The DISH
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Vol. 8 No. 39…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 30, 2005
Frances Coralie Perkins (1882 – 1965)
“What
was the New Deal anyhow? Was it a political plot? Was it just a name for a
period in history? Was it a revolution? To all of these questions I answer
“No.” ... It was, I think, basically an attitude. An attitude that found voice
in expressions like “the people are what matter to government,” and “a
government should aim to give all the people under its jurisdiction the best
possible life.”
Born
in Boston, Massachusetts on April 10, 1882, Perkins graduated from Mt. Holyoke
College (1902). Her work at Mt. Holyoke brought her into contact with working
women in local factories. This
experience led to an interest in, and compassion for, the problems of workers
and the working poor.
In
1907, Perkins worked as Secretary of the Philadelphia Research and Protective
Association, a philanthropic organization that assisted immigrant white girls
from Europe and black girls from southern states in finding work and safe
places to live. Perkins graduated from Columbia University (1910) with a
master's degree in sociology and became head of the New York Consumer's League
lobbying for better working hours and conditions.
In
1911, Perkins witnessed the Triangle Shirt Waist Company Fire; 146 women died when
they were trapped by fire on the company’s upper floors. The incident cemented
her commitment to improving the lives of the less fortunate. She became a well known social worker
and workers’ advocate.
Perkins
held positions in New York state government as an aid to Governor Al Smith and
State Industrial Commissioner under Governor Franklin Roosevelt. As New York’s chief labor officer,
Perkins pushed Governor Roosevelt to adopt unemployment insurance, the first in
the nation.
In
1933, President Roosevelt appointed her to head the Department of Labor, the first woman to hold a US cabinet position. She held the position from March 1933
to July 1945, longer than any other Labor Secretary. As Secretary of Labor, Perkins played a key role in writing
New Deal legislation, including minimum-wage laws.
In
1934, when massive unemployment crippled the nation, Roosevelt named Perkins to
chair the Committee on Economic Security.
The committee made recommendations for unemployment and old-age
insurance within its six-month time-frame. Perkins lobbied Congress for passage of the Social Security
Act of 1935. For her “–the real roots of the Social Security Act were in the
great depression of 1929. Nothing else would have bumped the American people
into a social security system except something so shocking, so terrifying, as
that depression.” On August
14, 2005, the program celebrated its 70th anniversary.
Following
her tenure as Labor Secretary, President Harry Truman tapped Perkins to serve
on the US Civil Service Commission, a post she held until 1952. Author of two books -- People
at Work (1934) and The Roosevelt I Knew (1946), Perkins’ public
service profoundly changed the lives of all Americans. She lectured at the New York State
School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University and remained
active until she died on May
14, 1965. (Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org and www.ssa.gov/history/fpbiossa.html
)
Comments from
the Bat Cave
The Dark
Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro prefers television for entertainment to
reading. However, he must read
twenty-five books or the equivalent this school year. He chose his latest book based solely on the beautiful
stallion that graced its cover. It
turned out to be a coming of age tale about a pre-teen female, who overcomes
her phobia of heights and horses on a ranch out west. When asked for his take on the book, the Dark
One/Ninja/Zorro said, “It was interesting, even with that girlie crap.”
Venue for an
Artist
Blaming
Poverty On The Poor
By
Josephine Dixon-Banks
Give us your
deprived, your malleable muddled masses
hoping for a
gentler taskmaster
Welcome to the
multi-trillion dollar industry,
Poverty A.K.A,
cheapest labor force
Poverty works,
never ever unemployed
A much needed
commodity to justify
White-collar
crime classes
Teaching
dastardly deeds
— to procure
monetary needs–
fostering
avarice greed
Give us your
deprived,
your malleable
muddled masses
hoping for a
gentler taskmaster
Welcome to the
multi-trillion dollar industry,
Poverty
A.K.A., cheapest labor force
Poverty
creates jobs for those financing the societal
Institution of
ya godda pay more taxes
Blaming
Poverty on the poor
Look! what
Enron did to those less fortunate
Blaming
Poverty on the poor
Did not
corporations
want a billion
dollar welfare check
Blaming
Poverty on the poor
Blaming
Poverty on the poor
Give us your
deprived,
your malleable
muddled masses
hoping for a
gentler taskmaster
Welcome to the
multi-trillion dollar industry,
Poverty
A.K.A., cheapest labor force
No penance
just punishment
augmenting the
pillar of economic pillaging
Poor people
put in the pillory from the political pulpit
Poverty is
prime property
Poverty pimps
portrayed
as political
preachers purely punitive but polite
The
pluralization of Poverty
provides
prestige of the patricians
Poverty, the
promissory note from the bureaucratic infidel
The Truth will
tell—the truth will tell
Poverty the
patriotic prisoner on trial for treason
About Me: Born in Danbury, Connecticut (1948), Dixon-Banks
graduated from Clapboard Ridge High School (1966) and received her Teacher’s
Aid Certificate from Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After relocating to Durham, North Carolina
(1976), she began performing her poetry on stage. Dixon-Banks has held a number of positions, including
facilitator, political activist and creative writing instructor. For more about this talented artist, see www.poemhunter.com/poems/poverty/.
