Fight Poverty - Not the Poor!

Preface

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America used to be the global example for what a democracy could be.  What happened?  The simple answer is, Poverty happened. While the short simple answer is true, it is not enough.  Our goal in writing this book is to not only identify and raise awareness of the problem; we also want to energize, enable, and empower the readers to take action to fix the problem. Mexican poet and academic, Cesar A. Cruz is credited with saying, Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.  We hope the comfortable will be disturbed enough by this book to join our efforts to fix the problem, and the disturbed will see our efforts as a viable solution and be comforted by our efforts. 

It is time to revive some democratic founding principles that have been lost. To do that, we must defeat poverty.  Our American way of life is dependent on the economic prosperity of all our citizens, not just the few.  Our prolonged active national neglect of fighting poverty in America is a relentless force that drives a very real threat to the longest running democracy in human history.  Our neglect of the principles that made us great has enabled a number of unacceptable and dangerous conditions, including:

●  Rise of nationalism, especially white nationalism.

●  Support for authoritarianism.

●  School and other mass shootings.

●  Banning teaching/learning in school that is deemed too woke for the ear who doesn’t want to listen, (creating an uproar from the minority community),

●  Defying COVID precautions for political and profit reasons. 

●  Deliberately deepening poverty by denying Medicare dollars and Obamacare.

●  Denying infrastructure spending that is needed in their economically struggling states. 

●  A weakened educational system

America’s enemies, large and small, foreign and domestic, are rejoicing as they watch us allow ourselves to be divided, weakening our ability to unite behind our traditional democratic principles.  As we look into these issues of what can be causing this lack of togetherness, it is our hope to not go back to our traditional ways, but to find modern solutions that can ensure satisfaction to everyone’s ideal needs.

One of the fundamental foundations of a robust democracy is a well-informed electorate.  Historically, America has had a strong, independent, and truthful collection of reliable media that provided our citizens with a broad assortment of sources of information. Technology has revolutionized the media landscape.  We now have media sources whose full-time role is to evaluate and report on the veracity of media organizations.  It is so bad that former military enemies have established disinformation as a major weapon.  As we write this book, AI Chat bots like ChatGPT are emerging with the ability to develop and promote social media posts specifically designed to convince the reader that some spurious threat exists. 

We have fallen short in responding to these issues because propagandized information is constantly on display from social media, television, and movies. Our nation is being gaslighted, divided, and weakened. Rational voices are not heard if they are speaking out against the dystopian way of life we have been led to believe exists. This raises a couple questions to think about as we dive deeper into the issues; Have the traditional democratic principles always fallen short of delivering on the American dream for those who are in need? Has it only pushed certain agendas while allowing others to be overlooked? 

The reason that we neglect the poverty issue may be that people living in poverty have no political power.  Most of them are too consumed with earning enough money to survive to be politically active.  They do not have the time or resources to support causes that might force politicians to address their pain.  The only political power or resource that most impoverished people have is exercising their right to vote. Sadly, in the current political climate, America’s electoral process is under attack. Despite overwhelming evidence and many court cases to the contrary, as many as 40% of American voters believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen.  Many voters have limited knowledge about which political side will work to help them achieve their needs. Politicians exacerbate the problem by going into targeted communities and feeding them specious information on how they will solve problems. After stealing the hearts of those who’ve been previously neglected, the politicians then disproportionately abandon those who actually need assistance.  This has a compound impact.  In the short term, the needs do not get met through governmental aid.  In the long term, the citizens lose what little faith they may have had in the system.

In addition to our own intuitive observations, several reliable sources have told us our long-established democratic standards are under attack.  If you have any doubts, read the references in the footnotes, or do your own research on the issue.  Here are four respected sources.

●  Protect Democracy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting efforts, at home and abroad, to undermine our right to free, fair, and fully informed elections. A year after Jan. 6th they warned us Our democracy is in danger

●  The Economist told us How to think about the threat to American democracy

●  The New York Times declared Democracy Is at Risk

●  NPR reported 6 in 10 Americans say U.S. democracy is in crisis as the ‘Big Lie’ takes root. 

We don’t need any outside experts to tell us democracy is under attack. Our democracy was already in danger when Obama took office in 2009. He created a push for change.  However, that change did not include long-term objectives that would save impoverished communities from being gentrified.  Partisan bickering prevented passage of an infrastructure package.  By rejecting large infrastructure projects,10 million Americans lost their homes between 2007- 2016 while dealing with a recession. During those times, and despite the good intentions for change, the same Americans continued to be homeless on the streets of their old communities. 

