Patti Has Priorities

["Dennis Moore" <clayboy56>]

(a couple of google alert hits.....for those of you who know me - I
certainly can add my own emphasis to Patti's oral hygiene "rant.")

Patti Has Priorites

Names & faces
Patti Smith: Because the plaque
October 2, 2006

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/ENT07/610020314

This from the New Statesman of London: Former Detroit rocker Patti
Smith says her current priorities are the environment, the antiwar
movement and good dental hygiene.

In London to launch an exhibition of portraits by the late Robert
Mapplethorpe -- the controversial ex-Detroit photographer who was her
best friend -- she noted on the
latter point: "Take care of your teeth, because when you get older,
it's such a drag. There's nothing worse than feeling creative, wanting
to do stuff and not being able to because you've got teeth problems
and you don't have enough money to take
care of them." Can you say, "Brusha, brusha, brusha?"


Nation must address inequity in income (only P's quote)
Gerald Benson of Fort Collins

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/OPINION04/610020306

Mid-term elections are coming soon, and citizens might consider the
thought of poet, musician and activist Patti Smith: "The people have
the power to turn the world around." Will they do it? Are citizens
aware of their power and the awesome responsibility they have for one
another's happiness? People are endowed by their creator with certain
unchallengeable rights to a happy life. Voters have the power!

In his second inaugural address, President Roosevelt redefined the
role of government during the Great Depression. "We are determined to
make every American the object of his country's interest and concern."
He described the state of the nation when he was elected in 1932,
"Here is the challenge to our democracy. In this nation, I see
millions of its citizens - who at this very moment are denied the
greater part of what the lowest standards of today call the
necessities of life. I see millions of families trying to live on
incomes so meager that the pall of family disaster hangs over them day
by day." And he goes on to identify the cause and the solution to that
Great Depression. "The test of our programs is not whether we add more
to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide
enough for those who have too little." To have so much poverty and its
associated misery in a land of such immense wealth is morally
incomprehensible. Greater income equality must be an essential goal of
government.

Walter Heller had persuaded President Kennedy that poverty is not only
inhumane but it is a drag on the economy that a nation can't afford.
Action had to be taken on economic grounds to reduce poverty by
increasing the incomes of poor people. Shortly after the death of
President Kennedy, President Johnson invited Heller to meet with him
and review past economic planning. The concept of a War on Poverty was
born. It was an amazing success. In the six years, 1964-1970, poverty
declined from 36 million people to 26 million, only to increase again
under new administrations (Hubert Humphrey, The Education of a Public
Man, 1976, p. 411).

Today the U.S. has substantial income inequality. The top 20 percent
of citizens still receive half (49 percent) of the income, the lower
20 percent receive less than 5 percent and most of them live in
poverty. The top 5 percent of citizens have as much income as the
bottom 50 percent. Change is needed! (Patterson, Thomas, American
Democracy, 2001, p. 535)

Forbes magazine publishes the wealth of the 400 richest citizens in
the United States. The data reported October 2005 is that these 400
citizens have a combined wealth of $1.13 trillion, an increase of $125
billion over their wealth in 2004. All but 26 members are
billionaires. Concentration of wealth at the top is increasing and
more people have too little.

The late John Kenneth Galbraith, economist, when asked for his
greatest hope for America replied, "My greatest hope would be for a
more equitably rewarded people and added from the bottom up" as
opposed to a trickle-down theory.

Meanwhile, the child poverty rate has nearly doubled during the last
five years in Fort Collins. In one elementary school, 90 percent of
the children live in poverty as defined by eligibility for free lunch.
Businesses are raising money to buy warm clothing for these children.
Each year, the Poudre School District identifies and serves about 600
homeless children. These conditions for children exist in one of the
best communities in the United States!

Voters have an opportunity to change the lives of children across
America by increasing income equality.

Gerald Benson of Fort Collins is an emeritus professor of Colorado
State University