Editor’s note: This commentary is by Sue Andrews, of Shaftsbury, who is executive director of the Greater Bennington Interfaith Community Services Inc. (including the Bennington Free Clinic, the Interfaith Food and Fuel Fund, the Kitchen Cupboard, and the Bennington Oral Health Coalition). It was first published in the Bennington Banner.
[I]n his recent column, “Bring Back Personal Responsibility,” commentator Don Keelan uses a false comparison to make a point about people with lived experience in poverty. He lays out some daily poverty statistics for the state of Vermont and compares them with information on our low unemployment rate and how employers cannot get enough workers, before announcing his verdict: We need to bring back personal responsibility to people in poverty.
He goes on to mention two speakers — Prudence Pease from Bridges Out of Poverty and Nina Turner from Our Revolution — who spoke recently to several hundred people on the issues of poverty. His mean-spirited words reached a crescendo when he declared: “Never did either mention the words personal responsibility.” I cannot speak about Turner’s presentation and whether Keelan was present, but I would like to state unequivocally, he did not attend the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop. How would he have a clue about what was said or not said if he was not present?
Keelan suggests that we might consider “taxing millionaires and billionaires at a tax rate equaled to 100 percent of their annual earnings” (to end the War on Poverty) but then says that “doing so would only make a small dent” and would “of course, be unrealistic.” In response to “only making a small dent,” I can only say that the amount of money raised by such a tax system would be huge.
I have a young friend who works full time and earns $21,840 annually. He struggles to raise his family. I find it hard to believe that he would turn down the $24,000 per year that would accrue to him if millionaires and billionaires were taxed at 100 percent. Perhaps that is a drop in the bucket to some, but it would be like entering heaven to others. And, to speak to a high tax rate being realistic, it is not so long ago that tax brackets for those with high incomes were much higher than they are now. In 1980, a person earning $215,400 had a tax rate of 70 percent. And in 1944-45, during World War, people with incomes greater than $200,000 had a tax rate of 94 percent. Now that’s the way to win a war!
We could do the same for the War on Poverty. We could become a progressive society that cares about our neighbors who are facing challenges if we were to make this kind of change to our tax system.
The Bridges Out of Poverty workshop was organized and hosted by Greater Bennington Interfaith Community Services Inc. (GBICS), a local not-for-profit organization whose mission is to assist people experiencing poverty and near poverty with food, fuel, housing supports and access to primary medical care. The GBICS’s programs (Kitchen Cupboard, Bennington Free Clinic, Food and Fuel Fund and the Bennington Oral Health Coalition) daily serve people who are experiencing the kind of poverty we explored at the Bridges Out of Poverty workshop. We learned that poverty is caused by far more than individual choice. In a culture where there are multiple classes, there are hidden rules. There are problems with language, communication and values. Americans who live in poverty live in the tyranny of the moment. The rent is due, the children are hungry, the car needs a repair, and the factory has a mandatory shutdown for the week. Those who earn more can look to the future, can think about college education and putting money away for retirement.
There is a saying that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” People who live in poverty are very strong. They are problem solvers. In order for them to transcend their situation, they need some bridges. They need to be able to do an assessment of personal and community resources to help them make plans for change. They need to develop resources and build their future story. They need partnerships with the middle class and the wealthy to build social capital. And we all need to develop strategies that comprehensively address poverty at the community and institutional levels. It truly is not enough to shame those who find themselves in challenging economic circumstances, as Keelan does when he decrees to parents that “it takes less than two minutes to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
GBICS will be hosting a community meeting in follow-up to the recent Bridges Out of Poverty training on Aug. 15 at 7 p.m. At this meeting, we will discuss next steps we might take to make Bennington a community that helps people in poverty with some of these bridges. The meeting will be held at the GBICS building, 121 Depot St. in Bennington. All members of the public from all walks of life are invited to attend. Please RSVP by calling the GBICS office at (802) 447-3700 or by e-mailing to bennfreeclinic@gmail.com.
