Page 20, Portland Observer, June 1, 198*
F
Dismantle the
•Poverty Pentagon
P O R T L A N D C O M M U N IT Y C O L L E G E
Make Your Summer Count
. . . At PCC
by Robert Woodson
Take Summer Classes that will count toward an Associate
Degree or Certificate of Completion in one ol the 2V
Career Programs available at PCC Cascade!
Find out more today..
SUMMER
QUARTER
STARTS
JUNE 20
Becky Rodgers spends her esenings
at PCC Cascade, vshere she is vsorRjng
ttjvsard an Associate of Applied Science
degree in the Alcohol and O rig Court
seior Program She is e n p lo y e d days as
a paraprofessional a t Boise£lloit School
in North Portland
Visit or Cali
PCC CASCADE
705 N. Killingsworth St.
244-6111, Ext. 5222
PCC is an affirmative act,on. equal opportunity institution and is approved for veterans' training.
Take Charge of Your Future
The winner of the 1988 presi­
dential race faces the biggest
challenge ever in dealing with
America’s 30 m illion poor.
U.S. social policy, as we now
know it, is at a dead end. To get
things on track again, the "pover­
ty Pentagon” — the vast bureau­
cracy which manages the no-win
“ War On Poverty” at great cost to
taxpayers and the poor alike —
must be dismantled and restruc­
tured into a welfare system which
encourages and supports self-
reliance. This is the only way our
poor w ill very have a chance to get
out of the poverty trap.
The true test of character of any
nation is the extent to which it is
able to provide for the least for­
tunate of its members. This moral
obligation now converges with a
great economic necessity. In the
next 20 years, the U.S. economy is
expected to produce 16.8 million
new jobs. Population trends in­
dicate that this workforce will in­
creasingly be Black and Hispanic
— the groups which now make up
most of our poor.
One m illion Blackand Hispanic
youngsters drop out of school
each year and a m illion more
graduate illiterate. If America is to
be cmpetitive as a nation, we
must make sure its future work
force w ill be able to compete. We
must press for dramatic changes
in improving the lives of our poor.
America has been very gene­
rous to the poor over the years
Unfortunately, the social policies
of the past twenty years have
created a mammoth “ poverty Pen­
tagon” that has consumed hun­
dreds of billions of tax dollars
without reducing poverty.
Before the advent of govern­
ment programs, there was no­
body to “ take care” of Blacks, so
they cared for themselves; they
found ways to solve their own pro-
focusing on the many success
blems. In 1863, when a thousand stories that can be found all
Blacks were fired off the docks in
across poor America.
Baltimore, they didn’t respond by
Let’s not go into a public hous­
marching on Washington, they ing complex and interview a wo­
formed the Chesapeake Main Dry
man with five childrenm, two on
Dock and Railroad Company
drugs, two in prison and one a pro­
which operated for 18 years.
stitute. Let’s go next door to a
When Blacks were refused ac­ woman, like Kimi Gray, in Wash­
cess to banks, they formed 53 ington, D.C.’s Kenilworth-Park­
banks and savings and loan asso­ side housing project, who was
ciations with some of them with
abandoned at 19 with five child­
assets of millions. And this was in
ren. Kimi Gray got off welfare in
1883.
five years and sent all five of her
If these great achievements
children to college. She proved
were possible then, when condi­
that w ith a little s e lf-d e te r­
tions were worse than today,
mination and hard work poverty
Blacks could certainly do even
can be overcome.
better now.
Look at 13 public housing pro­
One of the greatest obstacles
jects in other U.S. cities, where
to such self-reliant behavior is the
residents are engaged in a self-
poverty industry that has develop­
help renaissance, defying the so-
ed to "provide for” the poor.
called experts with their defini­
Those service providers — re­
tions of those communities as
gardless of their good intentions
cesspools of society. The people
— have every incentive to see that
in these projects disprove the no­
no permanent solutions are ever
tion that low-income people are
found to poverty in America.
deficient of values, that they’re
Today’s poor are unwitting par­
incapable of establishing stan­
ticipants in a poor morality play
dards for themselves.
where the worst parts are re­
What the poor need is not more
served for them. And we keep
government programs and fun­
rewarding them for taking these
ding, most of which doesn’t get to
parts.
them anyway. In New York City,
If you are poor and you are a
for example, 69 cents of every dol­
drug addict, there’s a program for
lar earmarked for social welfare
you. If you are poor and you are
does not go to the poor; it goes to
pregnant, there’s a program for
those who supposedly serve the
you. If you are poor and delin­
poor — the bureaucrats of the
quent, there's a program for you.
poverty Pentagon.
And on it goes. If you happen to be
The poor need innovators and
poor, not on drugs, not com m it­
innovation. They need to learn
ting a crime, not sexually active,
how to create wealth, not under­
you obey your parents, and you re
mine it.
going to school, there s no pro­
gram for you. The message we’re
America needs to encourage
sending to poor people is that if
and
reward self-reliance in its
you want to rceive some support,
inner-city
schools and communi­
you must have a problem, and you
ties.
Tom
orrow's com petitive­
must act in an anti-social or self­
ness
depends
on how well-equip­
destructive way. As a conse­
ped
today’s
poor
become and
quence, the poor are discouraged
how they’re taught to succeed —
from helping themselves.
on their own.
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