[Peace-discuss] Letter to N-G editor

[David Johnson]

WONDERFUL reply letter David !

 

David J.

 

From: Peace-discuss [mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of David Green via Peace-discuss
Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2018 2:31 PM
To: peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Letter to N-G editor

 

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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