Changing Poverty Into Opportunity: A Moral Cause To Bring Us Together. By Jim Wallis. Sojourners, February 21, 2013.
Wallis:
Ideological
debates over the role of government are the real battle in the nation’s capital
— more than the debt crisis. Political calculations about the next election are
more important to many of our political leaders than the common good of the country.
It’s
just time to move on from the partisan politics that has polarized and
paralyzed us for so long — by committing ourselves to moral issues that could
and should bring us together. The first will be comprehensive immigration
reform, which will change the lives of 12 million people in this country, lift
many out of poverty, and help the
economy at the same time. This is a clear example of how the faith community
has changed, and now come together to become a political game changer in Washington, D.C., at both ends of Pennsylvania
Avenue on both sides of the aisle.
And
it’s time to make another moral commitment in the midst of our growing economic
recovery — to include poor families and change poverty into opportunity.
Fighting poverty must not be a partisan issue. When we look at both the causes
and the solutions, this battle should bring both liberals and conservatives
together. Overcoming poverty, by creating opportunity, happens because of three
very basic things that most of us can agree on: family, education, and work.
All three are crucial and necessary in moving people out of poverty and into
opportunity.
Let’s
break it down.
Family: Helping to create and
support strong and stable families is foundational to overcoming poverty. All
the data — from both liberal and conservative think tanks — show that. The
experiences of those of us who have lived and worked in poor neighborhoods show
that. Good parenting from both mothers and fathers can do more than anything
else to shape and guide the lives of children; and fractured and dislocated
family environments lead to all kinds of destruction.
Education: Learning, training,
acquiring skills, and developing good habits and disciplines is clearly the
best pathway out of poverty — all of our data and experiences show that too.
Success in school clearly leads to success in life, while failures in school
lead to lives of one failure after another. Teachers are the key here. They are
the people who are with our kids long enough every day to help change their
lives — or not. Where schools are not doing their jobs, students can’t escape the
prison of poverty — and we need education to work all the way from pre-school
to college.
Work: If you work hard, full time,
and live responsibly, you should not have to live in poverty in America — but
many families still do because they don’t have jobs that pay them enough to
succeed. We need good jobs that can support strong families; it is as simple as
that. Living well requires jobs that pay living wages, and we have been losing
that battle now for decades. America’s creed as the land of opportunity has all
but disappeared, as we now have less social mobility than any other developed
nation except for Great Britain! For the first time, children are not doing
better, or even as well, as their parents did. Work has to pay.
When
you think about it, both liberals and conservatives could and should support
all three of those crucial ingredients to overcoming poverty with opportunity:
family, education, and work. But instead they just continue to fight and blame
each other for poverty.
