Friday, September 4, 2009
Let's use money wisely
Let's use money wisely
By Roderick LewisFayetteville
Our country is releasing huge sums of money - taxpayer money - over a relatively short span of time and that money is designated to promote the "common good." Never before in the history of the United States have these amounts of money been released for the citizenry. Historically, communities of color and low-income white communities have not benefited equitably from large government initiatives.
We know that $6.8 million has been allotted to Fayetteville in stimulus money. It has been designated primarily for block grants, police and justice projects, and various food and shelter programs.
The big question is, where is the additional nearly $70 million designated for us? There are 56 potential stimulus projects that are being tracked by the city. What are those projects and where, specifically, is the stimulus money going?
In order for equity to happen for those with the least in our community, we need to ensure that the following actions take place:
Practice community cooperation, community collaboration and democratic decision-making to the highest degree possible.
Involve local residents in the neighborhoods in the visioning and engineering of homes and neighborhoods with energy and green initiatives.
Train residents in doing the jobs required to build up their homes and neighborhoods, to the highest degree possible.
Pay living wages and benefits for jobs that are created through the stimulus initiative.
We call on every City Council member, the mayor and the county commissioners to bring transparency and openness to the federal stimulus initiative so that all the citizens may be able to have input and gain in this process.
Town hall and health
Although we were unable to gain entry, the Cumberland County Progressives had representatives at the recent town hall meeting on health-care reform in Lillington. We were there because we recognize that America's health care system is unhealthy and has reached the stage where it needs emergency care. Like all emergency care, the cost is greater than if we'd developed a sensible maintenance plan.
Many of the people who came to the meeting were excluded also, and a sizable contingent of anti-reform folks carried signs, for example stating "Hands off my Health Care." Well-dressed and apparently middle-class, they were nearly all older Caucasians.
These are people who in the past lined up for government-distributed Hong Kong flu shots; who were given government-distributed vaccinations at government-run well-baby clinics; received government-distributed polio vaccine sugar lumps and polio shots.
I wondered, watching them, if they were willing to turn in their government-run Social Security which has survived the stock market and the Bernie Madoffs of the world, or their government-run Medicare, or if they are retired or disabled veterans, are they willing to give up the government-run Veterans Administration military benefits? As a wealthy, much-to-the-right physician friend explained to me, "People who have, have little empathy for those who don't have."
Have many of us become so self-centered and hypocritical that we would deny those with less an opportunity to have health coverage? Europe nearly destroyed itself in two devastating wars and its countries finally learned that they needed to change and to provide for their citizens. We should understand that when the least of us is healthier, our whole society is healthier. As Americans, we should be smarter.
Roderick Lewis is chairman of the Cumberland County Progressives.
By Roderick LewisFayetteville
Our country is releasing huge sums of money - taxpayer money - over a relatively short span of time and that money is designated to promote the "common good." Never before in the history of the United States have these amounts of money been released for the citizenry. Historically, communities of color and low-income white communities have not benefited equitably from large government initiatives.
We know that $6.8 million has been allotted to Fayetteville in stimulus money. It has been designated primarily for block grants, police and justice projects, and various food and shelter programs.
The big question is, where is the additional nearly $70 million designated for us? There are 56 potential stimulus projects that are being tracked by the city. What are those projects and where, specifically, is the stimulus money going?
In order for equity to happen for those with the least in our community, we need to ensure that the following actions take place:
Practice community cooperation, community collaboration and democratic decision-making to the highest degree possible.
Involve local residents in the neighborhoods in the visioning and engineering of homes and neighborhoods with energy and green initiatives.
Train residents in doing the jobs required to build up their homes and neighborhoods, to the highest degree possible.
Pay living wages and benefits for jobs that are created through the stimulus initiative.
We call on every City Council member, the mayor and the county commissioners to bring transparency and openness to the federal stimulus initiative so that all the citizens may be able to have input and gain in this process.
Town hall and health
Although we were unable to gain entry, the Cumberland County Progressives had representatives at the recent town hall meeting on health-care reform in Lillington. We were there because we recognize that America's health care system is unhealthy and has reached the stage where it needs emergency care. Like all emergency care, the cost is greater than if we'd developed a sensible maintenance plan.
Many of the people who came to the meeting were excluded also, and a sizable contingent of anti-reform folks carried signs, for example stating "Hands off my Health Care." Well-dressed and apparently middle-class, they were nearly all older Caucasians.
These are people who in the past lined up for government-distributed Hong Kong flu shots; who were given government-distributed vaccinations at government-run well-baby clinics; received government-distributed polio vaccine sugar lumps and polio shots.
I wondered, watching them, if they were willing to turn in their government-run Social Security which has survived the stock market and the Bernie Madoffs of the world, or their government-run Medicare, or if they are retired or disabled veterans, are they willing to give up the government-run Veterans Administration military benefits? As a wealthy, much-to-the-right physician friend explained to me, "People who have, have little empathy for those who don't have."
Have many of us become so self-centered and hypocritical that we would deny those with less an opportunity to have health coverage? Europe nearly destroyed itself in two devastating wars and its countries finally learned that they needed to change and to provide for their citizens. We should understand that when the least of us is healthier, our whole society is healthier. As Americans, we should be smarter.
Roderick Lewis is chairman of the Cumberland County Progressives.
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