to the truth.
Talking about racism is a dead-end topic. There is too much emotion, too much radicalism, and too much deafness to either side to begin a discussion of it immediately. A discussion of racism can begin only through another topic. I believe that the Sherrod incident provides that topic.
What Sherrod said was that she came to realize that being poor was not a race issue but an issue that crosses all ethnic groups and places. We need to talk about poverty and have Americans get a grasp of what it means. There is a general topic and noun called “poverty” which people and politicians use all the time but what do we really mean by it? What do you mean by poverty?
We have had all manner of commissions and investigations about poverty. We even have a “war on poverty” but how many of us remember that we are engaged in that war or how we are engaged? We have had that “war” since the Johnson administration, and so far it has not been won. Perhaps one of the reasons for not having won it is because we have not defined poverty.
In their general meetings, the house-building volunteer group Habitat for Humanity, one of the first questions discussed is the question, “What is decent and affordable housing?” That leads to a lot of discussion and invariably brings out the personal biases of those in the group. It is not an issue that is answered by professionals or academia. That question is answered by the people there.
We do not need a commission or a poll about poverty. We need an honest discussion about it. Poverty is not just about income, it is about the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the housing we have. It is not about race or ethnicity; it is about the quality of life that one has. Getting rid of poverty is also not about making some form of monetary contribution to the local church or food bank, it is about community activity that makes the entire community want to help upgrade the quality of life of those who are below that level of the quality of life on which all of us can agree.
The hardest working people in the United States and certainly in the world are the working poor. No matter how many jobs or how hard they work, they remain in that never-never land called poverty. Once we get a grip on the issue of poverty, we will then begin to face the issues of racism, education, opportunity and the many other ingredients that make up the big issue-POVERTY.
