May 8, 2019
Page 9
O
PINION
Many Fault Lines and a Massive Fissuring
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America’s
promise is in peril
by Hakim Hazim
The Founding Fa-
thers mulled over var-
ious approaches to
governing before estab-
lishing the outlines of
our nation. When they
framed our constitu-
tion, they did so with care, delibera-
tion, and foresight.
Believing that axioms, self-evi-
dent truths, would remain relevant
in people’s judgment and conduct,
they constructed a new approach for
future governance. They factored in
various aspects of human nature –
paying careful attention to the mor-
ally corrosive nature of unchecked
power. To guard against this, they
instituted three branches of govern-
ment, along with a free press, and
empowered citizenry.
America was not just a place;
our nation gave birth to an inspiring
idea that people, collectively and
individually, could, despite their
differences, flourish. Leaders trust-
ed the collective will of the people
over tyrants, and the people trusted
their leaders. This powerful, fragile,
dream gave birth to revolution. We
became a shining light, a place in
which people armed with aspira-
tions, gifts, work ethic, and morals,
could come and start afresh.
Now, America’s promise is in
peril. Our leaders have failed us.
Today many feel a sense of angst,
and powerlessness – believing they
no longer matter. They are waiting
on a new movement or political fig-
ure to arrive on the scene and
change the direction we are
headed. That direction is likely
void of godly principles, logic,
and critical thinking.
America has always been
imperfect and flawed, but the
dream has remained and car-
ried us. Today, there are many fault
lines and a massive fissuring taking
place. Cynicism about the other is
systematically being fed to us and
replacing “we the people.” Despite
this, my optimism springs from my
forbearer’s history in this country.
I recall the salient imagery of my
ancestors crossing the North At-
lantic under some of harshest and
most inhumane circumstances ever
thrusted upon a people. People de-
prived of the very things America
supposedly stood for helped build
the American Dream for others,
while being subjected to centuries
of nightmares.
We were excluded; yet, we
longed and labored for our piece of
the promise.
Generations of our leaders
fought for the futures of their chil-
dren, bearing patiently the injustices
of our nation, while keeping a long-
term view in mind.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
understood the landscape. He em-
ployed godly principles, strategic
logic, and critical thinking to arouse
a nation’s conscience. He knew that
the legal system, religious institu-
tions, and scientific community, had
long agreed upon our inferior status.
As a Christian, I marvel at Dr.
King’s use of spiritual values. He
shattered those racist perceptions,
while unifying a nation. King un-
derstood and trusted that the orig-
inal idea was good, but it needed
to be fully implemented for all. He
was grateful to be an American, be-
cause the dream, though delayed,
proved true.
America, from its inception,
was a collaborative effort in which
the founders considered history,
philosophy, principles of govern-
ing, and the passions of the people
when they decided to wrest power
and their future from British tyran-
ny. They rightly placed their faith in
God and the people. Today, we are
returning to the old, divisive politics
of exclusion. We are returning to a
tribalism that shuns those we don’t
agree with and critical thinking
about issues. We see politicians on
both sides utilizing strawmen argu-
ments, victimizing victims, ranting
about selective prosecution when
justice is at work against them,
and not shockingly, debating when
a baby can be terminated. Missing
from these discussions is our voice.
We matter, and a great deal more
than we think.
I am challenging you to step for-
ward and get involved in your com-
munity and political discourse—not
meme sharing and Facebook rant-
ing. America was based on the no-
tion that every citizen matters and
has a voice. Do you believe that? If
you do, are you willing to engage
with people you disagree with?
Will you break bread with people
who are different than you in race,
ethnicity, beliefs, and political par-
ty? Will you seek common ground?
What if we rejected the cynical news
cycles that show one side of an is-
sue only? What if we, the citizenry,
took seriously our civic duty to be
educated on matters and critically
thought about some of the things
taking place in this country? If we
did, things would change, and poli-
ticians could not get away with their
business as usual approach. Corpo-
rations could not slant the news they
have purchased with impunity.
