War on Poverty

On January 8, the Rhode Island General Assembly met for the first full day of its 2014 legislative session. The General Assembly will have to look at tough issues that will undoubtedly have an impact on its people. Of particular importance will be proposed legislation affecting human services and the State’s vulnerable populations.

January 8 is a particularly evocative date for it also marked the 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty announced by President Lyndon Baines Johnson during his 1964 State of the Union Address.

On that same day, five decades later, the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty held its 6th annual Vigil at the Statehouse Rotunda. The Vigil began with a march of faith leaders, representatives of most of Rhode Island’s religious communities, walking from Gloria Dei Lutheran Church to the Statehouse. During the course of the vigil, the name of each elected official of our state was called out by a faith leader who urged each official to govern with compassion and wisdom.  The Coalition asked the General Assembly to pass an ethical budget that will provide decent, safe and affordable housing, adequate food and nutrition, equal access to affordable health care, equal and quality education for all and decent work with an adequate wage for every resident of Rhode Island.

Fifty years ago, President Johnson laid the foundation for reducing poverty throughout our country by creating Head Start, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), Food Stamps and the Job Corps. For 50 years, these programs have been updated and revised, continuing to provide a safety net for Americans striving to pull themselves and their families out of poverty. To the distress of the Rhode Island Interfaith Coalition to Reduce Poverty, significant cuts in these programs, most notably Head Start and SNAP (the newest iteration of the Food Stamp program), have already been legislated on a federal level and are affecting Rhode Island families.

Today, Rhode Island is still feeling the effects of the recent Great Recession. The 2012 poverty rate in Rhode Island was 13.7% or approximately 139,000 people. This does not include the individuals living at “near poverty” (defined as twice the federal poverty level), which was over 30%.

As Rhode Islanders, we know the recession is not over. Many of us still feel its effects, as do our friends and extended families. It is imperative that Rhode Island’s elected officials own up to their responsibilities to provide a reliable safety net for our state’s most vulnerable residents and to put the training and education into the hands of those able to pull themselves out of poverty.

Every one of the faith leaders participating in the January 8 Vigil will be bearing witness to the theological  principle common to us all: that our religious traditions compel us to work toward a just society where everyone has equal access to effective education, nourishing food, safe, adequate housing and a responsive healthcare system.

Marty Cooper (mcooper@jewishallianceri.org) is the community relations director at the Jewish Alli-ance.