This book is an examination of what makes America the country we love, what is happening to it, and what we need to do to restore our moral, economic, industrial, and cultural position as an example for the rest of the world, not to mention making it a better place to live again. 

It is like being the parent of a child who has shown great potential in the past but is evolving into a terrible teen.  Hormones drive teenagers to become seemingly irrational, sometimes self-destructive, individuals who are not interested in self-improvement.  For teenagers, hormonal change is the cause.  For America, pervasive poverty is endangering its values.  We still love the country, but exposure to harmful and dangerous conditions from poverty pose major threats.  With this book, we are hoping to unite and motivate the voters and show everyone the value and importance of living up to our shared dreams and democracy’s unlimited potential. 

In November of 1863, President Lincoln reminded all Americans of our responsibility to preserve and defend our democracy.  He was speaking on a battlefield following a deadly engagement pitting Americans fighting on both sides.  We are in a frighteningly similar position today.  Take a few minutes to refresh your memory of his inspirational words. 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  [...] But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground.  The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.  The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.  It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

In 1863, slavery was the force driving a wedge between the divided parts of the country.  Poverty, driven by greed, is the force driving today’s wedge.  Today’s society has taken the essence of slavery and poverty and modernized it. Technological advances made possible with robotics, factory automation, and AI (artificial intelligence), enable companies to pay low wages to highly qualified citizens who are worth more. Failing schools and gaslighting media have weakened Americans’ intelligence, judgment, and knowledge; leading to a new social dynamic that divides Americans into enraged mobs instead of uniting them into thoughtful communities. 

By presenting America’s problems through a partisan lens, recording the acts of violence that have become a trend, and providing no actual solution to combat these issues, citizens are deliberately influenced to perceive these social issues as dystopian conditions. Citizens are seen working high maintenance jobs, with long working hours receiving low pay, while inflation steadily increases. This opens a door for people to be without a home, food, and the resources needed to deal with their debt. Poverty is alive and well and threatening our democracy. 

Lincoln was wrong when he said, "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here," but the rest of his words are as relevant today as they were in 1863.  We must all unite to restore, defend, and preserve those fundamental democratic values.  Since the Civil War, America has been involved in several military actions resulting in the maiming, death, and wounding of countless soldiers – all ostensibly fighting to defend our democratic way of life.  We must ensure that those dead shall not have died in vain. 

One last Lincoln quote.  In June of 1858, Abraham Lincoln famously said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."  America today is more divided than it has been in a long time.  Unlike in Lincoln’s time when slavery was the major divisive issue, today, numerous issues divide us, rendering the Congress hopelessly split along party lines and effectively gridlocked – unable to accomplish anything that significantly improves the living conditions of the average American citizen. 

One of the most frightening aspects of this hyper-partisanship is the resulting gridlock and inability to collaborate, deliberate, and solve critical problems.  The 2023 train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio is a great illustration.  We’ll present two scenarios. 1) what might have happened in a rational political environment. And 2) what actually happened as a result of petty partisan politics.  These scenarios are based upon available reporting and press releases/conferences.  We must assume that many dedicated people worked tirelessly to clean up this site and prevent further wrecks.  While we saw some of that, we saw much more partisan bickering.  We also have a meaningful bi-partisan bill.

National leader’s non-partisan response.

The wreck in Ohio was terrible.  We need to know more about what happened and why.

What immediate hazards must be mitigated?

What needs to be done?  Who will do it?  Who will pay for it?

What warning signs were missed?

How can we make sure that the citizens of the hit community are safe?

Was this a unique event or is it part of a bigger problem?

What is the larger extent of the damage?

Environmental

Supply chain

Cost to the taxpayers, railroad company, consumers, environment, shippers, health, transportation system, etc.?

What regulations and legislation can we pass and implement that will prevent future similar events?

What is the most expeditious process for creating and passing the laws and rules needed?

National leaders’ partisan response.  (What actually occurred in this instance.)

This would not have happened if they (the other party) had done their job.

This happened because the other party did something.

Whining that the leader of the party in power did not visit the site immediately.

Disaster teams were on-site immediately.

To put the railroad issue in perspective, we have more than 1,000 derailments per year in the US – more than three per day.  Looking at it another way, there are countless potential infrastructure jobs paying a living wage that would fix our rail safety problem while also reducing poverty.  Infrastructure projects do more than directly provide jobs, they also use supplies and materials that create more jobs. 

