
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, November 7, 1993                   TAG: 9403180033
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

THE DISGRACE OF AMERICA

POVERTY CONTINUES to be America's national disgrace, though too many people fail to recognize it as such. Fighting poverty ought to be the country's No. 1 priority, though it certainly isn't now, and never has been.

The patterns of poverty, as much as poverty itself, are unconscionable.

According to Census Bureau statistics released last month, the nation's poverty rate grew three times faster than the population in 1992. Under federal guidelines, nearly 37 million Americans were poor last year, 5 million more than in 1989.

Even more disturbing than the totals are the sub-categories' shameful indicators. Can a nation as affluent and as fundamentally decent as ours really shrug off the fact that 22 percent of our children now live in poverty? Does it not mock our ideals of equal opportunity that one out of three black Americans - and nearly half of all black children - are poor?

Even if one ignores the moral imperatives involved, surely the case for not tolerating such statistics springs from cold, practical considerations of poverty's enormous costs - in crime and productivity alone.

Surely America only invites more despair and decay if it allows the impoverishment of its children to grow. Surely an increasingly diverse country can't forever withstand the divisions tearing at its social fabric if it writes off entire inner-cities and whole generations of minority youth.

Yet, what happens when the Census Bureau publishes its yearly poverty statistics? Oh, the conservatives decry pathologies of the welfare state, and the liberals decry spending cuts in social programs. And most Americans remain numb to the horror depicted in the data.

We need, as a country, to move beyond the stale ideological debate, and focus on what works in fighting poverty.

We need to recognize that the welfare system does indeed foster dependency, and the breakup of families does indeed have as much to do with poverty as any other factor.

We also need to recognize that investing in effective efforts to help people free themselves from dependency may be costly now, but far less costly - in the long run - than the consequences of ignoring poverty.

But, first of all, we have to recognize the need to act, the need to move against our shame with determination, as a nation.

The economy and society are changing. For people with few skills, the number of jobs offering escape from poverty - much less entry into the middle class - has been slashed. The proliferation of households headed by single women is having an enormous effect on children's prospects.

So let us see the Clinton administration's promised initiative to "end welfare as we know it." Let's see George Allen's program for "revitalizing Virginia's inner-cities" by "restoring hope through expanded opportunity."

Let's see suburbs take more responsibility for addressing the poverty problems of their regions, such as deficits in low-cost housing. Let's see more support for innovative community-based efforts, such as Roanoke's Total Action Against Poverty.

Let us see better schools for impoverished kids, fully accessible prenatal and early-childhood care, a war on violence in all its forms, a stronger focus on getting the able-bodied to accept responsibility and work, and a sustained campaign to reduce the number of children having children.

Above all, let us understand what the statistics are telling us every year, with increasing urgency. They are crying out that this nation must grow less tolerant of poverty in its midst - or face a cramped, ugly future in which the American Dream is distorted and diminished beyond all recognition, beyond all hope.

by CNB