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Millions of the poor have perished in famines around the world, many of them tossed into mass graves or dumped in fields for animals to eat. But the one I remember is Tom Guerin who lived during the Great Hunger, the Irish Potato Famine of 1845-52. An estimated one million Irish starved and over 1.5 million (out of eight million) left the green land for the United States when fungus destroyed the potato crop, the staple of the Irish diet. When Tom was a very young child the Great Hunger invaded his home to the point his mother thought he was dead one morning. Too poor to buy a casket and unable to find a box big enough to hold his body for burial, she broke both of his legs so she could get him in a box she had. She brought the box to a mass grave. Later in the day gravediggers discovered Tom was moaning and whimpering in his box. Tom lived another 60 years, hobbling around on twisted and deformed legs near the town of Skibbereen caused by a mother who wanted to give her child a decent burial.                                                                                                                                                               
Our attitudes about the poor seem to have changed dramatically since we accepted a million and half Irish in the 19th Century. As the Irish immigrants rose from steerage to see the Statute of Liberty welcoming them to their new country with Lazarus’s poem “Give me your tired, your poor…..,” they must have felt the warmth of welcome. But now with our extreme inequality we have changed policies so we have become a “It’s all about me and mine” society. A Star Tribune cartoonist nailed the new welcome on the old lady a couple of weeks ago: “Give me your rested, your rich, your coddled hedge-funders yearning to be tax-free, the gilded denizens of your vacation homes by the shore.”

Why Are We Losing The War On Poverty?

Ten years ago a United Nations study reported that the United States had the highest rate of child poverty among all OECD (Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development) countries except for our neighbor Mexico. We ranked 26th out of 29th in child welfare in 2013 in five major categories: material well-being, health and safety, education, behaviors and risks, and housing and environment. In 2012 we were 22nd out of 29 OECD countries in high school graduation rates. These rankings in the country with the richest economy in the world with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $15.7 trillion certainly makes us “exceptional.”  Every fifth child in the US (16.1 million) is poor, every tenth child in the US (7.1 million) is extremely poor, and every fourth infant (5 million) is poor while one in eight is extremely poor. Sixty percent of our children cannot read or compute at grade level in fourth or eighth grade. The most shocking figure is that 75% of our children ages 17-24 cannot get into the military because of poor literacy, poor health, or criminal jail sentences. Our politicians are simply not facing the fact that the greatest threat to our economic and national security comes from our biggest enemy—ourselves. We have absolutely failed to invest adequately in the health, education, and development of all of our young. Is education cheaper than ignorance?

Perhaps we should turn our children into an economic bonanza instead of economic burden. The great English satirist Jonathan Swift came up with this solution for the Irish poverty problem in his essay, “A Modest Proposal for Preventing Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden To Their Country or Parents.”  His proposal: “I have been assured by a very knowing American…that a young, healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, boiled, or fricassee or ragout…a child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone the fore and hindquarter will make a reasonable dish; and seasoned with a little pepper and salt will be very good on the fourth day, especially in winter….I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.”

Why Do Baltimore Kids Have It Worse Than Nigerian Kids?

The Johns Hopkins Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health surveyed 2,400 15 to 19-year- olds in Baltimore, Shanghai, Johannesburg, Ibadan in Nigeria, and New Delhi for health challenges they face. They also quizzed them on their perceptions of their environments. We all know what Baltimore is going through after the recent riots over the death of a black man at the hands of the police. The teenagers described their neighborhoods graphically: Baltimore: “Big rats going around in people’s trash, vacant houses full of squatters with needles on the ground”; New Delhi: “City dirty with dirty water lying on the roads”; Ibadan: “The smell of urine and the streets are littered with paper and other refuse.”  Three of these teenagers live in their cities poorest communities.

In all five cities adolescents were exposed to unsanitary conditions surrounded by substance abuse and violence, but the teenagers from Baltimore and Johannesburg had far worse health outcomes and thought their cities had few opportunities for them. Baltimore kids, living in the world’s richest nation, showed the highest rate of mental health issues, drug use, sexual “risking” and violence, and teen pregnancy. New Delhi kids, living in a very poor nation, exhibited fewer poor behaviors and outcomes than kids from the other cities. Kids from Baltimore and Johannesburg seem to live in fear more than teenagers from the other three cities. Shanghai, as an example, has very little violence although it is the world’s largest city. Baltimore kids don’t even feel safe in their own homes. Fifty percent of Baltimore teens have been pregnant in their short lifetime. The Johannesburg girls were next at 29%. That’s a shocking difference. Baltimore teens often grow up in single-parent homes and often have a father in prison. Poor Baltimore teens usually raise themselves. Poor teens in Johannesburg tend to lose their parents to AIDs. The study’s conclusion according to the head of the survey: “Right here in Baltimore, we have kids who are much worse off than those in African cities.” This research supports the idea that we are certainly an exceptional country---in extremely negative ways.

