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| Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady and wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt |
The 'Other America' of the poor is the tragedy today with no Eleanor Roosevelt of the Depression nor Michael Harrington of the 1960's speaking for them.
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, took special interest in the plight of the poor. In fact she was known for the projects she created to enhance the lot of some of the nation's poorest people during the Great Depression of the 1930's. She became their advocate, to the President and to the country. Hers was the voice that made a difference, as national projects were developed to provide employment and housing for families.
But today, despite the fact many women have arisen to participate in the politics of the United Nations, no one has used his or her Congressional position to speak specifically for the nation's poor. Nor does Hillary Clinton's voice echo across the land as Eleanor Roosevelt's once did.
While the problems are diverse, and international issues often dominate the discourse in today's world, the fact is that internationally in the 1930's there were conflicts during the Depression, as Fascism and Nazism grew until they became the terrorist threats of the pre-World War II period. Yet the poor remained Eleanor Roosevelt's concern. Indeed that concern remained with her throughout her public life. Who takes the place of such a person, who was willing to face ridicule and rejection while putting the needs of poor first rather than political concerns?
In the 1960's, a young man named Michael Harrington spoke for the poor by penning a book entitled The Other America. The book was mandatory reading for many political science students at the college and universities of the United States. Michael Harrington said it was time to help the hidden in our midst, the poor, now with us in large numbers again.
The fact that Harrington, was personally a socialist was not underlined in the offering of his text for information. He was viewed as a man with a conscience who wrote how many poor people were being ignored; and American needed to pay attention.
In 2014 the problems facing the poor seem only to be getting worse, as the middle class in America is shrinking and the gap between rich and poor increases.
America has a major problem of poverty once again, but this time it is not that dirty little secret that Harrington uncovered that politicians and liberal minds maintained was something they had not seen or understood before. That secret of the 1960's, of severe poverty, is now on downtown streets, clearly visible. In the 1960's the poor were described by Harrington as those who worked in the back kitchens, on the roads, in the bathrooms and the elderly who lived with little and needed much. Now the poor sit out in the open on benches, where men who worked regular jobs sit aimlessly, unemployed, waiting to be called for employment they can't seem to find, unless it is that occasional part-time service job that barely sustains a single individual let alone an entire family.
Why aren't people talking more about what can be done about something that's growing and deeply felt by millions of people?
Just who are poor these days, what might be their future and what can be done to help them are the needed issues that need to be examined by folks visible and daring enough to make a difference, an Eleanor Roosevelt or a Michael Harrington, the kind who are willing to take risks of being unpopular or different in a world where too many people are worried about reputations or personal concerns.
Leo Hindery, an occasional writer for the Huffington Post, wrote a few years ago, detailing the plight of America's contemporary poor. Hindery put up a microscope of his own to look at the problems facing the United States in the midst of the recession and how the problems particularly impact the poor.
In conversations with two of his friends, civil rights activist David Mixner and former U.S. Senator Don Riegle (D-MI), Hindery pointed out their observations are few folks are giving any real attention to who is really poor now and that too many government officials are missing the important concerns about the backyards of America, where people are hurting the most.
While Hindery agreed with Michelle Obama's interest in raising the nutritional standards for America's children, he points out how the plight of the poor is going unnoticed.
Where is Franklin D. Roosevelt among the new politicians in Congress? Where is the solution for the millions of people who don't have an "economic bill of rights" similar to that of the former President in 1944 and with the same intentions. Who now speaks for the poor, in the voice of an author like Harrington or a President like FDR and especially his wife, Eleanor? Hindery asked that question as Harrington asked it in the 1960's when Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey stepped forward and answered the call to help the poor.
Michael Harrington was credited with opening up America's eyes to the plight of the poor in the 1960's. His book, widely read by college students of the time, was part of the impetus for poverty programs under Lyndon Johnson,, that were shelved as the country became increasingly embroiled in war. Besides Harrington, a socialist, was discredited by those who equated his views with communism, although he protested, as did others, that his view was not totalitarian but compassionate towards the poor.
Peter Manicas, a professor from the University of Hawaii, pointed out in his assessment of Harrington:"Harrington was correct that no socialist revolution was on the agenda in the US. And he was not alone in suffering from the deep difficulty of reconciling a radical vision with the means available in American electoral politics. But it was not just socialism and the war on poverty that took a beating in the 70s and 80s. So did liberalism and perhaps also democracy."
Peter Dreier agrees with these precepts, finding America stuck on a solution to help the nation's poor. He states that even though the poor are not as numerous as in the time of Harrington, the problems run deep and in need of resolution. 15% of the country are considered to be among the worst off, with his posing the question about whether or not America is ready for a new war on poverty of the kind Lyndon Johnson once espoused and Michael Harrington cared about. Dreir observes that the war on poverty in the past did not fail, for had it failed the nation would have twice the numbers of poor that it has today. Nevertheless the problems remain grave.
Hindery, FDR,Dreier and Harrington all acknowledged how poverty drags down those affected and the whole of the fabric of a culture as well. The world has lived with poverty throughout its history, but in the present world that poverty is complicated by complex disasters as well. Who speaks for these people today?
