About poverty

The folks at Athens Politics are holding a pretty interesting discussion on poverty in Athens, and who's to blame. Publius applauds Keith Heard for chastizing our local government, while an anonymous poster points out some of the hypocrisy from Harry Sims' opposition to the artsy bus shelters when he doesn't really have any sort of plan to deal with poverty in the first place.

I'm not the biggest Harry Sims fan, but I'm not as sold on the latter argument. I do think, however, that Publius makes a good point in giving credit where credit is due. Technically it is unfair of Heidi Davison and other local officials to criticize Heard for doing little about poverty because there really is little Heard can do with a Republican-controlled legislature that outlawed living wages and is focusing on illegal immigration. If there was a concerted effort by the legislature to actually get something done with regard to addressing poverty - be it from whatever ideological angle you like - that would be one thing. But that's not the case here.

So while I'm not happy with some of our state officials for some reasons, I'm definitely irritated with the lip-service the local government pays to poverty. A lot of folks have started to talk about poverty, but few, if any, are doing anything about poverty in local government. And if they are, it's the best-kept secret in town.

What we need, as I alluded to before, is a comprehensive plan to fight poverty that includes the public and private sectors, our non-profits, the University of Georgia and the religious community.