Faith leaders in Ohio and other states are hopeful a massive action this weekend will be seen as a light in times of darkness.
The Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering on June 20 will unite participants against racism, war, poverty and ecological devastation.
Mary Aguilera, co-chair of the Ohio Poor People’s Campaign, says they are calling for a moral agenda that isn’t about the right versus the left — but rather right versus wrong, and lifting the voices of the 140 million lower-income Americans.
“Over 40% of this country was already low-income and poor,” says Aguilera. “And then you add this pandemic, and then you add the racial issues on top of that, and kind of a perfect storm is happening.”
Members of 16 religious denominations, 14 national unions, and dozens of civil rights groups will be part of the Digital Justice Gathering. The event will be broadcast online at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, June 20, and at 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 21.
The demands of the Poor People’s Moral Agenda cover seven areas: democracy and equal protection under the law; domestic tranquility; peace and the common defense; life and health; the planet; the future; and an equitable economy.
Aguilera says some require immediate action, including paid sick leave for all workers, free COVID-19 testing, a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, debt forgiveness, and expanded voting opportunities.
“After June 20th, we are going to be focusing on these demands that are critical during this pandemic and national crisis,” says Aguilera. “There’s certain demands that were left out of the disaster relief bills.”
According to the Poor People’s Campaign, roughly one in three Ohioans is poor or low-income. And from 1979 to 2012, income for the top 1% of earners rose by 103%, while income fell 5% for the rest of the population.
This article appears in Jun 17-23, 2020.
Why not persuade everyone to follow “the Golden Rule”– that is, to treat others as you would want them to treat you.
However, this won’t be easy to do, because there are a lot of people, who rather “take” than “make”– that is, they rather take from others by stealing, robbing, tricking, or begging than “make” money for themselves through honest labor and prudent investments.
Some would rather cling to the hope that the government will give them what they want, if they keep on voting in politicians, who have promised them that they will make things better if voters keep reelecting them, instead of relying on themselves and working to make their individual dreams come true.
Worse yet, some are hoping that a revolution will give them what they want by taking from the rich and giving it to them– even though Russia and Communist China have embraced Capitalism, because Communism just didn’t work.
If you really want to help poor people to rise out of poverty, have them read Benjamin Franklin’s 1758 essay, “The Way to Wealth” and get them to live by its Principles of Industry, Frugality, and Prudence.
This boils down to: (1) earning as much as you can by working as much as you can; (2) living below your means (which means, spending less than you make); (3) saving and investing your surpluses, which will accumulate and earn compound interest by following Rules 1 and 2; and (4) avoid debt more than you would avoid getting bit by a dog, which includes avoiding credit, because credit is debt.
If you follow these four rules to live by, you will prosper.
Debt is a poverty trap, which is why you should avoid it more than you would avoid getting bit by a dog.
The reason why is because if you get bit by a dog, it might take a few weeks for you to recover from the dog bite, but it could take decades for you to get out of the debt trap– especially, if you get a student loan, mortgage, or just pay the minimum payments on credit card debt.
Yet, Americans have been brainwashed into believing that Debt– and especially. Credit– is a good thing, even though Debt and Credit turns tens of millions of Americans into debt slaves working to pay off their “Master” Card or giving them a “Visa” to Financial Hardships.
The problem that keeps many– if not most– people in poverty is actually a choice– that is, they rather not do what others do not to be poor.
For instance, those who rather be poor rather not work or find a job that allows them to work overtime. They also rather not seek a higher paying job, or work a second or part-time job even though there are plenty of job vacancies– even if it means relocating to another location for better opportunities– which is what millions of immigrants to America have done.
The reasons often given is, “There is more to life than just working”; “My free time is too important to me”; and I don’t want to work that job.”
I know for a fact that there are jobs in which poor people can earn $100k a year right here in Cuyahoga County if they are willing to work a lot of overtime, because I gave up one when I chose to retire.
The job requires a high school education, a valid Ohio drivers license, a clean drug test, and a clean criminal history.
However, it is still a job that most people won’t apply for, because it means being required to work a lot of overtime, whether you want to or not.
The job I’m talking about is “State of Ohio corrections officer”, although you can make over $100k a year as a State of Ohio juvenile correctional officer too.
Starting pay for a State of Ohio corrections officer is $18.59 an hour, but with roll call pay and shift differential pay for working 2nd or 3rd Shift, which new employees are usually assigned to work, the pay per hour is over $20 an hour.
However, what makes these jobs so lucrative is not the hourly and supplemental pay, but the wealth of opportunities to work voluntary overtime.
The real question is whether it is better to be tired than to be poor, but too many people rather be poor than have more money than they need by working as much as they can.
The demands of the Poor People’s Moral Agenda cover seven areas: democracy and equal protection under the law; domestic tranquility; peace and the common defense; life and health; the planet; the future; and an equitable economy.
Aguilera says some require immediate action, including paid sick leave for all workers, free COVID-19 testing, a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, debt forgiveness, and expanded voting opportunities.
The first paragraph I agree with.
