Letters to the Editor

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the “Poor People’s Campaign” to address issues of economic justice, an effort conceived by the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., shortly before his death.

And while the Civil Rights movement stressed integrated schools and voting rights for African-Americans, the Poor People’s March encompassed the economically disadvantaged of all races: African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Third-World immigrants, and poor whites

In his book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” King endorsed a “Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged,” and the idea has as much merit today as it did 40 years ago. Dr. King’s agenda included plans for massive federal investments in jobs and housing programs. The campaign went on after his tragic assassination in April of 1968, but those plans never passed by the U.S. Congress.

So how are the poor doing in California after 40 years?

The answer is that while some progress has been made, the poor in California are now falling behind the rest of the nation.

In 1970, California averaged 20% fewer poor families than the national average (12% of Californians versus 15% of all Americans).

Today, those figures have been reversed. California now has a greater-than-average percentage of children living in poverty (19% in California compared to 17% percent nationally). Official U.S. Census data show that California has both the most poor people (more than 5 million and counting, due to the recession) and one of the largest percentages of poor families in the U.S.

It is true that poverty affects people of color more: The child poverty rate for Latinos and African Americans is about 27%, and half of all poor children in California are U.S.-born Latinos. The child poverty rate is 26% for Asians from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, 19% for Native Americans, 13% for all Asians, and 8% for whites.

Still, there are numerous white-majority counties, such as Colusa, Del Norte, Glenn, Lake, Lassen, and Siskiyou, with poverty rates 50% greater than the state average.

Meanwhile, due to our stratospheric housing costs, California is in the bottom 10% in homeownership, and also has more homeless than any other state (see related story on ”D+”, page 9).

Meanwhile, the “welfare-dependent” stereotype of poor families is not accurate. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, about a third (34%) of poor children have a parent working full-time, and another 39% have a parent working part-time. More than 2 million children live in poverty despite their parents “doing the right thing.” California has the most families earning the minimum wage and more working poor than anywhere else in the nation.

If the present trends of increasing poverty continue, the Golden State could be headed toward a future where a privileged few do well while the majority struggles.

So the problems are real.

Here are some workable solutions:

• Green Jobs: Let’s put Californians back to work cleaning up the environment in jobs that require a variety of education and experience levels and pay decent wages. Surely, the same talented innovators who created Silicone Valley can make California the leader in green technology.

• Education: until the 1970s, California was a national leader in education and Time magazine called the University of California system “the best in the world.” Now, the state is ranked 47th in overall educational achievement, according to a recent Congressional Quarterly study. To prosper in the 21st Century, California will simply have to re-commit itself to K-12 education.

• Healthcare Reform: In studying the problems of low-income families, the State Senate Office of Research concluded recently that a two parent/two worker family with children could get by (though barely) on minimum wage—as long their healthcare premiums were provided by their employer or the government. Those who did not have coverage were essentially one illness away from bankruptcy. The legislature’s health proposal in 2007 was a victim, in part, of this year’s budget crisis. But when revenues return to normal, healthcare reform should be the first priority for state government.

• Transportation: Voters two years ago wisely approved a series of bonds to improve California's infrastructure. Future transportation projects must strive to be both time-efficient and environmentally friendly in creating affordable, un-congested alternatives (like mass transit). And projects like the High Speed Rail Initiative can help restart our economy by generating well-paid jobs that can’t be outsourced.

• Alternative Energy: California must become a world leader in more efficient uses of renewable energy, such as solar, wind, geothermal, bio-mass and using ocean tides to generate electricity. Such “wave-power” in coastal areas can also be used for desalinization plants that could help solve California's seemingly perennial drought problems.

While I represent a coastal district that includes some of the most affluent areas of California, I also recognize that a society continually polarized by poverty will eventually hurt everyone, regardless of wealth. Any society divided by income, race, and ethnicity will have a much harder time overcoming issues that impact everybody, such as global warming, environmental decline, and our basic quality of life.

Creating green jobs, implementing universal healthcare coverage, and improving transportation and education will be the keys to making 21st-century California economically stable and socially united.

Allow me to close with a quote from Robert F. Kennedy, who also fell to an assassin’s bullet 40 years ago: “As long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.”

In honor of International Refugee Day, observed on June 20, the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC) calls on the U.S. and other industrialized nations, especially in the European Union, to bring down walls of mistrust, myths, and protectionism against immigrants and begin adopting policies that protect, build, and advocate on behalf of more than 40 million people worldwide who are forced to flee their homelands due to violence, injustice, discrimination, exclusion, environmental pressures, scarce resources, choking economic policies, and dysfunctional states.

The root causes of human migration and displacement in today’s world continue to be mostly unaddressed. Industrialized nations such as the U.S., as well as political multi-nation unions such as the European Union, bear additional responsibility to safeguard the rights of the displaced and help forge a better future.

Article I of the 1951 United Nation’s Refugee Convention clearly outlines the conditions under which a person becomes a refugee, as well as their rights, and the legal implications for a host state. The host state is called upon to maintain humane, realistic, and fair asylum laws .

Migrant and refugee refugee populations in the U.S. and elsewhere are part of a changing 21st century reality which is often inhumanely handled by a 20th century migratory legal regime. The U.S. can exercise great influence in how asylum and migratory laws are ultimately modernized. Migratory patterns, as well as their consequences, are complex processes. However, if seen through the lenses of opportunity, human dignity, and cultural enrichment, it would be clear that migrants and refugees are ultimately assets for their host nations as well as their countries of origin, and they should be treated accordingly (see related story on “ICE Raids,” home page).

I live at the Hayward Hotel at 6th and Spring streets, and I recently encountered a situation that left me frustrated with the management of the place.

I recently suffered a stroke, and I am in the process of recovering. I have to use a walker, and I sometimes forget things.

I lost my keys once before, and it happened again on a recent day. I went to church and lost the keys to an extra lock on the door of my room at the Hayward. This added precaution is allowed, but the rules at the Hayward state that tenants must leave a spare key for the extra lock with management.

I did leave a spare key with them, but none of the employees could locate it on the recent day when I needed it.

The security guards and other employees were polite, and they seemed to be trying to find the key. But they never did, and I waited for more than 9 hours on a very hot day. It wasn’t until I said I would call the Los Angeles Fire Department to have them break the extra lock and let me in my room that the employees of the Hayward told me they couldn’t find the keys and decided to break the lock themselves. (The standard lock on the door remained intact, so my door wasn’t left completely unguarded).

I want to mention again that nobody was rude to me, and I am more than willing to pay for a new extra lock, because I did lose my keys.

But I am bothered by the fact that the management of the Hayward made me wait for more than 9 hours before they admitted that they had lost the key I gave them.

Paula Younger

Historic Core