US intelligence agencies have proven that much of the social media fake news that promotes extreme positions on both sides of major political, cultural, and social issues is being generated and disseminated by Russia and other enemies in an attempt to destabilize our government and economy.  They are using chatbots to harvest information from social media sites and then generate divisive posts on popular US social media platforms.  Russia or any hostile foreign power wins when Americans become more divided!  When we are literally the UNITED States, we are indomitable.  There’s no identifiable major contribution that will eradicate the state of poverty if we are not working together. As the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a child.  It still applies to the poverty crisis we are facing today.

We have come full circle and are dangerously close to another civil war.  The January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capital was the proverbial ‘shot across the bow’, warning us that if we do not change course, we are sailing into dangerous waters.  Both from their appearance and their rhetoric, we can infer that the participants in the 1/6 insurrection were not prosperous citizens.  Poverty warped their sense of what America could and should be.  Growing poverty is fueling threats to our democracy and freedoms. Both the left and right seem to have forgotten to value and ensure the wellbeing of all our citizens as our first principle.

A divided America is weakened and vulnerable to foreign attack.  Attack is not limited to military action.  Putin and other enemy leaders are smugly watching and propelling us as the US falls apart from within. Later in the book, we discuss the impact of 9/11 and how it impacted our democracy.  We discuss several ways Al Qaeda won that interaction without firing a missile or dropping a bomb.  Despite the President's claim of Mission Accomplished!, it was not a military victory.  Al Qaeda succeeded in significantly damaging our democracy by dividing us, causing us to give up some of our fundamental freedoms, and pitting the groups against each other instead of foreign enemies.

‘Gaslighting’ was a new term for me. From hearing it used in context, it seemed like just a big word for ‘lying’. Turns out, it is a special type of lying.  Gaslighting is loosely defined as making someone question their own reality.  The Encyclopedia Britannica defines ‘gaslighting’ as, "a technique of deception and psychological manipulation intended to make the victim dependent on the deceiver in thoughts or feelings." The term may also be used to describe the actions of a person who presents a false narrative that leads their audience to doubt their perceptions and become misled, disoriented, or distressed. 

For a current example, Putin is gaslighting to mislead his whole country into a war with Ukraine.  Trump and his minions are gaslighting with their ‘Big Lie’ that the 2020 election was stolen.  In this era of social media and politically biased ‘news’ channels, people can select their news sources and live in their bubble where they are subjected to extra-strength gaslighting.  This book attempts to counter the gaslighting by providing fact-based information.  Our goal is to motivate change.  None of us can sit on the sidelines and allow a bitter minority to destroy our democracy.  As Martin Luther King said. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.  Who are these friends with silent voices? They are the people we work and party with who appear to share our values and dreams, but when tested by a need to defend our values, they duck their heads or look the other way.

Caveat emptor!  Simply translated, it means, Buyer beware. Because we are encouraging the reader to become actively involved in programs designed to address these issues, we feel an obligation to warn you of the false friends and scammers who see social programs as a means to make a buck.  These organizations have supposedly created their programs for the impoverished, but they provide little to no change, while taking money from the government to fund themselves. Others are those politicians that walk into neighborhoods speaking on change and what they can do, while pushing an agenda to win an election.  Once elected, they ignore the disenfranchised voters who supported them.  So, caveat emptor.

As Allan was writing/editing this book and seeking feedback from friends, he had an epiphany. No matter how hard he tried, he had a limited perspective on these issues.  He is an old (79 years), Northern, white man, and as such, he sees the world through an old, Northern, white man’s eyes.  He needed another point of view.  A mutual friend introduced him to Mikaya Gent Mills, a young, Southern, black woman.  In the following paragraphs Mikaya provides a brief self-introduction.

From an Afrocentric perspective, I started to see my community that I knowingly love within the depths of my soul be targeted and gentrified. I saw those same people I used to grow up with in my southern neighborhood be on drugs, out on the streets, going without food, and no one to call on to help. This movement was embedded in me to do. My roots scream black power, justice for all, and liberation! I have spent 24 years of life discovering who I am, figuring out who my family was; wanting to know what about them made me who I was. I am a reflection of not only the ancestors of those who have created this path for me, but too, a reflection of those who I see on the streets. They are my brothers and sisters, and they are treated as such. 

