Commentary 15- DiIonno on Poverty

From the New Jersey Star-Ledger 01/22/08

A day devoted to a dream
Posted by Mark DiIonno January 21, 2008 9:12PM


In this, the feel-good year of the Politics of Inclusion, there remains the grim reality of the Economy of Exclusion.

Forty years after the assassination of Martin Luther King much has changed and the candidacy of Barack Obama is just latest example. But in the recessed corners of all the speeches and programs of the King holiday weekend, are disturbing questions.

Despite strides in civil rights and equality, why does poverty and all it breeds -- violence, ignorance, drug addiction and despair -- remain a malignant growth in our cities?

Despite King's message of love and nonviolence, why has the murder rate soared and value of human life plummeted on some of our cities streets?

Just last week in Newark, an 18-year-old girl was stabbed to death by a 15-year-old over a silly argument, the kind of street homicide that has civil rights leaders and scholars wondering why King's message, in some places, has faded like the footsteps of the millions who marched almost 50 years ago.

This kind of violence was not included in Martin Luther King's vision of the promise America held for African-Americans. Now, many leaders are asking themselves how to restore that vision and combat the violence.

Last night at Newark's Bethany Baptist Church, these were the topics a crowd of about 300 was asked to think about.

Bethany pastor the Rev. M. William Howard, who led his first voter drive in Georgia in 1961, invited Cornell Brooks, the young new head of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, to speak to his congregation last night.

In discussions before the event, both men lamented the stubborn concentrations of poverty that continue to plague cities. But they also asked why the desire for education -- and with it, enlightenment -- has fallen by the wayside in so many places.

"With poverty comes social isolation," said Brooks, a fourth-generation minister from Virginia and graduate of Yale Law School and the Boston University School of Theology. "We have a generation of young people who want the things emblematic of America, but don't have the means to get there. What we have is economic segregation in many of our cities."

Howard believes if King were alive today, he would have turned his attention to the "economic underpinnings that unravel the social fabric" of poor neighborhoods.

"Martin believed human rights and civil rights would always flourish in good economic times," said Howard, a founding member of the Newark Community Foundation and current chairman of the Rutgers Board of Governors. "But in American cities today, things are continuing to fall apart. The Newark economy, like many Northern cities, was based on manufacturing jobs. Where are those jobs now? We have exported our labor violations and environmental problems to other countries."

Still, opportunity remains.

"I'm not saying racism has been erased, but some of the doors are wide open," Howard asked. "Why aren't people rushing through them? I'm trying to understand where we went wrong. I'm trying to understand why education has become so undervalued to us. Poor people always saw a value in education."

Brooks says valuable lessons of King's self-improvement have been lost.

"The Martin Luther King today is becoming a two-dimensional character. Most people know a few lines of the 'I Have A Dream Speech,' but don't know the other parts of King.

"They don't see the sacrifice, and the time-honored practices of hard work and discipline that led to his success," Brooks said. "They don't see how he fought for his own education, or that he was a prolific writer, putting down every thought he had on whatever type of paper was available."

Brooks tells a story about how King was motivated to be a great orator after receiving a "C" in public speaking. "These should be inspirational, motivational stories."

Howard says his church members have been working recently decided that "education is key to all we will be doing" in the community.

"Nothing is more important to us in the world today than knowledge about everything that impinges on human life," he said.

"Health, family life, spirituality, employment, all hinges on knowledge," he said. "People have to see hope through education. We have to get back to trying to become communities of learning."

Howard asks hard questions of leadership in America today, specifically in the broken areas of the black community.

"What are we demanding, from the society and ourselves? What are the new frontiers to provide hope over despair?" he asked. "And where are our dreams? Somehow, we are losing our dreams, and if we don't admit that to ourselves, we do it at our own peril."

Original Referenced Link


My Commentary:

Zemack on 01/22/08 at 8:48PM

"Despite strides in civil rights and equality, why does poverty and all it breeds -- violence, ignorance, drug addiction and despair -- remain a malignant growth in our cities?"

Because man, every individual man, is a being of self-generated action based on his mind, i.e., his ability to think and reason, the answer to the above question lies in the field of ideas. What ideas have become ingrained into the minds of young people that causes them to turn to "violence, ignorance, drug addiction and despair"? In other words, they give up. Why?

A lead to the answer is hidden in the following statement by Mr. DiIonno:

"In this, the feel-good year of the Politics of Inclusion, there remains the grim reality of the Economy of Exclusion."

What is meant here by "Economy of Exclusion"? Excluded, by whom? What is this mysterious entity called "the Economy"? An economy is merely the sum of the efforts of all of the individual people who engage in productive work and trade, with the level of material success of each determined primarily by the extent of his ability, ambition, and personal choices. Each individual is an autonomous entity who can join the "economy" at any time, simply by deciding to. Yet, some are "excluded". What is the deciding factor? It is the ideas, whether conscious or not, that a person accepts.

Does a child learn that the world is a malevolent place where the deck is stacked against him, or does he learn that he has it within his power to control the course of his own life? Does he learn to use and enjoy the tools of logic he possesses, or does he give up his mind as impotent because, after all, there are mysterious forces out there that "exclude" him from the "economy"? Does he make the self-generated effort necessary to learn the skills that he needs to achieve his own welfare and happiness, or does he give up on that, too, because some power-seeking politician tells him there is some "other America" that he cannot enter except with government help, which will be forthcoming after the next election?

This is not to say that there are no other culprits. The government-run "public" school monopoly, the 40+-year old "war on poverty", the failure to control crime and gangs, anti-business tax and regulatory policies that chase away job opportunities, among other things, are all contributing factors to poverty.

But it ultimately boils down to the individual and his ideas. It's not true that "young people who want the things emblematic of America...don't have the means to get there". Every individual has it within his power to thrive. It's called his mind. The decision to think and act, or not, is a choice no one can escape. What it takes is the kind of entrepreneurial thinking that is exemplified in the movie "The Freedom Writers", the true saga of a determined and courageous young teacher who, against great odds, instills in her inner city "unteachable" students a belief in themselves and a respect for others as individuals.

Martin Luther King paved the way by destroying the legal impediments to an oppressed minority. It is pointless to blame "society", the "culture", the "Economy of Exclusion", the "two Americas", "economic segregation" or any other such illusions that create in the minds of the young the hopeless "despair" of the belief that dark, mysterious forces are conspiring to rob them of any future. In the end, there are only the individual and his fundamental intellectual premises.

A hard look at the self-esteem destroying ideas that are instilled in the young by parents, teachers, and political and cultural leaders is the place to begin to look now for answers to the kinds of questions raised in Mr. DiIonno's article. If we don't admit that to ourselves, we do it at our own peril.