"Congressman Lewis to the American People: It's Time to Get in Trouble"

[OneGrassRoot]

by my friend, Pat LaMarche at Alternet


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I was invited by the Georgia Alliance to End Homelessness to speak at their annual conference. So too was Georgia’s 5th district Congressman. The Congressman spoke eloquently about the need to “put on the American agenda the issues of hunger, poverty, homelessness.” He said that these issues were once a vital part of the political discussion, but that now, “all these years later there are still too many people in America that have been left out and left behind. There are still too many people without a place to stay, to lay their heads. There are still too many of our people – here in this country with so much wealth, so many resources – without food to eat. And hundreds and thousands and millions of these people are women and children.”

It was refreshing beyond description to hear a member of congress – our congress which has failed to fund the necessary repairs to the system – proclaim that system broken and failed. And that worst of all it’s failed children. After his speech I asked him why it was that things weren’t repaired. He told me that when he first started serving in Washington – back in January of 1987 – there was “a greater sense of hope, a greater sense of optimism and a greater commitment to people who have been left out.” He said that if someone proposed the necessary programs of Head Start or Food Stamps to today’s congress, they wouldn’t pass.

Congressman Lewis said that for the first time since he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King the nation’s leadership has adopted, “the mindset, the sense to let each person, each group, fend for themselves.” Then he indicted many of his colleagues in Washington. He said that they, “don’t share a lot of the values of the American people.” And added that Mitt Romney with his now famous 47% comment, “was sharing the feelings of many of the members of congress. And that the current “political structure of congress has allowed them to turn their backs on the people,” the very people that they were elected to represent.

I asked him what it would take to turn things around. Congressman Lewis told me that people had to do what he had done as a young man marching for civil rights. He said, “It’s time for the American People to get in trouble.”



FULL ARTICLE: http://www.alternet.org/speakeasy/pat-lamarche/congressman-lewis-american-people-its-time-get-trouble