Choosing a Title for the Bill

I am in the process of choosing a title for the bill that will hopefully be introduced in Congress. Below are the titles being explored:

• Gulf Coast Fairness and Responsibility Act
• Gulf Coast Fairness and Prosperity Act
• Gulf Coast Prosperity and Opportunity Act

Which title do you prefer? Do you have any other suggestions?

The Three Imperatives in the Gulf Coast

If you want to see why it is critical that we move decisively in the Gulf Coast, check out this 3-minute video clip entitled: "New Orleans 14 months after Katrina--Forgotten City."
It is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZKUnn35zY4

The conditions you will see in the video demand immediate action. As I see it, there are 3 imperatives in the Gulf Coast. They are:

1. the Economic Imperative: In order to rebuild the Gulf Coast, residents need living wage jobs and houses.


2. the Psychological Imperative: In order for Gulf Coast residents to regain their empowerment and hope, which has been stolen from many, they need to be directly involved in the reconstruction of their communities.


3. the Social Imperative: The social compact between citizens and government has been badly torn, and needs to be repaired.
   
   Martin Luther King said that, "justice delayed is justice denied." We want justice NOW.

Poverty Under the Stars: The Night the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project was Born

"The social compact between citizen and government has been badly torn. As citizens, we have various responsibilities (e.g., vote, pay taxes, sit on juries, and defend our country); at the same time, the government has responsibilities, and one of them is to respond effectively when its citizens are in crisis." Scott Myers-Lipton

It was election night, 2006, and I was sitting with 40 San José State University (SJSU) students watching Spike Lee's "When the Levee's Broke: A Four-Part Requiem."

The occasion was a student protest over the recently released report showing that Santa Clara County (home to Cisco, Adobe, and many other wealthy high-tech corporations) had become the Northern California county with the highest homeless population. The report stated that on any given night, over 7,600 people did not have a place to call home in Silicon Valley.

The setting for the protest was fitting: the Tommie Smith and John Carlos statues in the center of campus. Tommie and John were students at San José State in 1968; they were also gold and bronze medal winners in the 200 meters at the Mexico City Summer Olympics.

However, their athletic feat was not the reason why the student body decided to honor them with 20 foot-statues; it was what they did when they were on the Olympic podium, and that was to raise their fists in protest against racism and poverty in the United States.

Last year, the statues were dedicated, and with Tommie and John present, 4,000 people were there to say "thank you" for taking this courageous stand. So the Smith-Carlos statues served as an appropriate backdrop to our discussion on poverty in America.

The students had put up signs around the statues stating such things as:

• 18% of all U.S. children live in poverty
• "37 million Americans live in poverty"


• "USA is #1 in child poverty in the industrialized world"


• "727,000 homeless in America on any given night"

The highlight of the evening was Spike Lee's film. A large screen had been setup up directly in front of the statues. Each one-hour Act of the film was shown, followed by a discussion.

The students were composed of America: Black, Latino, White, and Asian students were present. They also represented a variety of groups: for example, Student Homeless Alliance, African American fraternities, Hip Hop Congress, and Students Against Intimate violence, to name just some. But while they were of different ethnicities and groups, they had one thing in common--they were all Americans, and they had come together to discuss poverty in America, and what was happening in the Gulf Coast in particular.

As a college professor, it was a highlight event. Students had come together on their own volition to dialogue and debate one of the most important events that had taken place in recent American history. Many important things were said by the students, and I have asked some of them to comment on this blog about what was expressed that night.

What I took away from the conversation was this:

Students were upset, and even outraged, at what took place in New Orleans. They couldn't understand how it was possible for the richest country on the planet to respond in such an ineffectual manner, both in the first week of the flood and in the year that has followed.

The film started at 7 pm, but with all the dialogue, the film ended around 1:30 am. The students then slept out on campus to be in solidarity with the homeless. The students had asked me to camp out with them, and I felt obligated to stand with my students, so I slept out with them.