Intuit’s Vibe
Feeling
Disorganized
By
Dave Collins
In
The DISH (Volume 8 Issue 35), Disgruntled wrote “...organized
labor is in disarray. We can lay
the blame for this miserable state of affairs for American workers squarely on
the doorstep of the Bush White House.
Big business never had a better friend, nor labor a worse enemy than the
Bush administration.” For
Disgruntled, the collapse of the labor movement is a direct result of actions
of the Bush junta (my words, but I believe they convey the same meaning). I
must take issue here for the matter is more dire than the results of actions of
this gang of criminals.
Just
as the Bush junta constitutes the "end game" of a 30 plus year movement
(many point to the crushing defeat of Barry Goldwater as the beginning of the
modern fascist movement), the actions of the junta have merely applied the coup
de grace to organized labor and the labor movement. The Reagan administration
did enormous damage to the unions in the US, but the unions were already in a
weakened state due to corruption and cooptation. When the national labor
"leaders" belong to the same clubs as corporate senior management,
you know there is trouble in River City.
More
than an academic point, it is quite dangerous, in my view, to mistake the Bush
junta as an aberration. It is not; it is the result of hard and disciplined
work over a long period of time intended to return the country to the path it
was on before the last time New Orleans was flooded (1927) and the stock market
crash that followed in 1929.
Collins
is the Austin, Texas contact for Viet Nam Veterans Against the War. He is a retired management
consultant. Collins “fled that
career when it became nothing more than an assembly line to export well paying
jobs.” Forward comments to collindave@moment.net.
Politics
Y2K5
Blame
Katrina!
No
one wants to take the blame for the slow national response to the dire predicament
of the victims of hurricane Katrina. With all those poor folks wading in water
screaming for help, roasting on rooftops and huddled in pitiful masses like
residents of some Third-World country, the US’ image took another serious hit
on George W. Bush’s watch. Even
Karen Hughes may find it difficult to mend it.
As
a consequence of Katrina, for the first time in nearly five years in office,
Bush is paying lip service to grinding poverty in the US gulf region. Like 9-11, Bush is belatedly all over
the natural disaster, even though there has been no opportunity to stand on a
pile of rubble with a bullhorn to threaten Mother Nature with armed
retaliation.
With
his leadership and his approval ratings in the toilet, no one would be
surprised if he declared another war.
However, a war on poverty would mean adopting programs that benefit the
poor. Actually improving
conditions for the poor would entail changing the nation’s distribution of
income, a thought certain to offend Bush and his base’s trickle-down capitalist
sensibilities.
Despite
all his grandiose speeches, it is hard to imagine Bush jettisoning his
conservative agenda, i.e., dismantling the New Deal’s Social Security and other
social welfare programs, and instead devising some clever programs that benefit
the less fortunate.
On
closer inspection, what Bush is really proposing will do little to change the
nation’s distribution of income.
Given some of the hinted at plans to rebuild the Gulf Coast, a boatload
of no-bid contracts or bids for buddies, including Bush pal, Mississippi
Governor Haley Barbour, will make the rich richer. And, we can blame Katrina, a hurricane with a ghetto-girl’s
name. How ironic!
First,
Bush has proposed reimbursing faith-based organizations for their good works, a
prospect that turns the whole concept of charitable giving on its head. It makes churches, synagogues and
mosques, if they qualify, no different than other corporations that sup at the
federal trough.
A
lot of things, otherwise unthinkable, are being contemplated and justified
because of Katrina. For instance,
deploying military forces in a natural disaster, rather than the National
Guard. This could be the end of posse
comitatus, which prohibits using soldiers to police civilians. Its demise has been on the neo-con
agenda and discussed on blogs since 9-11.
On cue, like trained pups, some members of Congress will introduce
legislation that uses Katrina to justify amending posse comitatus.
Likewise,
conservatives will push for the use of federal dollars to fund private and
religious schools. Every since
whites fled urban areas and inner city public education, there has been an
effort afoot to help fund private and religious schools. The Katrina tragedy will provide one
more opportunity for conservatives to bring up school vouchers. Look for it in your local news.
In
the final analysis, after the glare of national attention fades, poor folks
rescued from the wrath of Katrina will be forgotten. Many will languish in FEMA-furnished trail parks, their fortunes
little changed even after the nation spends more than $200 billion.
Disgruntled
feels: Cheap! Talk is cheap! Less than an expensive pair of shoes;
it costs nothing to dismiss black folks in New Orleans singing the blues. In the role she knows best, Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice went to Alabama to put a black face with a voice
saying, ‘Bush cares about black people.’
