Thank-You Skinner for Being One of the Few

mntleo2

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Mon Feb-02-09 10:08 PM
Original message

Thank-You Skinner for Being One of the Few

Dear Skinner:

As a low income member of Democratic Underground, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting your site bring attention to January as Poverty Month. The articles that you allowed us to feature were top notch written by top-notch people who wrote from their hearts and you let them do that. As one member and I discussed, it was actually a catharsis for those of us who live on the edge, we cried tears of grief out of our own experiences, and felt joy because we finally got to educate those who (thankfully) have never experienced poverty.

American poverty is everywhere and affects almost every city, town, and community in America, and even though it is growing not shrinking, many of us who are also activists know that asking for the Media to discuss poverty is like asking them to expose themselves to The Plague. But you did not seem to feel that way, and maybe that is because you know how important it is to educate people about poverty, to feel the impact instead of ignoring it, and give us the space to find ways to get the next step. I could not help but notice that, every single one of the postings got lively discussion and lots of recommendations, so perhaps you have found discussions about poverty and what can be done about it, is a good subject to discuss.

We were able to discuss how poverty is an institutionalized System and even becoming an industry of its own. Our government is quite punitive to the poor, yet some people have even gotten rich off poverty. Huge non-profits take millions of dollars then serve as few people as possible and taking the rest to benefit themselves and their own CEOs. Private corporations benefit from keeping people in low wages and taking all our tax dollars for themselves, they have no reason to do any less than to make poverty more pervasive in our communities ~ and use the government to do it. Last of all, if We The People can be brainwashed and pitted against the poor, they all can continue their looting of the Treasury while we are busy fighting each other.

But you Dear Skinner and your other administrators, you seem to understand all that. This makes me have hope, you do not know how deep you have affected me for caring enough to let us talk and teach, but you have. I suspect there are others that would tell you the same.

I am going to keep my banner at the bottom of my posts, if it is all right with you, because it means a great deal to me that you gave us that time and it is a reminder that poverty is not s "niche" issue, it is a huge issue, America's "elephant in the living room." Just because the month of January is past, does not mean that the discussion should stop. As a matter of fact, I hope January is just the beginning. Let's keep talking!

Now perhaps we can get down to the business of turning around this country so that we can eradicate poverty. Oh sure, it seems impossible, but poverty CAN be eradicated, it is all about knowing WHY the poor exist and then facing down our own demons so we can change it. No it is not an easy thing to consider, and eradication is not something that will happen tomorrow.

In total admiration,
Cat In Seattle