My letter to the editor of the Morton Grove Champion ran today in response to a columnist that proposed that Obama, Clinton and McCain should stop campaigning now and give all their campaign money to the homeless. He gave a lot of good facts about domestic poverty and I felt I should give a response to let the Champion know that people care about poverty issues, no matter how outrageous the premise of the column was originally :)
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Morton Grove Champion
Feb 28, 2008
"Thanks for attention to poverty issues"
Thanks to Paul Sassone for giving space to poverty issues on February 14th. I am all for increased donations to help the homeless. The numbers he mentioned from campaign spending would do much for people at risk for basic needs. Yet this is a gamble for stakes far larger than that. A half-billion is relatively small compared to the good that could come of policy changes that fight global and domestic poverty. For starters, under consideration this year will be a $5 billion dollar increase for more and better poverty-focused development aid to help people living on less than $1 a day. Healthcare reform, better education for urban poor, funding for food stamps
these are all domestic changes which can save wasteful spending and use tax money for the most good. When candidates and their supporters put their money on the line for a social justice gamble of this scale, it puts spending in perspective. If someone doesn’t feel his or her candidate is involved in this, it’s probably time to look for another candidate.
-ccyl
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