When they awoke, the students decided to march over to San Jose City Hall, which recently was completed. Ironically, this 1/2 billion dollar building towers over both SJSU and the First Christian Church; the latter opens their doors each night to over 30 homeless adults and kids. Once at City Hall, the students marched, drummed, and sang about the need to end poverty and homelessness in America.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project

After returning from City Hall, I went to teach my morning class, which happened to be on the Civil Works Project (CWA), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). These three programs were developed as a response to the social suffering that was caused due to the poverty and unemployment during the Great Depression.

In my class, I discussed how the CWA employed 4 million workers immediately in construction work (i.e., school repair, sanitation work, road building, etc.). Within 2 weeks of starting the project, 814,511 were on the payroll; within 2 months, 4.2 million were working.

The Works Project Administration (WPA) replaced the CWA. In its 7-year history, the WPA employed a total of 8 million people and its accomplishments were many: the WPA built or improved 5,900 schools, 2,500 hospitals, and 13,000 playgrounds.

And the CCC provided the opportunity for 500,000 young men (ages 18 to 25) to work on environmental conservation projects at 2,600 camps each year. The goal was to employ restless and discouraged young men, many of who had previously roamed the nation looking for work.

When I returned home from class, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep from the previous night. I sat down and read the newspaper about the victory of the Democrats nationally. Interestingly, there was an article about a Green Party candidate who was winning her bid to become mayor of Richmond, California, a predominantly African American city. One of her main platforms had been the development of a public works project for 1,000 youth to combat poverty and crime.

Then, the idea came to me. This is what is needed in the Gulf Coast: living wage jobs and the opportunity to rebuild their community.

I started to think that if the USA could put almost 1 million people to work in 2 weeks in 1935, we could put 100,000 people to work immediately today in the Gulf Coast.

And if the Works Project Administration (WPA) employed 8 million people, and built or improved schools, hospitals, and playgrounds, we could rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast today.

That is how the Gulf Coast (GC) Civic Works Project was born. The project is based on the research I conducted for the book "Social Solutions to Poverty" (Paradigm Publishers, 2006). The GC Civic Works Project would hire 100,000 Gulf Coast residents to rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding region. The residents, who would be given subsidized tickets back to their neighborhoods, would build and repair houses, levees, schools, parks, and other civic buildings and spaces.

After I wrote the proposal, I emailed it out to my friends and colleagues. A day later, I received an email message from a professor who is one of the leading experts in the country on hunger. He was so supportive of the proposal that he provided me with his contacts to key Congressional lawmakers, and promised to phone many of them personally.

The Repairing of the Social Compact and the
Building of the Beloved Community

Clearly, it is my hope that Congress takes up the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project. However, I strongly believe that in order to pass this proposal through Congress, it will be imperative to develop a grass-roots movement to support it.

The social compact between citizen and government has been badly torn. As citizens, we have various responsibilities (e.g., vote, pay taxes, sit on juries, defend our country); at the same time, the government has responsibilities, and one of them is to respond effectively when its citizens are in crisis.

American citizens now actively question whether our government is capable to respond when they are in need. I have heard many Californians say that if a major earthquake hits, they are not confident that the government will be there for them.

By having American citizens throughout the country demand that our government provide the Gulf Coast residents the opportunity to rebuild their own communities, they will have played an active role in repairing the social compact that has been torn. In order to build a grassroots movement, I have put out a Call to Action for citizens to encourage the new Congress to rebuild the Gulf Coast utilizing proven methods that get things done.

Ultimately, we need to end poverty in America. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent the last several years of his life dedicated to this goal. Dr. King worked to build the "Beloved Community", where every citizen has decent housing, a living wage job for all that are able to work, and a social insurance program that guarantees a middle-class income for those who are not able to work.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is a step along the way to ending the social suffering that Dr. King lived, and ultimately, died for.

If you have an interest in working on this historic project, please contact me at smlipton@sjsu.edu or (510) 508-5382.