So as Allan Jones and I collaborate and write this book, this book will reveal the essence of a young black woman who has a story to tell from first-hand point of view. Be open to both perspectives. Be open to the understanding that we are both on a path of finding solutions to eradicate poverty and everything that comes with it. I am an aboriginal to this land we call the United States of America. I will not let my people fall nor will I let them suffer any longer. Ase’

I am honored and excited to collaborate with Mikaya.  My collaboration with Mikaya produced an unanticipated benefit. I subconsciously expected her to have some vastly different views on the issues. It turns out that our views are much more alike than they are different when it comes to the solutions to the issues.  I interpret that to indicate I have managed to keep my biases under control.

I have spent my life in service to this country in and out of the military, educating our children, and fighting the ills of poverty. I hope this book reveals to you what I have come to know; that poverty is the insidious corrosive agent that undermines the greatness of this country that I love. I hope this book is a rallying cry for you to no longer neglect poverty or the poor. 

In 1985, about forty of the world’s leading pop musicians gathered to raise their collective voices in an attempt to grow support for fighting poverty and starvation in Africa.  They wrote, performed, produced, and distributed an inspirational song called, We Are The World that remains popular to this time, several decades later. The chorus goes:

We are the world

We are the children

We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let's start giving

There's a choice we're making

We're saving our own lives

It's true we'll make a better day, just you and me

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The two lines

"There's a choice we're making

We're saving our own lives."

Really spoke to me.

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The footnote link to the YouTube video is my gift to you. Watch the video and absorb the lyrics to lift your spirits.  You may also enjoy trying to recognize the incredible singers.  I should warn you that if you listen to the song, it gets stuck in your head for a couple of days.

Throughout this book, we encourage the reader to get involved – make a difference.  None of us can fix all of the issues discussed.  Realistically, none of us can fix any of the issues by ourselves.  But big changes are usually an accumulation of little changes.  As an example, consider this small effort I made years ago. 

In the mid-1980s, I was working in the Corporate Research division of Digital Equipment Corporation in the department responsible for bringing new ideas into the company from universities around the world.  In that role, I served as a volunteer on the Board of Directors for the Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS).  JETS provided a couple of cash scholarship prizes to be awarded at the annual National Science and Engineering Fair.  I was asked to lead the JETS judging team for that year’s competition, being held at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburg, to select who would receive the JETS prizes.  I agreed to do it if they would help me ensure we had minorities and women on our judging team. In the 1980s, this was an important issue.

At the competition, the judging team split up and went to view the presenters.  Following the initial viewings, we reconvened to share our observations and pick 8 - 10 contestants to be semi-finalists.  Then we all went back out to view the chosen ones we had not seen and selected four finalists, from which we selected the winners.  During the initial viewing, I observed a young lady from central Florida who had done an amazing analysis of paper.  What it is made from, how it is produced.  What the resulting properties were (water absorption, tensile strength, thermal, electrical, and sound transmission and insulation properties, crushing strength, smell, translucence, etc.)  Her display and explanation including her clear enthusiasm for her work were remarkable.  You can tell, I was impressed.  I asked her where she was going to college, and she said she was going to secretarial school because it was all her family could afford. 

My immediate reaction was to track down my female judge and ask her to please observe this girl's presentation, and to be sure to ask her where she was going to college.  The judge was a professor at CMU.  She observed the presentation and was as impressed as I had been.  When she heard about her secretarial plans, she asked the girl if she would be interested in coming to CMU.  Leaving out the process details, the girl won the JETS scholarship, and the judge arranged a full ride scholarship for the girl to attend CMU with the promise from the professor to serve as her mentor.  

I did very little physically to get this rewarding result.  I was just doing what I always do - looking for a way to make the world a better place. With that mindset, I was receptive to the opportunities as they presented themselves.  When I was asked to lead the team of judges, I heard it as an opportunity to provide some bright young students a chance to see female and minority adult scientists and engineers at no incremental cost.  When I heard the bright female student was heading for secretarial school (No offense to secretaries intended.) I had already laid the groundwork to respond with my female judge.  

The moral to the story is to always look for opportunities to move forward in pursuit of your goals.  Small and simple steps can result in major leaps.

We hope this book reveals to you what we have come to know, that poverty is the great corrosive agent that undermines the greatness of this country that we love. We hope this book is a rallying cry for you to no longer neglect poverty or the poor.