Besides expanding voting opportunities,,,what ever that means,,the rest of the second paragraph is all bs.
COVID-19 testing is free,,,so,,,,,,
A moratorium on evictions and foreclosures,, that’s something you need to work out with your landlord,,,not everyone can just have a free pass on rent.
Debt forgiveness,,,,why? If you created a debt for anything, why should anyone else be responsible for it?
Liberals are calling for morality in this country? For once I agree with them. Let’s start with stop having children out of wedlock, stop demanding that taxpayers pay for all of those babies you’re having out of wedlock, stop rotting your mind and soul with rap music, stop worshiping athletes and rappers, get all of the vile liberal trash off our television screens, penalize parents when their children aren’t in school, and dramatically increase the penalties for dealing drugs.
As the old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” The goal should be to teach the poor how to work their way out of poverty through an honest vocation or trade. For instance, one way for the poor to earn an honest livelihood that provides income much greater than the poverty level is through civil service employment.As I posted earlier, there are well-paying civil service jobs that exist that only required a high school education or a GED certificate, a valid Ohio drivers license, a clean drug test, and a clean criminal history. Other civil service jobs exist that require course completions that can be obtained from Cuyahoga Community College, which has low-cost tuition.Even if you don’t have a clean criminal history, there are well-paying jobs in the private sector, which hire ex-felons– although, not all ex-felons, like UPS, FedEx, and trucking companies.The problem I see is that many poor individuals are unaware of the opportunities they have to earn income greater than the poverty level.What good is having opportunities, if you don’t know they exist? The Ohio Poor People’s Campaign should post articles on its website on how the poor can work their way out of poverty and what job opportunities they can apply for.
Start by taking the confusion out of Fathers Day.
The Ohio Poor People’s Campaign website states, in pertinent part:
“Utilizing a combination of sit-ins, die-ins, and civil disobedience, our mission is to call attention to the startling social problems that, long neglected, impact every aspect of the lives of impoverished peoples.”
Poor people don’t need sit-ins, die-ins, or people better off than they are to commit civil disobedience.
They also don’t need for others to call attention to their problems.
What they need is more money, but what is far more beneficial to the poor than giving them a few bucks or even a twenty dollar or hundred dollar bill is teaching them how to work their own way out of poverty.
Immigrants to America, who came from far more impoverished backgrounds than most of the poor in America, have done so.
In fact, many immigrants to America have a higher median household income than most white Americans.
Work is the answer, because the more hours you work, the more money you earn.
However, the poor in America can learn a lot on how to survive with little from immigrants to America.
For instance, you can buy a 50 pound bag of rice in Cleveland’s Asiantown for around $42, which can feed an average American family for six months– at least, their carbohydrate needs.
Instead of conducting sit-ins, die-ins, and engaging in civil disobedience to call attention to the plight of the poor, which the General Public in America already knows about, help the poor to help themselves.
Trillions forcibly seized from taxpayers past present and future . Look in the mirror for the REAL solution.
a lot of ohioans realize the global elite use fear, poverty, and race to keep us under their control. Some ohioans even realize the media is just a weapon of the global elite meant to decieve and trick us rather than inform us.
The poor needs mentors, who can teach them how to rise out of poverty.
However, their mentors shouldn’t be those who have never been poor.
I suggest that the poor learn from immigrants to America, who have a higher median household income than white Americans, who can not only teach them how to make more income a lot higher than the poverty level, but also how to save money on basic needs, like food, shelter, and transportation.
For instance, you can buy a pack of tomato seeds for less than a dollar and grow hundreds of dollars of tomatoes by adding natural compost (decayed leaves, weeds, grass clippings, etc.) and water as long as you plant them in a place that gets lots of sunshine.
You can even grow tomatoes in grocery bags.
Just keep morality away from the Christians. Those hypocrites have lied their way to power for too long.
Despite its title, I don’t believe the Ohio Poor People’s Campaign really wants to help poor people.
Instead, I think the Ohio Poor People’s Campaign has a leftist political agenda that it wants to advance, which includes increasing voter registrations, “saving the planet”, and being anti-war.
Its voter registrations goal is really about helping to elect more Democrats into political office, even though mobs of Democrats are protesting across America about how Democratic politicians are running local government and local police departments in Democratic-controlled cities for several generations of poor people.
One of the main problems with illegal immigration to America is that millions of poor people, who were born in other countries, illegally immigrated to the United States to escape poverty and for better opportunities for both themselves and their families.
Many of these illegal immigrants have succeeded in doing so.
However, by taking advantage of these many opportunities, they decrease the number of opportunities available to Americans.
This raises the issue of whether Americans who want to help poor Americans should oppose illegal immigration so that poor Americans will have more opportunities to work their way out of poverty, or should America throw open its doors to all poor people who wants to immigrate to the U.S., even though America already is struggling to provide housing, social services, and health care to its own citizens and its own poor.
If all the leftists left, it would definitely solve many the problems of crime, poverty, income disparity, even climate change. So could you lefties organize a mass exodus of yourselves from our communities please.
I always wonder when I see ‘poor people’ protesting with professionally made signs.