How, Exactly, Is Your Proposed Complete Transformation of Post-Katrina American Politics Going to Take Place?
Sept. 9, 2005
In what may be the most catastrophic natural disaster in American history, the waters of Hurricane Katrina are washing away our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty, our reluctance to admit the still persistent connection of race and poverty in America, and even the political power of a conservative ideology that, for decades now, has seriously eroded the idea of the common good. -- Jim Wallis, "What the waters have revealed" (Sept 9, 2005).
Before Katrina hit, a million people loaded up their cars and drove out of New Orleans. Those who stayed behind could have been transported out by the city's fleet of school buses and its fleet of transportation authority buses. The mayor apparently forgot to order this. This was not a matter of poverty. It was a matter of a city whose political leaders ignored a problem that had faced the city since its founding in 1718. It was a political failure.
Less than a tenth of the population was so poor as to be unable to get out of the city. I have this question, Mr. Wallis: How, precisely, can any nation eliminate poverty in the bottom 10% of the population?
You see, there is this recurring statistical problem: there is always a bottom 10%. We define bottom, in fact, as membership in this decile of the population. You deeply resent the fact that anyone is in the bottom 10%. I see no way to avoid a bottom 10% in any group.
You, as always, seek social salvation in politics. So you fail to mention any of this. You point instead to the statistical fact that in the bottom 10% of New Orleans' population there were -- yes, I admit it -- poor people.
I will go so far as to admit -- without your prompting -- that in the top 10% there were rich people.
The pictures from New Orleans have stunned the nation. They have exposed the stark realities of who is suffering the most, who was left behind, who was waiting in vain for help to arrive, and who is facing the most difficult challenges of recovery.
Say these words to yourself: "Parked yellow school busses." Say it over and over for 60 seconds. Or 60 minutes, if need be.
From the reporters covering the unprecedented disaster to ordinary Americans glued to their televisions watching their reports, a shocked and even outraged response was repeated, "I didn't realize how many Americans were poor."
So, TV news viewers had not known of poor people before. Perhaps this indicates that people who watch TV news have IQs in the mid-80s.
When 900,000 drive away, and 100,000 stay behind, 100,000 are indeed a lot of people. However, as a percentage of the population without access to motorized transportantion, it is the lowest of any large city to be evacuated in the history of man. But it sure does make good copy for a Social Gospel newsletter.
As a direct result of Katrina and its aftermath, and for the first time in many years, the media are reporting on poverty, telling Americans that New Orleans had an overall poverty rate of 28% (84% of them African-American), and a child poverty rate of almost 50% - half of all the city's children (rates only a little higher than other major cities and actually a little lower than some others).
Yet most of these poor people had cars and drove away. Look at the percentage: 28% of a population of one million is 280,000. When 180,000 get in cars and drive away, "poverty" is being defined rather loosely. As Will Rogers said during the Great Depression, "We are the first nation in history to go to the poorhouse in an automobile."
And some have suggested that if the aftermath of Katrina finally leads the nation to demand solutions to the poverty of upwards of a third of its citizens then something good might come from this terrible disaster.
Have "some" suggested this? Well, that's great. And what, exactly, do "some" propose as a solution to a problem that the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier, and the Great Society programs of mass taxation and hundreds of government agencies did not solve? What precisely, is this "new, improved" version of the welfare State? Where are the details?
Of course, I have been waiting for you to provide details for about 25 years. You never do. But one thing is clear: your solution will involve a government agent with a gun pointed at the belly of some taxpayer.
Violence is always your solution to poverty. The State is organized violence.
Then there is the question of political cause and effect, as distinguished from the writing of a concerned newsletter.
The critical needs of poor and low-income families must become the first priority of federal and state legislatures, not the last. And, the blatant inequalities of race in America, especially in critical areas of education, jobs, health care, and housing which have come to the surface must now be addressed. Congressional pork barrel spending which aligns with political power more than human needs must be challenged as never before.
A generation ago, liberal cartoonist Jules Feiffer drew a multi-panel political cartoon of a pair of cowboy boots suspended in the sky. In each balloon, the voice above the boots promised nirvana on earth: more jobs, less poverty, an end to racial discrimination. Finally, in the next-to-last panel, someone on the ground asked: "But how will you achieve all this?" The final balloon gave the answer: "I shall wheel and deal."
That is politics. For a man who has devoted his life to writing about politics, you somehow missed this.
That requires a complete reversal of the political logic now operating in Washington and state capitols around the country -- a new moral logic must re-shape our political habits.
You believe in more than a man on a white horse who will get the U.S. Congress to Do The Right Thing. You believe in the fairy godmother. Who else could achieve this?
Restoring the hope of America's poorest families, renewing our national infrastructures, protecting our environmental stability, and rethinking our most basic priorities will require nothing less than a national change of heart and direction. It calls for a transformation of political ethics and governance; moving from serving private interests to ensuring the public good. If Katrina changes our political conscience and re-invigorates among us a commitment to the common good, then even this terrible tragedy might be redeemed.
Jim, here's the bad news: the fairy godmother is out in San Francisco, trying to flip her last few properties before the housing bubble pops.
You, of course, will say that God can engineer this moral transformaton of Congressional politics. (I hope you are a Calvinist. I have never heard of an Arminian's God powerful enough to pull this off.) The problem is, you have yet to prove your assertion that the God of the Bible is the God of the Social Gospel. From what I read in the Bible, He isn't.
You heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, your delegated agent's gun isn't.