February 3, 2016
Page 18
O PINION
Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the
Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and
story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com.
Booting Poor People from Food Assistance
A misguided
ideological
campaign
by i saiah
J. p oole
With the winter
winds of January
came a lurry of re-
ports that several
states were moving
to cut thousands of people from
their Supplemental Nutritional
Assistance Program (SNAP, or
“food stamp”) rolls.
In New Jersey, for example,
Gov. Chris Christie pulled the
plug on beneits to 11,000 un-
employed state residents.
By this spring, an estimat-
ed 500,000 people nationwide
could be cut off. For most of
them, the maximum beneit of
less than $200 a month is all
the federal aid they get. For
some, it’s their entire income.
These people live in states
that have chosen to rein-
state work requirements on
able-bodied adults without
children, which had been sus-
pended since the 2008 eco-
nomic downturn. It means that
single adults who aren’t work-
ing at least 20 hours a week or
participating in a job-training
program may only get three
months of nutrition assistance
in a three-year period. After
that, they’re on their own.
Some people call this a suc-
cessful example of welfare
reform at work. But to ex-
perts like Joe Soss, a Univer-
sity of Minnesota professor
who studies the drive to “end
welfare as we know it” that
started in the 1990s under
President Bill Clinton,
it’s the latest chapter in
a misguided ideological
campaign.
This drive is a conse-
quence, he told me, of
longstanding
prejudices,”
Soss explained. These “get-
tough policies are cast as ben-
eiting the poor in the long
run,” he added, while their
hardline supporters claim to
shield taxpayers from “crimi-
nal thugs, undocumented im-
migrants, and those who live
off the welfare system.”
His 2011 book, Disciplining
the Poor, chronicles the rise
states have generally been at
the forefront of efforts to re-
strict social supports — from
cash aid to nutrition, housing,
and health care — and to use
poor people’s behaviors as
a litmus test for government
help.”
That approach was evident
earlier this year, when six
of the Republican presiden-
tial candidates attended an
Efforts to get tough with the poor
have often been a bipartisan affair.
But Republican-controlled states have
generally been at the forefront of
efforts to restrict social supports —
from cash aid to nutrition, housing,
and health care — and to use poor
people’s behaviors as a litmus test for
government help.
--University of Minnesota professor Joe Soss
political rhetoric suggesting
that low-income people are
poor because of their inability
to exercise self-discipline and
make good choices.
“It’s a modern update of
of what Soss calls “poverty
governance” over the past 40
years. “Efforts to get tough
with the poor have often been
a bipartisan affair,” Soss said.
“But Republican-controlled
antipoverty forum in South
Carolina inspired by the late
“bleeding-heart
conserva-
tive” politician Jack Kemp.
Christie took part. But the
way his policies have played
out is less bleeding-heart than
cold-blooded.
Under Christie’s leader-
ship, New Jersey has sharply
reduced the share of federal
block grant money it spends
on direct cash assistance to
needy families, according to
the Center for Budget and Pol-
icy Priorities. But as the num-
ber of people getting help has
fallen, the percentage of the
state’s residents living in pov-
erty actually went up — from
9 percent to 11 percent — be-
tween 2009 and 2012.
Now, community servants
worry that more stringent
work rules for food assistance
are being imposed when there
isn’t enough job and educa-
tion assistance for people who
need it. “I don’t know where
these work programs are. And
I know we are not ready for
this,” Diane Riley of the Com-
munity FoodBank of New Jer-
sey told NJ.com.
It’s a story that’s being re-
peated across the country. The
trend is also fueling a debate
— not over whether people
should be working instead of
receiving welfare, but whether
we get there by investing more
in education, training, and job
creation, or by slashing bud-
gets, shaming the poor, and
turning our backs.
Isaiah J. Poole is the online
communications director at
Campaign for America’s Fu-
ture.
Protesting US Policies with Guns Doesn’t Work
A failure to
learn about
nonviolence
t om h. h astings
Video footage of
the Oregon State
Police shooting of
armed occupier La-
Voy Finicum fol-
lowing a vehicular chase is
so very sad to watch. Finicum
may have been quite stupid in
his belief that American pub-
lic lands should belong to pri-
vate ranchers, but he did not
deserve to die. Sadly, he ar-
by
ranged for his own death.
Finicum, the spokesperson
for the armed militia which
took over the Malheur Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge on
Jan. 2 was quite open—he
carried a gun at all times
and was ready to use it.
He reached for it, appar-
ently, and was shot dead.
Geez.
Like Finicum, I’ve op-
posed US policy enough to
risk arrest, to occupy federal
facilities, and to stand up to
federal law enforcement. Un-
like him, I’ve actually done
it numerous times and never
been shot. I’ve always been
nonviolent and, to be frank,
my method makes victory
possible and, in some cases,
achieved. Finicum apparently
thought that a gun makes you
safer. It is the opposite.
I helped occupy Oregon
Sen. Ron Wyden’s ofice twice
— once when he was thinking
about how he might vote on
the 2002 Senate bill to grant
George W. Bush essentially il-
limitable powers to invade and
wage war on Iraq or anyone
else. Wyden ended up voting
our way. We were nonviolent
and courteous.
I helped occupy his ofice
again in 2006 to convince him
to speak out against the war in
Iraq. We were quite friendly,
actually, with Homeland Se-
curity, who arrested us. Wyden
did as we asked—he posted on
his website (inally!) that he
opposed the ongoing war and
he even rose on the United
States of America Senate loor
to call for an end to that occu-
pation. As usual, we carried no
guns and in fact met with the
staff ahead of time to explain
nonviolence.
I’ve done other nonvio-
lent occupations over the
decades—even a one-man
occupation of the Soviet em-
bassy in nonviolent resistance
to their weaponry. I’ve never
even had a weapon pulled on
me, let alone being shot, and
every single public policy ask
I’ve made has ultimately been
granted.
It is so sad to see Muslim
extremists reverting to 12th
century brutality and Amer-
ican “patriots” regressing to
19th century behavior. LaVoy
Finicum didn’t have to die; he
needed to learn about nonvio-
lence.
Tom H. Hastings is core fac-
ulty in the Conlict Resolution
Department at Portland State
University and is founding di-
rector of PeaceVoice.