Inside
NCR NCR takes a second look at poverty
Once again we are at that time of
year when NCR readers wonder if weve forgotten them. Next week
theres no NCR -- we start the skip-a-week summer schedule until
mid-August.
The scheme behind publishing every other week is that it permits
you to take to the beach (or one of those NCR Summer Listings venues)
all those NCRs you never got to or want to look at a second time.
Meanwhile, NCR continues to take a second look of its own
at poverty when the economy is booming. Were not fixated on it.
Were trying to bring balance back by showing where people are not doing
well even though the stock market and the software billionaires are.
As Andrew Cuomo said recently, if you cant fix the problems
of poor cities and poor people when the economy is doing well, when can you fix
them?
Cuomo, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, compiled
Places Left Behind in the New Economy. Among all the tables is a
stunning revelation -- the number of U.S. cities where almost a third of the
population is living in poverty.
This, of course, is all part of NCRs continuing use
of Michael Harringtons The Other America idea. Not as a simple
reminder of a book gone by, but as a genuine call to action and change.
Catholics are a fair people -- they
never speak well of one another. It seems that the Lincoln, Neb., chancellor
has poked his nose across the diocesan boundary to tell a Benedictine abbot he
doesnt like the abbots guest list (see page 6). Ah yes, Lincoln.
Well, as someone once said -- and it wasnt Dr. Johnson, from whom we
poached the opening line (though he said it about the Irish) -- Too nice
an inquisition should not be made into opinions that are dying away by
themselves. (OK, it was Edmund Burke said it.)
And you read it here first. Breaking
news. Back to NCRs Other America fixation. When we did that
cover story on Welfare to work doesnt work (NCR April
30), it was based on a study by Network, the Catholic social justice lobby.
U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn, saw the same study and
introduced an amendment in the Senate May 25 to track what happens to people
dropped from welfare roles.
His amendment lost by one vote. A very angry
Wellstone, quoting Network all the while, said hed reintroduce the
amendment attached to the next available vehicle.
Good for him.
This weeks cover story on the
Northwest bishops pastoral on environmental issues is an encouraging sign
of vital Catholic leadership. It is not only the issues the bishops are
tackling but the method they are using -- wide consultation -- that gives hope
that the church can bring a moral voice to environmental concerns. To see a
full text of the bishops document and additional information, including
expert testimony at listening sessions around the diocese, visit the following
Web site: www.columbiariver.org
A number of readers, reacting to our
May 21 cover story, Iraq: Killing it softly with sanctions, have
asked how to get in touch with Voices in the Wilderness. The group is
headquartered at 1460 W. Carmen Ave., Chicago IL 60640; phone: (773) 784-8065.
Web site: www.nonviolence.org/vitw/
-- The Editors
Michaell Farrell is on vacation.
National Catholic Reporter, June 4,
1999
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