Why Baltimore Was Blown Up And Burned Down—By Ugly People

Corky and I are somewhat familiar with Baltimore, having lived next to it in Washington during the 1950’s. One did not drive carelessly into certain Baltimore areas. Evidently it has not changed much. Just a couple of years ago the Supreme Court decided that racism was dead in the land of the free and the home of the brave, so they made dramatic changes to the Voting Rights Act. Most of the Court justices live in those lovely Virginia suburbs, but they act like they commute to another planet during their off-hours.  Baltimore is simply a racial microcosm of our other big cities.

In the last six years America’s wealth grew by 60%, by the fantastic total of $30 trillion. But why did the number of homeless children grow by—guess what—60% during the same period?  Joe Allard wrote the following analysis in a USA TODAY letter: “Unfortunately today the trickle-down from the rich has become a fallacy, as many horde their wealth in offshore banks to avoid paying taxes.  Another contributor wrote that the rich have so much money they are paying plastic surgeons high fees to make their fat thighs thinner, their round tummies a little flatter, their upper arms tighter, and their eyes less baggier. He ended with: “Perhaps soon only the poor will be ugly.” The CEOs of the top 13 fast food and retail companies made an average wage of $5,859 per hour last year. It would take a $10-an-hour worker of theirs more than two months working each day to earn the same as their CEO earns in an hour. But let’s get back to Baltimore—and dozens of other US cities.

Baltimore has lost about 400,000 residents since the 1950’s and is now 63% black. Both blacks and whites flew to the suburbs, leaving a devastated inner city to rot. A long-term resident gave reasons for the demise of a once-proud city after she watched the CVS pharmacy burn: “This is the land that time forgot. They want to act like the CVS is the Taj Mahal. They have dilapidated buildings everywhere. They have never invested in people. In fact, it’s divested. They take every red cent they can from poor black people and put it into the Inner Harbor.” Can you guess why the Orioles and the Chicago White Sox played a baseball game at Camden Yards without fans? I think Baltimore authorities felt that blacks resented the funding of the Inner Harbor so much, where the baseball stadium is located,  they were afraid of a bigger, more dangerous riot in an upper-class part of town.

Some More Facts About Poverty In Baltimore

• Blacks and white use pot at the same rate—but blacks are arrested  for possession at a rate six time more than whites. 92% of arrests for possession are of the black race.

• Baltimore white babies have a life expectancy six years longer than blacks. Black babies are nine times more likely to die before the age of one.

• People who live in affluent areas live 20 years longer than blacks who live in poor areas.

• 24% of Baltimore residents are below the official poverty line.

• The national high school graduation rate is 80%. Baltimore’s is 56.4%

• Black male unemployment rate hovers around 33%.

• The death of Freddie Gray that started the whole Baltimore affair probably happened during an infamous “Nickel Ride”, which is a famous police torture tactic on the East Coast. A victim is handcuffed and placed in back of a van without restraints or seatbelt and driven hard and recklessly around the city. This is how you injure the rider—such as breaking his neck and spine. In Gray’s case the van stopped three times before arriving at a police station. It stopped to pick up another prisoner, once to put leg irons on him, and once to “deal” with him. Baltimore had spent millions paying for police court cases of “Nickel Rides” in the last few years.

Minnesota Has Plenty Of Childhood Poverty, Too

Before we puff up our chests, we Minnesotans have to recognize that we had fully a third of our 0 to 17-year-olds, or 420,000 children, poor enough to qualify for Medicaid or MinnesotaCare health insurance in 2014. Over 40% of Minnesota babies were born to mothers insured by those programs. That’s 50% more than in 2004. According to the Star Tribune we have a situation that almost rivals Baltimore:

• 5% of these kids are on food stamps.

•  Nearly two-thirds live in single-parent homes.

• Fully a third live in areas of concentrated poverty.

• A fifth have received child protection services in the last five years.

• About 15% have parents who have a severe mental illness.
By the way, the Minnesota House Republicans just voted to not fund the health insurance program for children. That certainly represents  “It’s all about me and mine.”