[Peace-discuss] Letter to N-G editor

[David Green]

In “Another Thanksgiving” (11/22) the editors write that in spite of
“general” affluence, “too many people suffer from a variety of maladies
that range from poverty and family dysfunction to physical and mental
illness … Let’s be sure as the Christmas season approaches to keep those
people in our hopes and prayers.”

The assumption is that “those people” are not among those “general”
individuals reading this editorial. Given the expense of a newspaper and
its lack of political interest in “those people,” this is likely mostly
correct. Nevertheless, it’s rude to talk about others in a room in which
they might be present, no less so in an objectifying and condescending
manner.

Moreover, poverty is not a “malady” but a structural condition enforced by
radical social inequality. This inequality adversely affects at least half
of us: those who are on the short end of federal policies, historically
supported by *News-Gazette* editors, that have seen four decades of
de-industrialization, “free trade,” de-unionization, enforced unemployment,
and decreases in federal and state funding for social programs—all in the
midst trillions for criminal wars, supported by the editors, and fought
largely by “those people.”

Certainly, the other “maladies” mentioned will always be with us. However,
the risk factors associated with them would be significantly decreased by
the very feasible elimination of poverty, the existence of which is a
political choice made by predatory capitalists and their acolytes in the
media and academia. In this context, appeals to “Christian” charity are at
best disingenuous.
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