Past Issues :: 2006 July 1 :: Cover Story
Poverty, neglect tear at our founding ideals
I was canvassing just the other day and happened upon an individual who
said he was not interested in donating to Street Roots because he didn't
live in this country. The country he was from is irrelevant, but what
caught me by surprise was when I asked him how long he planned on staying
here. He said, “I
wish I was home right now.” I then asked him if he was homesick, for
I was sure that was his problem, being the self-proclaimed psychologist
that I am. Anyway, he said that wasn't it. He added, “America isn't like
it was 30 years ago. Everybody is so hungry and cruel to each other here
nowadays.”
I was thinking as I turned and started down the sidewalk on such a beautiful, clear day that had just started to cloud over: Does everyone who comes here think that they are just here to get what they can and then hurry back home?
Is America tearing at the seams? Well, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, we received a “D” grade on our report card for infrastructure such as drinking water, hazardous waste, railroads, schools and security. Inclusive as well were highways, aviation and many other things you just take for granted daily. The ASCE estimates a need of about $1.6 trillion in the next five years to solve the problem. That, my friend, is just one area that seems to be crumbling.
Sept. 11, 2001. I'm sure you recall when the Pentagon burned and World Trade Towers crumbled right in front of you on television screens. Along with this catastrophe, Americans came to face the reality that we no longer feel that sense of immunity from an attack by an enemy right here at our front door!
Yes, that cocoon we managed to hide ourselves in for years is where we thought to ourselves that “we are America, everybody's friend and we are the ‘Big Brother’ the world loves.” If that didn’t give us complete comfort as we sat in our chairs, well, we knew that only a madman would attack such a fortress and world power. We could never be outsmarted by such backward countries still living in medieval times. Well, ol' friend, it did happen, and you better believe that it could happen again. The question still lingering is, did certain people in America know about this terrible scheme beforehand?
Now, ol' friend, let's talk about poverty in the U. S. A. Forty years ago, Lyndon Johnson declared a “War on Poverty.” This was just after he succeeded President Kennedy after his assassination. President Johnson started programs such as Head Start, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid. These programs still exist today and, when left alone, do increase the standard of living for the poor in America. However, we still have poverty today, and somehow, the so-called war on poverty has seemed to have taken a back seat to most all other problems in America. Today, poverty has dropped off the national agenda. It took Hurricane Katrina to remind our representatives that it was worse than ever.
The concept of the “War on Poverty” seemed to fall away after the 1960s. Then came the reduction of federal aid to the poor in the ’80s and ’90s. Then President Bill Clinton seemed to end welfare as we know it. However, ol' friend, we still have Head Start and the Job Corps, but for how long?
Another area where we seem to be declining more and more is our mental health system. Let's first start with the state prisons. Ten to 15 percent of prison inmates have severe mental illness and a large portion were homeless to begin with. They are wrongly placed in state prisons because of the lack of proper treatment. Also, the attitudes of police officers and society as a whole just plain don't care. They break the law. Lock them up, never minding that they may have a deep-seeded mental health problem but, in most cases and with the proper treatment, these people could return to being productive members of society. Did you know that one in two people who need mental health treatment in America do not receive it? For other racial and ethnic minorities, it's even lower.
Case studies show that almost 50 percent of the homeless have some kind of mental health issue, but are either unable or unwilling to get the treatment. I agree with the former.
Another area you might be interested in is those who go to bed hungry in America. While the most severe forms of malnutrition and starvation that prevailed in the 1960s have mostly disappeared, there are 33 million people living in American households who don't know where their next meal is coming from, and it isn't getting any better. Poverty seems to be increasing, not decreasing, although some government officials want you to think that everything is going along just nicely and just as planned. That's the problem. I'm afraid, ol' friend, that it's going just as they have planned!
(to be continued)
Semper Fi.