Poverty: Policy and the Arts
July 19, 2007
I want to take a look at poverty from quite different perspectives. It takes all kinds of points of view to help us clearly see what we’re working on together.
First, take a look at a recent editorial from Kimble Forrister, leader of Alabama Arise. In this article Kimble starts with the grocery tax, but goes further to describe the wider elements of Alabama’s tax structure and possible ways to address them. He also writes about the latest tax reform plan from Representative John Knight, a plan developed by Arise.
It’s important for us to review these issues from time to time so that we not only remain current but conversant about them. Kimble helps us here to review the latest. Now it’s up to the rest of us to talk about this stuff with friends and family.
The State of Business
According to this recent short item, things are looking up for business in Alabama. We moved up five places on Forbes magazine’s list of best states for business. We’re now number 35.
That’s good news for business and for the economy as a whole. But note also that we are also ranked 41st in quality of life and 45th in labor issues, which includes education matters. It would be good to see us move up in these areas as well.
I’ve mentioned this one before, but you might want to take another look at Mark Berte’s recent article about the way our state constitution actually hinders business and harms the poor. You can find it here.
Football, Band, the Chess Club, and Poverty
Pretty much everyone agrees that our kids are too busy. There are so many choices for them to make that their heads (and the heads of their parents!) spin at the possibilities. At the same time, we all want our children to have opportunities for personal growth and learning outside the classroom.
As with many things, though, the ground is simply not level for everyone. Again, students from poorer school districts have fewer opportunities than others for extracurricular activities. I was really interested to see this report from University of Alabama in Huntsville professor Jason Smith. Here’s how he starts: "If you want to improve a child's odds of graduation and going to college — especially disadvantaged youth -- encourage and engage them in extracurricular activities." And here’s the basic conclusion: Across the board high school graduation rates and rates of attendance in postsecondary education are nearly always higher for those who participated in extracurricular activities than for those who do not participate at all.
The big problem comes with cuts in funding that eliminate such activities. That results in a “pay for play” approach to extracurricular opportunities. Guess who loses out most.
I would love to know about all of this especially in Alabama. Maybe I’ll have a chance to talk to Dr. Smith about that. There can be little question that inadequate financial support for education – the result of a poorly designed and executed tax system – has a huge impact in our state. One more good reason to make some changes.
His work is part of a larger study that came out of an initiative by the Annie E. Casey Foundation – Child Poverty in America Today, a four-volume work. You can find those volumes here.
Artistic Visions of Business and Otherwise
I just received today a couple of links from a friend who wants me to read an article about “conspicuous consumption” and then to see artistic expressions of that concern.
This article from Fast Company, a business magazine, describes the scope of our nation’s infatuation with bottled water. I have to admit that I’ve been thinking about this some lately. When the whole craze started, I pretty much pooh-poohed the whole idea. But like most of us I have fallen into drinking far more of the bottled stuff than I would have ever dreamed. That means I’m paying a lot of money for stuff I get at home for so little – and I’m contributing to land fills in yet another way.
It’s a long article, so here’s just a couple of highlights: “In Fiji, a state-of-the-art factory spins out more than a million bottles a day of the hippest bottled water on the U.S. market today, while more than half the people in Fiji do not have safe, reliable drinking water. Which means it is easier for the typical American in Beverly Hills or Baltimore to get a drink of safe, pure, refreshing Fiji water than it is for most people in Fiji.”
And here’s a purely domestic snapshot: “In San Francisco, the municipal water comes from inside Yosemite National Park. It's so good the EPA doesn't require San Francisco to filter it. If you bought and drank a bottle of Evian, you could refill that bottle once a day for 10 years, 5 months, and 21 days with San Francisco tap water before that water would cost $1.35. Put another way, if the water we use at home cost what even cheap bottled water costs, our monthly water bills would run $9,000.”
Leading an organization whose stock in trade is data, I love this artistic view of the numbers. Take some time to look at all of these, but take note, with the above in mind, especially of the depiction of plastic water bottles. How the human species acquires, uses, and then disposes of our stuff has an impact on those who have less. Thess pictures help us to see why.
One More from the Heart
Well, I say the heart because that’s where artistic expression comes from. Take a look at this website that offers a number of artistic visions.
But be sure to click on the Film link and take a look at the short film about Thorton Dial, a Birmingham area, self-taught artist. Thorton grew up in poverty, worked all his life, and in later years discovered his skill in art. It’s a fascinating study of that artwork and of the man himself.
You might even want to vote for the film in this competition. It’s produced and directed by another Alabama artist – Birmingham native Celia Carey.
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