Introduction

This book provides a listing of the major issues threatening our democracy that we must overcome, with suggestions for overcoming them.  While researching the different relevant topics, it became clear that the average American is much like the authors in their level of understanding of the way our government works (or does not work).  Allan has the luxury of being curious and retired, so he has both the inclination and time to improve his understanding.  Mikaya has both the youthful enthusiasm and passion for a cause that drives her efforts. We hope that by telling others what we have learned, people who share our curiosity but lack the time will find this book informative and the message compelling.  To assist you in validating our statements and provide additional information where you may want it, we have thoroughly footnoted the sources we used. How thoroughly?  There are over 200 footnotes in this 200+page book.  Material quoted from outside sources is shown in italics.

We must work together to fix this mess! One person cannot do this alone. Fortunately, we all have the opportunity to stand together!

Due to post-colonization, slavery, and the attack on black lives, many black people had to re-learn and re-discover values, self-esteem, love, and worth of self. Not only were they being dismantled in their environment, but also the toxicity of their homes created disorder to want to achieve success. In the community, being the first at something is better than not accomplishing anything at all. Whether that’s being a first-generation high school or college graduate; first doctor in the community; first mayor.  I look forward to the time when the first black stories move from 1 of 1 to a plethora of accolades being achieved throughout the nation and nobody notices because it won’t be unusual or taboo, but the livelihood that exists. Because of course they did. Why wouldn’t they execute and perform to a higher standard than the notion that’s given to them? We need to stop being surprised by the accomplishments being made and allow black people to flourish. But this should go for any minority that has barriers that stops them from performing, exploring, and reaching their fullest ability.

America has a lot to be proud of, but we must acknowledge that we also have some things to be ashamed of.  America’s greatest source of shame is poverty and everything that has transpired from it.  It is obscene that we live in the wealthiest country the world has ever known, and yet children are going to bed hungry every night because their parents cannot earn a living.  It is outrageous that the wealthiest country would gentrify ghettos to install a plethora of malls, car washes, and other buildings instead of re-establishing, restoring, and reinvigorating the minority neighborhoods. The War on Drugs caused and continues to cause the de-popularization of two parent households based on fraudulent criminal charges, an increase in prison cell occupancy, and ultimately an amplified demand for more foster care, and services to support homelessness, domestic violence, recidivism, and other societal issues.  Americans should be ashamed of the alarming details in our history that intentionally distort the perception of middle- and lower-class citizens. To advance partisan ideology, government agencies are banning books and not allowing the teaching of some shameful events in American history. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote that a well-informed electorate is a prerequisite to democracy.

The current republican efforts to constrain and distort public education is frightening. 

"Approximately 70 years ago, Republicans hit upon a winning formula: if the data disagree with your worldview, kill the data. Then, with no problematic data, claim that there is no definitive proof of reality and, in the words of Karl Rove, create your own reality.

●  In the 1940s, faced with a highly effective group of economists at the young National Labor Relations Board, Republicans passed a bill banning the agency from hiring economists.

●  In the 1990s, faced with high-quality research on gun violence, Republican Congressman Jay Dickey pushed through an amendment that effectively stopped federal funding for gun research.

●  In February of this year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called for an end to federal funding of social science research.

●  Now, Republicans are trying to kill high quality data on poverty, unemployment, violent crime, access to education and health care, and a variety of other key economic indicators."

Our research on the many issues threatening our democratic principles found that there was no single book that aggregated and integrated all the issues related to poverty and its impact on democracy under a common theme.  There are books about racism, military defense, the economy, civil unrest, abortion, partisan politics, gun control, and countless other issues, but none of them provided the depth and breadth needed for the reader to understand how all of the issues are part of a larger system, and the only way to address them is systemically.  The biggest issue, and the one at the root of many other problems, is poverty and the corrupt political, economic, and electoral systems that cause and perpetuate it. Using poverty as the unifying theme, the issues come together to show how all the solutions are interdependent.

When you step back and consider all the issues, poverty stands out in a couple of ways.  In addition to poverty being a component of every other issue, poverty has one positive property.  Poverty is not a divisive issue in the sense that nearly everyone agrees that we need to eliminate poverty.  Most of the other issues have strongly opposing sides fighting for different solutions.  There is no side opposed to eliminating poverty.  Our challenge is to unite them to fight poverty. 

This book provides accurate portrayals of the major issues with references to reliable sources for further learning.  It illustrates how poverty, wealth, and income inequality are intricately woven throughout the entire fabric of our problems.  After