The following is a transcript of a two-minute commentary by Kevin Lindamood about poverty and the Fiscal Cliff, which aired on WYPR.
For those of us raised on the Warner Bros., cliffs – especially metaphoric ones – are hardly something to worry about. Who could forget Wile E. Coyote’s round eyes of realization before each long fall? And then, with appropriate comedic delay, the anvil would follow. Time after time, he’d be up to his old tricks in the very next frame, eager to outsmart the tenacious Roadrunner.
Let’s face it. The majority of us had little to fear in the Congressional Fiscal Cliff cartoon playing out in the final months of last year. The very framework precluded the serious discussions that still must take place about revenue and expenses. Instead, we were distracted – in ways far more menacing than the Roadrunner’s trickery – as we engaged in a national argument about “wealth:” specifically whether it begins at a quarter or a half a million a year, with precious little mention of the “P” word – the poverty that grips our nation.
A growing percentage of the country – poor, near poor, and increasingly middle class – stare up from the bottom of far steeper and more damaging cliffs: the housing affordability gap. The wage chasm. Even those earning two or three times our outdated federal poverty levels are hurled to the bottom of these canyons. Those without parachutes, climbing equipment, or cartoon immortality can’t make ends meet. And we’re not talking about it.
If Washington won’t have the conversation, then Annapolis must. The Maryland General Assembly will face important opportunities over the next three months to increase affordable rental housing, further improve access to health care, and bring Maryland into the company of the 19 other states that have local minimum wages higher than the federal floor. Let’s use these chances – and more – to talk about poverty and what to do about it.
And please, let’s stop making a mountain out of the so-called Fiscal Cliff. For most of the country, it’s not the fall that’s going to kill us. It’s that anvil – the troubling consequences of the poverty we’re ignoring – that’s what’s going to hit us all right on top of the head. And I’m not so sure that even good ‘ol Wile E. comes back the same after that one.
Assuring you that no actual coyotes were harmed in the taping of this commentary, I’m Kevin Lindamood, President & CEO of Health Care for the Homeless for WYPR, your NPR news station.