-------------------------------------------------
Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Sociology Department Community Change Concentration
San José State University
"Social Solutions to Poverty" is available at:
http://www.solvingpoverty.com/

Call to Action: A Three-Pronged Strategy

I am asking all citizens that support the idea for a Gulf Coast Civic Works Project to do 3 small things:

1. contact your congressperson and tell her/him to support the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project (view entire proposal at http://solvingpoverty.blogspot.com/2006/11/gc.html)
2. write a 50-75 word letter to the editor of your local paper
3. email blast to your friends and contacts the link for the project
   (http://www.SolvingPoverty.com)

If you want to become more involved, and you are already working for a social change organization, you can incorporate the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project into your overall goals. If you are not working for a social change organization and want to become more involved, you might want to start up a local chapter of "Civic Works for the Gulf Coast."

Here are some actions you might take:

• hold public viewings of Spike Lee's video: "When the Levees Broke"
• call-in to talk shows (find your local radio, click here)
• hold rallies
• meet with your congressional representative and ask him/her to support it
  

Three-Pronged Strategy:

The strategy behind the implementation of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is three-pronged:

1. lobby Congress directly, which has already begun.
2. educate the general public, which is why I am asking all citizens to do the above 3 small things.
3. build a people's movement by contacting grass-roots organizations, and asking for them to actively support the project. It is my belief that without a strong grass-roots movement, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project will not be implemented, since there are too many forces working to maintain the status quo.

If you decide to become more involved, please post your activities on this blog so people know what is happening around the country. If you have any questions, please contact me at smlipton@sjsu.edu or (510) 508-5382.

best, scott
-------------------------------------------------
Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Sociology Department
Community Change Concentration
San José State University

Gulf Coast Civic Works Project

Based on the research I conducted for the book, “Social Solutions to Poverty,” I have written a working proposal entitled the “Gulf Coast (GC) Civic Works Project.” The GC Civic Works Project has the dual goal of rebuilding New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, as well as restoring faith in the government’s social compact with its citizens.

The Proposal:

The GC Civic Works Project will hire 100,000 Gulf Coast residents to rebuild New Orleans and the surrounding region. The residents, who will be given subsidized tickets back to their neighborhoods, will build and repair houses, schools, parks, and other civic buildings and spaces.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Project accomplishes 4 things:

1. provide our citizens with living wage jobs,
   
2. make housing available for themselves and their communities,
   
3. restore a sense of personal empowerment and hope, something which has been stolen from our people, and
   
4. restore faith among our citizenry of the government’s ability to respond to the needs of its people through a public-private partnership.

Projected Cost:

Based on a ratio of labor to materials of 80-20, and a wage rate of $12 per hour, the total cost of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project is $3.125 billion. The projected cost of wages is $2.5 billion, while the cost of materials is $625 million.

Note that $3 billion is roughly 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of the war each month in Iraq according to the Congressional Budget Office. And while the Iraq War has been plagued with graft and corruption, similar large-scale civic projects have operated in the United States with little to no corruption.

Historical Precedent:

This is not the first time that the United States has faced massive social suffering. Our senior citizens, as well as our history books, have passed on to the current generation, the pain and suffering that so many people experienced during the Great Depression.

When Americans were faced with this crisis, the people realized that self-help initiatives alone would not solve the people’s problems, and they turned to solutions that got things done. During the Depression, people didn’t want a handout, but a hand up.

Point: The citizens of the Gulf Coast need solutions that offer a hand up. Let us provide them with the ability to rebuild their own communities.

The U.S. Government developed the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CWA employed 4 million workers immediately in construction work (i.e., school repair, sanitation work, road building, etc.). Within 2 weeks of starting the project, 814,511 were on the payroll; within 2 months, 4.2 million were working.

Point: If the US can put 1 million people to work in 6 weeks in 1935, we can immediately put 100,000 people to work today in the Gulf Coast.

The Works Project Administration (WPA) replaced the CWA. In its 7-year history, the WPA employed a total of 8 million people and its accomplishments were many: the WPA built or improved 5,900 schools, 2,500 hospitals, and 13,000 playgrounds.

Point: Just as the WPA rebuilt America in the 1930s, the GC Civic Works Project can rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast today.