Someone needs to inform Condie that she has served in this black-face
capacity a few times to many. She
has lost her credibility, if she had any.
Now, instead of being the nation’s diplomat, Karen Hughes fills her
shoes, and Condie is reduced to talking to folks in the cheap seats, ‘cause no
one else will listen.
Disgruntled wants to
know: George W. Bush
pledged to spend whatever it takes to rebuild the Gulf Coast region. The possibility of spending $200
billion, the amount spent killing people in Iraq, is not out of the
question. Current spending and tax
cuts will not change. Deficit
spending is the only other source of funds. When will Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan explain to
Bush and Congress the consequences of out-of-control deficit spending?
Disgruntled says: In the immediate aftermath of
hurricane Katrina, Republicans chided critics of the Bush administration’s
response for ‘playing the blame game.’
It proved to be quite an effective ploy, much like calling those that
did not support the war ‘unpatriotic.’
Now, it is time to assess the response to the natural disaster and
record lessons learned; the first thing former FEMA director Michael Brown does
is blame state and local officials for being dysfunctional. Good grief Charlie Brown!
DISHing It Up
Hot!
Structural Unemployment
By Dot
All
this talk about race and poverty in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina has
overlooked one critical element – the role of slavery in creating the nation’s
structural unemployment.
Employment
is the primary source of income for most US households and individuals. Even the poorest among us work. Their wages are so low that even when
they work overtime and, in some cases, two jobs, their income is insufficient
to lift them out of poverty. But,
low wages are not the whole story.
From
the nation’s inception, some labor was viewed as less valuable in contributing
to the wealth of the nation. This
view was codified by the nation’s founding fathers in the US Constitution. Those who believe slavery, as defined
by the 3/5 Compromise of Article 1 Section 2, ended because of the ratification
of subsequent amendments, ignore contemporary structural unemployment and the
resulting chasm of inequality that separates black and white families.
In
August 2005, the black unemployment rate at 9.6% was, as has historically been
the case, more than twice the unemployment rate for whites. Over the most recent decade
(1995-2004), the lowest this ratio fell was 2.047 back in 2001.
Throughout
US history, when this gap began to close, a surge of conservatism gripped the
nation, and politicians preaching a southern strategy, states’ rights, strict
construction or some other racially significant codes got thrust into the
national spotlight. Once in
office, by hook or crook, they led the nation back to its core ‘family values.’
And,
as day follows night, the gap widens again until blacks are more than twice as
likely as whites to be unemployed and the median black family income falls to
its historic fraction of 3/5 or less of the white median family income.
Sadly,
the welfare loss of unemployment is disproportionately borne by the nation’s
most vulnerable demographic group – black teens. Only during the late 1990's did the black teen unemployment
rate dip below 30% to a low 24.5% in 2000, before beginning the climb to its
August 2005 rate of 35.8%. These
teens are actively seeking work, oftentimes to supplement low family incomes.
Discussions
about race and poverty that do not include structural unemployment and its link
to slavery are not seeking solutions.
All the empty talk provides photo ops for politicians as the media
exploit its news value until something more titillating catches the public’s
attention.
Childhood
Poverty in the USA
Beginning
in 2000, the proportion of children living in poverty began to increase. Today, millions of more children go
without basic necessities, despite the fact that a majority of them live in
households with working parents.
The
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) has taken a scientific look at
the plight of children in poverty and developed a series of demographic fact
sheets on childhood poverty that it updates annually. The current year’s
statistics and method of data collection and analysis are available online at www.nccp.org.
Issued
by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), federal poverty guidelines
for families with 4, 3 and 2 members are $19,350, $16,090 and $12,830,
respectively. NCCP research shows
families, on average, need twice the HHS specified incomes for families to meet
their most basic needs. And,
depending on their locality, the actual household expense could increase
drastically.
Approximately
70 million children live in the USA; 38% or 26.7 million live in low-income
families. Of the children living
in low-income families, 10.7 million or slightly more than 40% live in the South,
6.8 million, 4.0 million and 5.2 million live in the West, Northeast and
Midwest, respectively. A third or
more of the children in each of the four regions live in low-income families.
More
than one-half – 55% – of all children in low-income families have at least one
parent who works full-time, year-round.
Minimum wage, which means working poor, is $5.15 per hour. Working full-time, a worker earns $206
per week or a gross amount of $10,712 annually. While low-income workers may not pay any income tax, the
employee portion of the Social Security tax is paid on every dollar they earn,
reducing their disposable income.
Of
the children living in low-income families, 39% live with parents that have
more than a high school education.
Half of all children in low-income families live with a single parent;
the other half live with both parents. And, although Latino and black children
disproportionately live in low-income families, whites make up the largest
group of low-income children.
Visit www.nccp.org for more on childhood poverty in the
United States.
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