We matter and what we do mat-
ters. If we lose sight of this, the
American Dream dies, and our
children’s dreams will die with it.
We can secure the results we seek if
we return to the original principles
of our nation, trust in God and one
another. What we are seeing today
are the results of our entrenched po-
litical party system, and our apathy.
This approach will fill us with fear
and angst, while stripping us of our
voice. It is time to return to civil,
informed conversation. It is time to
return to the American Dream.
Hakim Hazim is the founder of
Relevant Now, a nationally recog-
nized consultancy that focuses on
security, criminality and decision
analysis.
Five Years Later and Relisha is Still Missing
Out of sight, out
of mind
by m arian
W right
e Delman
Baby dolls,
tiny trucks, toy
food and dress-up capes. Scattered
about the ballroom of a motel in
northeast Washington, D.C., and
captured in a Washington Post
column by Petula Dvorak, these
hallmarks of child’s play are not
merely a sign of productive imag-
inations—they’re evidence of a
larger child and family poverty
crisis that must end in our affluent
nation.
Twenty minutes outside the
city’s downtown, a stretch of bud-
get motels along a major highway
serve as overflow shelters for
homeless families in the nation’s
capital. They have strict rules
about where children are seen and
heard. Signs dotting the hallways
announce “No Playing on the Ho-
tel Premises” and children are for-
bidden from gathering in common
spaces.
The Homeless Children’s Play-
time Project, a local nonprofit, re-
serves event spaces to carve out ar-
eas where children can be children.
However, the lack of space and
high cost of reserving ballrooms
and conference halls means pop-
up playtimes are much too limited.
Away from the hustle and bustle
of Capitol Hill where big deals are
made and bills become laws, the
motels—and the 1,000 homeless
children within them—are largely
out of sight and out of mind. Other
shelters are similarly isolated.
Until it closed in October 2018,
the city’s largest family shelter was
D.C. General, a former abandoned
public hospital whose neighbor-
ing buildings included a jail and
a morgue. Out of direct view and
tucked into the nooks and cran-
nies of a dense, bustling city, it is
too easy to overlook out-of-sight
homeless children.
Until tragedy strikes.
Eight-year-old Relisha Rudd
was abducted from the D.C. Gen-
eral homeless shelter in March
2014. Relisha loved art and baby
dolls and would exuberantly spell
V-I-C-T-O-R-Y on her school’s
cheer team. For months, Relisha’s
disappearance dominated the news
cycle and brought the glare of na-
tional attention to D.C. General.
City officials, pundits, locals
and anonymous online commen-
tators heaped blame on Relisha’s
family, her teachers and her social
workers. But assigning blame did
nothing to bring Relisha home.
Five years have passed and Reli-
sha is still missing.
Why do we fail to see our poor
children until their faces stare at
us from a Missing Child poster?
Why do we blame parents rather
than blame our broken, unjust sys-
tem that fails to provide affordable
housing for families?
Thousands of Relishas live ev-
erywhere among us, without safe
places to live and grow up. They
are homeless because housing is
too expensive and their parents’
jobs pay too little; unaccounted for
because affordable quality child
care is out of reach; finding pock-
ets of playtime in motel ballrooms
because play is otherwise forbid-
den; hurting because poverty hurts.
It’s time to stop assigning
blame and start taking action. This
month, the Children’s Defense
Fund will release a new edition of
our report Ending Child Poverty
Now with an urgent call to action.
We must make poor children’s
struggles visible to our political
leaders and policymakers at all
levels of government and in ev-
ery state and community. We must
lift up child poverty solutions that
work including a higher minimum
wage, housing assistance vouchers
for struggling parents, transitional
jobs programs and child care assis-
tance.
We must keep children front
and center, invisible no longer.
Marian Wright Edelman is
Founder and President Emerita of
the Children’s Defense Fund.
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