The CCC provided the opportunity for 500,000 young men (ages 18 to 25) to work on environmental conservation projects at 2,600 camps each year. The goal was to employ restless and discouraged young men, many of whom had previously roamed the nation looking for work. In addition to their salary, the youth provided educational assistance.

Point: We must engage the youth of the region to rebuild their communities and provide them with skill-building initiatives that lead to self-reliance.

Concluding Thoughts:

Sixty-eight years ago, Langston Hughes said, “O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath-- America will be!”

Let us work together to make America be.

Please feel free to share this working proposal with your closest 1,000 friends! A ground swell of citizen support for this vision will change the direction of the country.

Let's encourage the new Congress to rebuild the Gulf Coast utilizing proven methods that get things done.

Under the Stars: Sleeping for a Cause

SJSU Student protesters pitch tents on campus:
Organization hopes to shed light on homelessness

Sparten Daily: By Diana Diroy Date: 11/9/06 (click here for on-line version)

Participants at the event "Under the Stars: Sleeping for a Cause," watched Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," discussed poverty issues, and slept next to the Tommy Smith and John Carlos statues Tuesday night.

The first Tuesday of November marked a day when Americans have their voices heard at the election polls, but at San Jose State University, students found another way to have their voices heard, by sleeping out. With pitched tents and sleeping bags, 24 people slept next to the statues of Olympics runners and SJSU alumni Tommy Smith and John Carlos as part of an event the Student Homeless Alliance hosted to increase student awareness of homelessness.

"Whether or not we like to admit it or not, homelessness does affect us at San Jose State," Danielle Carmichael, a member of SHA said. "We have seen homeless people around campus scavenging for food, collecting bottles to turn in. So anything we could do to help them is a plus."At the sleep out, people gathered to watch and discuss Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts."

The four-hour film brought up issues that the crowd discussed, such as the media's coverage, the government's response and homelessness in America. "We choose this film," said Victor Ly, vice president of SHA, "because like Katrina, homelessness is also a natural disaster."According to Family Supportive Housing, Inc., an organization that provides temporary shelter and support services for homeless families in Santa Clara County, more than 20,000 people experience homelessness in Santa Clara County. Of that 20,000 people, families make up 41 percent.

CHAM shelter resident Micheal Ray kisses his son Micheal Ray Junior at the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry Tuesday evening. "We have more homeless people in Santa Clara County, then San Francisco County and most people do not realize that," Ly said. "In a city as rich as San Jose, it's not unfortunate, it's unjust."

The sleep-out, which was called "Under the Stars: Sleeping for a Cause," is one of the events that SHA organized for SJSU's Homeless Action Week. Opening speakers kicked off the week on Monday and students enjoyed free food at the Service Learning Barbeque on Tuesday.

"With homeless action week, we hope to promote more awareness on campus," said Rochelle Smarr, president of SHA. "We hope to abolish all these stereotypes and get more people out here to advocate for homelessness. "Before the sleep-out, SHA and other SJSU students volunteered and cooked dinner for homeless families living at the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry. They were behind kitchen doors, cooking and preparing chorizos, eggs, potatoes and fries.

"We always love them being here. It's a break for me," said Coco Hanna, the resident manager of the alliance ministry and cooks dinner for a dozen families every night. "We appreciate it more than they'll ever know." The Student Homeless Alliance is a SJSU student-run organization whose goal is to educate students about homelessness in San Jose. President of SHA Rochelle Smarr revived the program after it disappeared for a few years.

"It's heartwarming to see it be resurrected," Pastor Scott Wagers, president of the alliance ministry said. Wagers started SHA when he was a student at SJSU in 1991."What the students are doing is quite effective," Wagers said, "I've been there." When Wagers started SHA, there were about 100 students involved that participated in protests, homeless feedings, and sleep-outs. Wagers received campus-wide attention and even met Bill Clinton when he came to campus in 1992. "There is an awareness on this campus and a long history of a justice seeking student body. Like these two," Wager said while pointing at the Smith and Carlos statues. "This campus has a history of social awareness, and I would like to see that rekindled. And it's being rekindled tonight."