Fault Lines: Despair & Revival in Detroit, Part 2

In part two of this series from Al Jazeera's Fault Lines program May 14, 2009, Despair, revival in Detroit Part 2, they take a closer look at what local residents are doing to survive in this devastated economy.

Grace Lee Boggs discusses how Detroit--100 years ago--was a symbol of industrialization. Today, it is a symbol of devastation and deindustrialization. Many of the jobs that UAW workers have fought to maintain are now being sent to Mexico, as in the case of American Axle.

Unlike the auto executives who chose to focus on the bottom line sales of their profitable SUVs and other gas guzzling vehicles, many Detroiters saw the collapse coming.

In one segment, Bobbi Thompson, a piano teacher at Detroit's Central United Methodist Church, discusses how she lost her four children to the foster system for 22 months because she was unable to pay her utilities bills. She also points out how the public schools failed to see changes coming in the auto industry and continued to educate her children and others for "drone work instead of brain work."

Another segment of this video shows Capuchin Soup Kitchen's Earthworks Urban Farm, "the largest network of urban food production in the U.S." It encompasses over 130 sq km (80 sq mi) of vacant lots and provides 100,000 seedings per year, such as eggplants, melons, and peppers.

The video ends with an assessment by MWRO's Maureen Taylor with faith that Detroit will be "hell on wheels" once it pulls out of this! Please share this series with others!

Eight Years of Hell Come to an End!

By Maureen D. Taylor, MWRO State Chair

Last week, my friend, confidant and great poet Ron Allen and I talked about the "State of the State." I miss Ron who relocated out of the state because, among many other things, he was my dance partner when we would accidentally meet up at this grocery or that department store. Many a time, some Temptation tune or some Bee Gees classic would be blaring out overhead, and we would take off on a serious Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers ballroom dance step or two to the amazement of store on-lookers who always had a smile at our antics.

Ran and I spoke about how silly so many people are who ascribe to our new President's powers as if he was Superman. He is but one human being. As wonderful as we all feel about his being the President and that he has opened the door for us to do great things with him, it is both unfair and unrealistic for people to assume that he will correct all mistakes or reverse all policies.

Whose task is it to work at eliminating poverty across the country? OURS! Whose task is it to help Federal funds get directed to chronically low income persons so that those on the bottom can be encouraged and employed? OURS! Whose task is it to take control of what projects need be instituted in places like Detroit with 50% unemployment in black communities, 60% unemployment in Latino communities, 70% unemployment among Native Americans, and 75% unemployment among youth? OURS!

There is much work to be done in America, as Ron and I discussed. The soul of poetry and cultural creation has been gutted by 8 years of "mob-rule." How long will it take to repair the damage done by the Bush/Cheney Mob? Probably decades. But what matters is that we have to start the process of change now.

We are standing at a crossroad. We all have freedom, or no one does. We all have food to eat, or no one does. We all have places to live, or no one does. Technology has reached a point where there is no need for ANYONE to be hungry, homeless, without health care, uneducated, or without the means to pursue happiness and full equality.

Bush is gone, and a breath of fresh air has moved into the White House. Rush Limbaugh is having a case of the vapors, and the right wing is in absolute misery. So this is the time for us to put our best foot forward and get busy. All help and support must be directed to those at the bottom because to help them means lifting all ships. Low income people and Welfare mothers - let's give 'em something to talk about.

(Photo courtesy: Flickr Creative Commons)

January is Poverty in America Awareness Month

We're back! After a few days of taking our own needed rest, Michigan Welfare Rights Organization is back online reporting the latest poverty news, welfare rights reports, and issues related to low-income people in Michigan and beyond.

Fittingly, January is “Poverty in America Awareness Month,” a designation by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). During this month, allied groups and organizations will be working to educate the public on the breadth and depth of poverty-related problems, encouraging the media to report on poverty issues, and promoting a greater respect for and sensitivity to the needs of those in poverty.

The CCHD's poverty tour discusses what life is like for the 37 million Americans living below the poverty line. A family of four living on a budget of $20,614 must find ways to survive on similar measly incomes and make ends meet. Here's the CCHD poverty budget example:

$20,614 family budget
-5,756 basic housing
-2,656 utilities
-5,330 transportation w/ a used car, maintenance and gas
-4,064 food (hopefully, supplemented with food stamps)
-2,339 health and medical expenses
--------
479 subtotal
-2,600 child care (even w/ child care subsidies)
--------
-2,121 over budget and there are needs still to be met

So, what gets cut? Utilities? Medications? Education? School supplies? Clothes? Shoes? Furnishings? Toiletries? Entertainment? Birthdays?

No one in this world should be living in such subsistence and worried about how their family will live and survive. Push your local, regional, and national representatives to alleviate poverty once and for all by voting for living wages, national single payer healthcare, better child care subsidies, low-income affordable housing and utilities ordinances, and overall quality of life and human rights policies.

“Capitalism vs Democracy”

‘Cipients Speak! December 2008
by Maureen D. Taylor, MWRO State Chair

As we come to the end of the year, MWRO sends out greetings to our members across the state and to the welfare rights members across the country, the front-line fighters. Don’t get weary now! The American worker is looking at this collapse of an economy that we have all grown up under, and many questions abound.

Most of our lives, we have equated capitalism with democracy. People have the right to make money at the expense of someone else. Lights, gas, water – all natural resources have been privatized as corporations make millions at the hands of our suffering, and we are taught that this is the “American way.”

Retirees put their trust in these same corporations, and allowed these snakes to invest their pensions in stock market ventures, and now that their precious dollars are gone, the message is, “too bad!” We have seniors living well below the poverty level, juggling decisions to pay bills or pay for prescriptions, and we are okay with that?

Veterans who served honorably are living in homeless shelters, and we are okay with that? Southern congressional officials are demanding that northern workers accept the no-benefit salaries paid to non-union workers, and we are okay with that?

Capitalism doesn’t mean democracy, it equals terrorism.

The door is open to start rebuilding the country based on a new standard of living. Welfare Rights supports a guaranteed annual income for those unable to secure employment that maintains a level of existence well above poverty. If we can spend $10B per month over eight years for wars, we can keep people fed, clothed, and out of harms way.

The technology exists today to feed folk, to build cars that run on vegetable oil, to build affordable homes, to provide healthcare, and to make America closer to the dream that it was built on. We have to construct a new point of view that emphasizes that the needs of the many are more important than the needs of the few. Thank you, Mr. Spock! Happy Holidays to All!

Groceries in Exchange for Guns

This weekend in Los Angeles, Sheriff Deputies concluded two weeks of Gifts for Guns--a community safety program that allows residents to anonymously turn in their guns in exchange for gifts cards. The strong response--965 firearms, including a Soviet-era semiautomatic carbine, plus two hand grenades--surprised even veteran deputies who believed participation was driven by the economic difficulties faced by families. One man who was recently laid off from his job told deputies that he needed to exchange his five guns to be able to get groceries for his family.

The gift cards were from Ralphs (a Kroger-owned grocery chain), Target, and Best Buy. The program is paid for mostly by the County of L.A, along with donations from these retailers and the City of Compton. Similar programs have been run in San Francisco and New York.

Last month, new statistics were released that ranked Detroit with the third highest crime rate in the nation. Residents of Detroit regularly view horrendous news stories of shootings involving innocent children and by-standers.

MWRO believes the Wayne County Sheriffs Dept. and the Detroit Police Dept. should create the Gifts for Guns program in Detroit. Not only would this get many guns off our streets but it would help hungry and needy families get the necessities they need, especially at this time of the year.

(Image from YahooNews/AP)