6A
NEWS/Q^e C^rbttt
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Black Caucus PUIS
pavertyattopoflst
Hurricane
uproots class
as an issue
Continued from page 1A
Countering criticism toward
just one political party, actor
Harry Belafonte jabbed both
Democrats and Republicans.
“The most important wreck
age to look at is the wreckage
of the Democratic Party,”
Belafonte said. “We must look
through the ravages of the
Democratic Party and see if
there’s anything worth sal
vaging.”
Belafonte continued; “I
would hope that while the
Black Caucus celebrates this
moment, where we have aU
these wonderful black leaders
and our white progressive
associates, that we would get
oflf the rhetoric, get off the
redundancy, and dig deep into
this country and let Geoige W.
Bush, let the Christian right,
let a whole bunch of folks that
is I'unning away with this
nation know that their legs
have just been amputated.”
Noting that Martin Luther
King Jr.’s Poor People’s
Campaign was set back with
his 1968 assassination in
Memphis, Belafonte, a veter
an financier of the dvil ri^ts
movement, says King,
activists Fannie Lou Hamer,
Frederick Douglass and A.
Philip Randolph were the real
advocates for the poor and
that poverty has still not been
seriously addressed by either
political party
In 1974, the percentage of
black families living below the
poverty level was about 32
percent; for White families, it
was 8 percent, according to the
U.S. Censlis Bureau.
Currently the percentage of
black families living below the
poverty line has dropped to
about 27 percent while the
percentage of white families in
poverty has remained virtual
ly unchanged. The poverty
line is defined as $9,573 or less
for an individual or $18,660
for a family of four with two
children.
W^th approximately half of
the blacks in New Orieans liv
ing below the poverty level, it
was mostly poor Afiican-
Americans who could not
make it out of the flood
because many had no trans
portation.
“We’ve had the capacity to
eradicate poverty but we’ve
never used it,” says
Congresswoman Sheila
Jackson-Lee (D-Ifexas), a co-
chair of the ALC. “Why did we
hold ourselves fix)m eradicat
ing poverty when we had the
capacity? Why did we wait so
long?”
Open-ended questions such
as Jackson-Lee’s b^ged for
answers that were rare dur
ing the ALC Tbwn Hall meet
ing. Livdy with questions and
debate, the meeting presented
few answers except the need
for voters to support or oppose
legislation, make demands
and hold public officials
accountable.
“A powerless people are a
hopeless people,” said
Jackson-Lee. “I hope that at
this meeting we are provoked
and incensed. Nothii^ will
happen in Washington unless
you make us do it.”
Bush is already feeling the
pressure. His approval rating
plummeted fixan 90 percent
after the terrori^ attacks in
Sept. 2001 to 45 percent
before Katrina to 40 percent
after the botched Katrina res
cues, according to a USA
Thday/CNN/Gallup Poll.
Even so. Democrats admit
the tragedy goes far deeper
than one man. It exposes an
American culture, says Rep.
Danny K. Davis (D-IU), who
co-chaired the ALC.
“Colonization, slavery,
racism, prejudice, notions of
superiority and inferiority a
strong desire for oppressors to
stay on top of the oppressed,
and a strong desire of those
who have to keep what they
have, even if it means to pimp
off of others and to the extent
that those who are pimped
allowed it to happen,” Davis
Woodard
said.
The serious tone of the town
hall event was indicative of
discussicais across America as
many homes are now over
flowing with guests - some
strangers and some extended
family members - left home
less by the New Orleans and
Mississippi floods.
“It awakened
people to the
fact that it
could happen
to them if it
could happen
to people who
looked likp> us
and if it hap
pened to people
that we know,”
said actress Alfie Woodard.
“Hopefully, more people will
step up...with
a conscious
ness long after
we’ve cleaned
up the dam
aged areas.”
Sen. Barack
Obama (D-IU)
agrees.
Obama ^^Some are to
blame, but all
are responsible,” he says. “I
don’t think there’s anything
wrong with holding people
accountable when they mess
up, but even when we hold
those accountable, we are all
complicit in the long time
poverty tlmt continues in our
society”
Accountability won’t happen
if legislators don’t do their
part in discovering whether
race or poverty j)layed a part
in the botched rescue, says
Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-N.Y.).
“I don’t have enough infor
mation to say what went
wrong or how we could have
done better. But we must
renew confidence in our gov
ernment,” said Cfinton, who
had proposed a special com
mission to investigate the
tragedy
Harvard Law School
Professor Cliarles Ogletree,
the moderator of the town haU
discussion said; “I have fears
that we will soon forget and
become complacent.”
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