| tigerlilly@privacy.net.org.com 2005-05-29, 10:45 pm |
| The Hunger In America That You Never Hear About
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Think all of the talk of the wonderful economy might actually contain some bad
news? Some very bad news? Well, you're right, of course. While the conservative
media expounds on the lowest unemployment in decades (easy to do when you cook
the data to suit your purposes) and the fastest growing economy since 1985 in
our nation's history (if you happen to be among the top 20% in wealth), the vast
majority of America has seen very little of that growth or reaped any of its
hypothetical benefits.
Consider these truly sad facts which the conservative media ignores completely:
1) The disparity in incomes between the top and bottom 20% of Americans is the
widest in the industrialized world. The top 20% earn 8.9 times more than the
bottom 20% and the top 2% earns nearly 200 times as much as the bottom 20%. This
is equal to countries known for being corrupt and uncaring to their poorest
citizens such as Kenya, Honduras and is actually twice the disparity of nations
such as Japan, India, Bangladesh and Rwanda. As is usual when the wealthy own a
nation's government, we are truly not in respectable company.
2) The number of Americans who go hungry every day is larger than the total
number of people in the Middle East and Northern Africa who experience daily
hunger COMBINED!
3) America has always refused to sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) which was adapted by the vast majority of the United Nations members.
This agreement consisted of agreements requiring all signature nations to
provide a minimum level of social and economic rights, among them the right to
be provided with enough food to prevent hunger. The basic reason we have never
agreed to this declaration is summed up by the government official who stated
that "Welfare Reform" could never have been passed since it forces so many
Americans into grinding poverty and daily hunger while, once again, increasing
the funds available for Corporate Welfare.
4) The wealthiest 1% in America own more than the bottom 92%. This inequity has
been exasperated by this Congress and its push for far less social assistance
for Americans and larger and more widely offered assistance for Corporate
America's movement overseas.
While America tries to hide and ignore the poor and the children who go hungry
for some part of every month, the media screams about how good we are supposed
to think we have it. It is a constant lie but only those who want to know the
truth will ever find it.
While Sally Struthers goes on and on about hunger in the Third World our
government is kneeling before their wealthy masters and creating a nation where
hunger doesn't seem to exist only because their media helps to hide the evidence
and distracts the masses with inane sitcoms and imitation "news" shows which
reports only on insignificant celebrities and the immaterial sexual life of the
President.
While the talking heads of TV repeat the government's lies directly from their
TelePrompTer, cities pass laws to prevent the offering of food or even
assistance to the homeless as a tactic to make those in need move further away
where the city's comfortable citizens don't have to face the reality of the
results of whom they voted for. While our churches try to influence Congress by
making huge donations in hopes of forcing their narrow-minded beliefs and
prejudices on all Americans, children experience hunger by the tens of millions.
Finally, while children live in constant fear from hunger and homelessness,
idiots can actually impersonate human beings and claim "Greed is good!"
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