The Poverty Report

To my mind journalists too often eschew the past in their reports. In so doing the current issues and events that they write about enter the public domain as if they had no antecedents, no context within which they developed—no historical contingency. 

I feel the problem acutely when I write about urban poverty. I often try to raise awareness of the struggles of the poor in America’s cities. So I comment on food, clothing, and shelter, as well as employment and the cultural representations of the poor in the news. Rarely, however, do I bring up the history of poverty in America; not one of my posts has been about how the poor have gotten to where they are today. I’m not even sure that I’d even know where to begin…

One of my intellectual and spiritual inspirations has been, and will continue to be, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To my mind the best way to commemorate him is to revisit and reflect upon his words, some of which speak directly to issues this blog attempts to address. Below is an excerpt from Dr. King’s sermon, “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution,”

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which he delivered before the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. on March 31, 1968, less than a week before his life was taken:

".…I remember some years ago Mrs. King and I journeyed to that great country known as India. And I never will forget the experience. It was a marvelous experience to meet and talk with the great leaders of India, to meet and talk with and to speak to thousands and thousands of people all over that vast country. These experiences will remain dear to me as long as the cords of memory shall lengthen.

Early in the afternoon last Thursday (12/17) New York City's 20^th Precinct responded to a triple homicide on Amsterdam Avenue between 83^rd and 84^th Streets. The details were grizzly: A gunman armed with a .380 caliber pistol shot and killed three family-related men in a third floor apartment. The gunman himself died, adding a fourth body to the crime scene. He apparently tried to escape out of an apartment window but fell three stories to his death in a backyard alleyway. The New York Times headline read, "Four Men Dead in West Side Shootings."

Last Thursday (12/3) President Barack Obama hosted a job summit in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. He convened business and labor leaders to brainstorm recession-ending, job-creating strategies to recover the ailing American economy. Of the many ideas discussed few if any addressed the needs of the poor. Without a comprehensive plan to get the burgeoning underclass back on payroll no strategies will reverse the current downward spiral. The problem is simple: Men and women across America are losing their jobs. The unemployment rate in America reached a twenty-six year high in October, peaking at 10.2% of the American population. In November the rate dropped to 10%-a sign of hope, says the President. Many, quite frankly, do not share in his audacity. Americans have been losing jobs throughout the Great Recession, and there have been no sustained efforts to reverse the trend.