Walkers in Canby: "The poor always have a passport to trouble."
author: Mike Edera
 e-mail: mikeedera@colcenter.org
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The Walk for Truth, Justice, and Community holds a speak-out of economic justice in anytown, USA, Canby OR.
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After schlepping twelve miles north to Canby on Wednesday, foot sore walkers for Truth, Justice, and Community repaired to leafy Wait park in the center of town for a speak-out on economic justice. They were welcomed by Canby resident Janet Hawkins, who works for the Multnomah Co Commission on Children, Families, & Community. Janet expanded on the Walk's theme of a People's State of Emergency with these statistics:
One in five children in the US live below the federal poverty line.
At Knight elementary school, one block from the park, one in 2 children qualify for federal reduced-cost school lunches - in the whole town, 1749 of 5000 students qualify for the free or reduced cost lunch.
400 families per week receive food from the local food bank.
5000 families per year receive emergency assistance from Clackamas County to keep electricity and heat on.
9% of the population of Clackamas County receive food stamps.
County Commissioner Martha Shroeder spoke about the recent 1.2 million dollar cuts to county health services, including mental health services. She said that the commission was now discussing eliminating beds in the county jail, one of the last places where mentally ill people still receive care. One third of inmates suffer from mental health issues.
This is how the effects of the Iraq war show up in everyday life. Each cut back in local services happens, in large part, because the Bush budget is nickle and diming medicaid, food stamps, special education, general education, and a host of other federal committments to the state in order to burn 4 billion dollars per month on an illegal war of conquest.
Pastor Craig Johnson from Christ Lutheran Church talked about the homeless shelter that his small congregation built, and about how their work with the homeless population led them into political action to fight predatory lending. By taking loans out on future paychecks, car titles, and even tax returns, low-wage workers enter a twenty first century version of slavery. He urged people to write their legislators in support of SB 545 which seeks to regulate the worst excesses of the loan shark industry.
This is the face of poverty in anytown USA, which Canby is, with its leafy, broad streets, classic American small-town architecture, and people dealing with the harshest effects of corporate capitalism in isolation from each other.
Gary Spanovich of the Wholistic Peace Institute summed up the problem with a quote from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Oscar Arias: "The poor always have a passport to trouble".
But Walk for Truth member Janet Bates of Bandon provided the solution by singing 'The Ballad of Joe Hill', from a band shell in Wait Park in the middle of middle America.
YOU CAN JOIN THE WALK FOR TRUTH, JUSTICE, AND COMMUNITY THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 17, AT 12 NOON, IN WESTMORELAND PARK, CORNER OF SE MCGLOUGHLIN AND BYBEE. MARCH TO SENATOR GORDON SMITH'S OFFICE FOR A RALLY BEGINNING AT 4 PM. SMITH'S OFFICE IS AT SW 2ND & SALMON STREET, WORLD TRADE CENTER, DOWNTOWN PORTLAND. BRING THE TROOPS HOME, STOP THE TORTURE, FUND HUMAN NEEDS, NOT GLOBAL WAR.
FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO www.rop.org
Mike Edera
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homepage: http://www.rop.org
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