Ending Poverty in our Generation
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Mark J. Pelavin is the Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He is one of the Jewish community's leading legislative strategists, and one of its senior lobbyists. |
It has been something of a pipe dream of mine that we might use the fact that the Presidential campaign now stretches over three years to create a real, substantive debate on serious issues.
Former Senator and former Vice-Presidential Nominee, John Edwards is certainly giving it a shot. This week he delivered a remarkable speech calling for our nation to commit itself to ending poverty in the next thirty years. Not ameliorating poverty. Not reducing poverty. Eliminating poverty, and doing so in this generation.
As striking as Edward’s audacity is his approach – it is at once faith-based and fact-based. He is not embarrassed to talk in moral terms. In one of the central sections of his speech Edwards says:
It’s wrong we have 37 million Americans living in poverty - - separated from the opportunities of this country by their income, their housing, their access to education and jobs and health care- - just as it was wrong we once lived in a country legally segregated by race. Too many places today are segregated by class.
Poverty is the great moral issue of our time, and we all have an obligation to do something about it.
Not just alleviate some of the symptoms…
Not just find ways to help some of the people…
But end it.
Most of the balance of the speech is dedicated to a detailed set of policy recommendations. Here’s hoping they will mark the beginning of a real debate