Page A4
/r,'r P nrtianh ©bseruer
O pinion
September 8. 2004
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views of The Portland Observer
Americans Living in Poverty Continues to Rise
by E lijah
C i AIMING*
Washington — Today. U.S. Represen
tative Elijah E. Cummings (D-M d.), Chair
man of the Congressional Black Caucus,
issued the following statement on the U.S.
Census Bureau's 2003 poverty report.
Today, the U.S. Census Bureau con
firmed what many of A m erica's workers
already know — many of them are living in
poverty. According to a report released
by the U.S. Census Bureau this morning,
approx imate ly 36 mill ion Americans were
li\ mg below the poverty line in 2003 and
45 million Americans were without _
health insurance. These num bers
represent an increase of 1.3 million
Americans living in poverty and an
increase of 1.4 million Americans who
have no health care coverage.
An even closer look at this report
reveals that huge segments of our popu
lation, particularly minorities and children,
continue to fall deeper and deeper in pov
erty and isolation.
f
Last year, tile poverty rate for African
Americans rose by 24 percent bringing the
ranks of poverty-stricken African Ameri
cans to9 million. For Hispanic Americans,
even more dramatic. Last year, 12.9 million
children were living in conditions equal to
that of a destitute third world country.
As we know all too well, the conditions
o f poverty and the ability to afford
health insurance are inexorably
linked. In 2(X)3, the number of His
panic Americans without health in
surance rose to 13.2 million, an in
crease of 1.4 million since 2000. For
the same year, 7.3 million African
Americans were without health insurance,
an increase o falm o st600,000 since 2000.
When President Clinton left office in
2(XX), the number of uninsured Americans
/.s there any good news
fo r America s workers in
a Bush economy?
g
the poverty rate climbed by 22 percent in
2003. placing 9 million Hispanic Ameri
cans below the poverty line.
For America’s children, the rise was
Lifting Voices and Prayers for Peace
by B ernice P owell
Let us celebrate
J ackson
p ea ce
in
our
Celebrating peace when the
c h u rc h e s
and
world is at war, when both
te m p le s
and
Iraqis and Americans still are
mosques. Let us light
dying in Iraq, when civil war
candles for peace.
and genocide threatens thou
Let us plant peace
sands in the Sudan and again
poles for peace and
in the Great Lakes region of
gardens for peace.
central Africa, may seem like an Let us preach sermons about peace.
exercise in futility.
Let us teach our children in faith
But the truth is that it is when the schools about peace. Let us focus
world is at war that we need voices our adult learning on peace. Let us
and prayers for peace even more. ring church bells at noon that day.
This year, then, let us celebrate Most of all, let us pray, earnestly
peace on the International Day of pray for peace.
Peace, Sept. 21.
Let us celebrate peace in our
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It's not your everyday job. laaBt •
schools— from pre-school to high
school. Let us sponsor essay con
tests, poetry and art contests on
peace. Let us make sure that every
child in every school takes conflict
resolution in school. Let us work to
end bullying in every school. Let us
teach our children to evaluate the
music they hear, the movies they
see, the video games they play to
see what messages of hate and
intolerance and violence they pro
mote. Let us help students to iden
tify how they wish tocelebrate peace
and build peace in their own lives,
as well as theircommunity and their
world— and then let us listen to
them and make their suggestions
happen.
Let us celebrate peace in our
com munities. Let us encourage
town hall meetings to talk about
peace— in our neighborhoods and
in our world. Let drama groups do
plays about peace and poets do
poetry readings about peace. Let
us a sk o u r m a y o rs an d city
councilpersons to hold Interna
tional Day o f Peace ceremonies and
honor those who are peace heroes,
just as they honor those who are
war heroes.
had decreased for the first time in over a
decade and the economy benefited from a
$230 billion budget surplus.
Today, after almost four years o f Presi
dent B ush's ineffective trickle-down eco
nomic policies, we have record deficits
and millions upon millions of Americans
are without work, without healthcare and
increasingly, without hope.
In order for America to once again have
an economy that lifts more o f its citizens
out of poverty, we must have leadership
that p rio ritizes the p rosperity o f all
Americans. Our nation deserves better and
we must do better.
Leaving the Poor Behind
Let us celebrate peace in our
homes. Let families caught up in
violence turn to their clergy or
physicians or school officials for
help. Let every woman and every
child experience one day of peace
in their homes on Sept. 21— and
by J udge G reg
then let’s find ways to ensure that
M aiths
they never again have to endure
In a country in which
violence in the place which should
the rich continue to get
offer them the most safety.
richer, it might not come
Let us celebrate peace in our
as a surprise that the gap
world. Let every one of us work for
between Am erica’s rich
an end to war and violence in this
and poor has widened.
world, no matter what political
T o d a y 's
w re ck e d
party is in power and who the
economy has made this disparity
president is. Let us make sure that
even more pronounced. W ages
every single person we know is
have stagnated while real costs
registered to vote in this election.
(health care, housing, tuition, food
Let us write letters to our elected
and gas) have soared. Both presi
officials about peace.
dential candidates have given lip
The Un i ted N at ion s named Sept. service to the income
21 as the International Day of
gap. John Kerry is run
Peace in 1981. This year. The
ning on an "ease the
World Council of Churches is in
middle class squeeze"
viting congregations around the
platform . G eorge W.
world to pray for peace and to
Bush, in his own words,
work for peace on this special day.
serves the interest of
Bernice Powell Jackson is ex the wealthy. The reality
ecutive minister fo r Justice and of the divided America
Witness Ministries fo r the United is that too many hard
Church o f Christ.
working Americans are
s tru g g lin g ...a n d not
making ends meet.
Bush has shifted the overall tax
burden from the wealthiest Ameri
cans to those in the middle class.
for a stadium project.
This means that those who have
The city should not be in
the best ability to pay taxes are not
v o lv ed in th e se d isc u ssio n s
doing so. According to the Census
until a private ow ner em erges,
Bureau, the bottom twenty percent
In response to the unveiling o f w illing to invest private dollars.
of the population has experienced
the ballpark financing plan. C om A t th is p iv o ta l m o m e n t in
a mean household income increase
m issioner Francesconi said, “ I P o rtla n d ’s h isto ry , the C ity
of roughly $2500. The top 20 per
love baseball, but I d o n ’t like this C ouncil should focus on the
cent, on the other hand, have en
proposal. At a tim e when so many m ost pressing issues: school
joyed a staggering increase of
are out of work, we cannot ask funding, jo b grow th and taking
roughly
_ . $61 .(XX). The wealthy . have
taxpayers to bear the m ajority risk care o f basic city services.”
enjoyed 24 times the gain than poor
Stadium Not a Priority
Commissioner
says no ball
Come join us
for the release of the Dynamix CD
“ Chillaxin’ on the MAX”
Dynamix in concert
w ith DJ O.C. ONE
12:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
on the Sabin CDC-TriMet Community Stage, NE Alberta & 22nd Ave.
Free Dynamix CDs and autographs following each performance.
7th Annual Alberta Street Fair
A m ulticultural neighborhood celebration
S a tu rd a y , S e p te m b e r 1 8 th
11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
NE A lb e rta St., fro m 11th Ave. to 31st Ave.
Chillaxin on the MAX is sponsoied by TnMet and Sabin Community Development Corpoiation and
includes a music CD as well as ladio and TV public seivice announcements. This project was designed
to provide youth with an opportunity to create a safety campaign for their peers, while learning
valuable media industry skills in the process Many thanks to our project partners: Dynamix, Urban
Living Maps lai D’Shea I ntertainment, Portland Community Media and students, Alberta Wash House
and Allied Vaughn
BrQught to you by
TR l © M E T
and
Sabin Community Development Corporation
Income gap
widens to engulf
middle class
Americans have.
It does not help the wage gap
that the jo b market is soft, which
keeps wages down. Since Bush took
office, more than 2.6
m illionjobshavedis-
appeared. The mi 11 ion
that have been added
in theirplace typically
pay less and offer
fe w e r
b e n e fits
(namely health insur
ance) than the lost
jobs. The truth of the
matter is that this is
not truly a "middle class” epidemic.
Even though the “middle class” is
shouldering the bulk o f the tax bur
den, the “middle class” is a quickly
disappearing entity. With a quarter
of the workforce earning less than
The situation
appears bleak. Many
of corporate America’s
gains are going to
profits and not job
-
creation.
$ 18,8(X)ayear, there is little wonder
why the ranks o f the working poor
have increased. The C ensus B u
reau reports that 63 percent of
w orking poor fam ilies has one or
m ore w orkers in the fam ily unit.
Sixty percent o f the w orking poor
are w hite and about 20 percent
are foreign born (m ostly from
M exico). “ Business W eek” re
ports that a m ajority o f the w ork
ing poor have “high school di-
plom as and even som e co lleg e.”
Thirty years ago a high school
diplom a and som e college would
have been a sure shot to the
m iddle class. In 2004, in a Bush-
ravaged econom y, such q u alifi
cations gain en trance into the
ranks o f the w orking poor.
The situation appears bleak.
Many of corporate America’s gains
are going to profits and not jo b
creation. Labor unions, once a stal
wart o f the m iddle class, have
dwindled in size, presence and po
litical power. The real minimum
wage is 30 percent less today than
it was in 1964. Higher education
costs have exploded, severely lim
iting the ability for lower income
families to send their children to
college. There are, however, some
ways to combat these bleak reali
ties. For example, lifting the mini
mum wage would boost incomes;
shifting the political momentum of
foreign labor from low- to high-
skilled would help ease the wage
competition among those on the
bottom. Achieving these changes
is frustrated hy the fact that among
the working poor, survival, not
voting, is the priority.
The wage gap in this country
goes across all lines. The economy
is a rallying point for this years’
election. To say that citizens o f all
races are concerned about theirjobs
is an understatement. The problem
is figuring out how to get from lip
service to social service. Talking
about the wage gap is helpful. Fix
ing it is essential.
Judge Greg Mathis is Chair
man o f the Rainbow PUSH-Excel
Board and a National Board Mem-
berof the Southern Christian le a d
ership Conference.