[Faith & Hunger] Statement of Hunger Action on Lawmakers' Failure to Raise Welfare Grant

[Dunleamark at aol.com]

Hunger Action Network of New York  State 
For More Info: Mark Dunlea, Executive  Director, 518 434-7371 xt 1# 
For Release: April 9,  2008 
Statement of Hunger Action Network of NYS on  state lawmakers' failure to 
raise the welfare grant for the 18th  year 
In a just society, cries of condemnation  would rain down upon the heads of 
our state lawmakers who for the  18th year in a row failed to raise the welfare 
basic grant and lift  up the poorest of the poor. 
But such condemnation would do little good  for those who are denied the 
basic necessities of life, those who are sentenced  not only to suffer but are 
denied dignity in their struggle to provide a warm,  loving home for their 
family. Too many of us continue to blame the poor for  being poor. 
And such condemnations would be little heard  by the princes of our Empire 
State who complain that the riches they receive for  their part time services 
are inadequate to their needs.   
This is one of those situations where words  are inadequate. They fail to 
fully describe the moral failure of our state  leaders, including that of our new 
Governor who acceded to the demand to keep  open ghost prisons and juvenile 
detention centers while failing to insist that  funds must be provided to help 
the poor as well.   
Words are inadequate to describe the reality  of poverty for so many New 
Yorkers. Throughout the world, it is the poorest who  work hardest and yet receive 
the least reward. The path to a good life which  seems a birthright to so 
many of us is so often barred to the poor, with so many  barriers placed in their 
way, barriers that most of us seem unable to  acknowledge. 
How many times must our poor children and  their families hear, “no, not this 
year, maybe next, we have other things we  must do first, times our tough, be 
patient”?   
It was not just the Governor who failed to  stand up for the poor at the 
Capitol when the spoils were being divided. The  poor do not lack for legislators 
who can eloquently state sympathy for their  plight. What they lack are 
legislators who will stand up in the halls of power  and proclaim that no, this 
injustice will not continue, we will not leave here  until we do what is right. 
Former New York Governor  Franklin Delano Roosevelt once remarked, "The test 
of our progress is not  whether we add more to the abundance of those who have 
much; it is whether we  provide enough for those who have too little."  
For  the 18th year in a row, our state lawmakers failed that  test.



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