CBC puts poverty back on frontburner
Hazel Trice Edney, NNPA Washington Correspondent
Issue date: 9/29/05 Section: POLITICS
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"A powerless people are a hopeless people," said Jackson-Lee. "I hope that at this meeting we are provoked and incensed. Nothing will happen in Washington unless you make us do it."
Bush is already feeling the pressure. His approval rating plummeted from 90 percent after the terrorist attacks in Sept. 2001 to 45 percent before Katrina to 40 percent after the botched Katrina rescues, according to a USA Today/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-Ill), 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 said to the applause of the overflow crowd packed into the ballroom of the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. The serious tone of the town hall event was indicative of discussions across America as many homes are now overflowing with guests - some strangers and some extended family members - left homeless 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 like us and if it happened to people that we know," said Actress Alfre Woodard.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) agrees.
"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 that continues in our society."
Bush is already feeling the pressure. His approval rating plummeted from 90 percent after the terrorist attacks in Sept. 2001 to 45 percent before Katrina to 40 percent after the botched Katrina rescues, according to a USA Today/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-Ill), 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 said to the applause of the overflow crowd packed into the ballroom of the Washington, D.C. Convention Center. The serious tone of the town hall event was indicative of discussions across America as many homes are now overflowing with guests - some strangers and some extended family members - left homeless 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 like us and if it happened to people that we know," said Actress Alfre Woodard.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) agrees.
"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 that continues in our society."