Boston Globe
by David T. Ellwood

09/27/05

It took a terrible hurricane, but the poor in America, who have languished largely unmentioned by politicians of both parties, are visible once again. ... The obvious lesson that some people are already grasping is that evacuation and rescue plans need to take account of the enormous variety of people and the sharply limited resources of many. There is far less room for error when people are living on the margin. ... But the overriding lesson about poverty is much deeper. Many of the poor in New Orleans were left on rooftops for the same reason they were isolated in ghetto neighborhoods on the days before the storm: There was no realistic way out. The painful truth is that through policy choices, racism, class antagonisms, and neglect, we have concentrated the poor into dangerous areas with limited jobs, poor schools, no real employment networks, too few role models, and too few routes to the mainstream...

http://tinyurl.com/8ngof


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp