With An External Foe Defeated, Obama Must Attack The Internal Foe Of Poverty In America

Now that we have killed a significant external foe in the form of Osama bin Laden, it is time to renew our war on the internal foe of the persistent poverty faced by many in our nation.

Can you recall the last time you heard Barack Obama mentioned poverty?

Any observant person knows it can be hard to get work in this economy. And if you get work, it can be difficult to get consistent hours and decent benefits.

The Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009. That was two years ago in this time of enduring recession. That raw number of 43.6 million translates into 14.6% of all Americans.

Here are Census Bureau statistics on poverty in America. 

20.7% of American children lived in poverty in 2009. How is this acceptable? Is America a first-world nation anymore?

The President merits his share of the credit for the capture of Osama bin Laden.

Now let’s ask and expect the President to take on a foe as deadly as any terrorist.

We seem to have forgotten the poor in our nation.

It’s a given that the powerful will celebrate military truimphs and hope we forget those having the roughest time in society.

Many of us in America go along with that kind of thinking even though any one of us could face poverty in this current ecomomy.

Without for a moment losing sight of the brutality and menace of the modern Republican Party, we must always insist that our leaders who at least pay lip service to decency actually deliver on what they are saying.

It is up to us to demand more of Barack Obama. I’m glad that Osama bin Laden is no longer a threat. But many other battles remain as the President marks his recent victory.

Rhode Island Independence Day Is May 4

May 4 is Rhode Island Independence Day.

On May 4, 1776 Rhode Island declared independence from Great Britain. It was the first of the soon-to-be former colonies to take this step.

If you were a school kid in Rhode Island in 1976, you got the day off as a holiday as part of Bicentennial observances that year.

I recall that as a good day. I lived in Rhode Island between 1968 and 1980.

(Below—The Rose Island lighthouse in Narragansett Bay)

Here is some history on Rhode Island ( Click here for the full link) —

Rhode Island was a leader in the American Revolutionary movement. Having the greatest degree of self-rule, it had the most to lose from the efforts of England after 1763 to increase her supervision and control over her American colonies. In addition, Rhode Island had a long tradition of evading the poorly enforced navigation acts, and smuggling was commonplace.

Beginning with strong opposition in Newport to the Sugar Act (1764), with its restrictions on the molasses trade, the colony engaged in repeated measures of open defiance, such as the scuttling and torching of the British customs sloop Liberty in Newport harbor in July 1769, the burning of British revenue schooner Gaspee on Warwick’s Namquit Point in 1772, and Providence’s own “Tea Party” in March 1775. Gradually the factions of Ward and Hopkins put aside their local differences and united by endorsing a series of political responses to alleged British injustices. On May 17, 1774, after parliamentary passage of the Coercive Acts (Americans called them “Intolerable”), the Providence Town Meeting became the first governmental assemblage to issue a call for a general congress of colonies to resist British policy. On June 15 the General Assembly made the colony the first to appoint delegates (Ward and Hopkins) to the anticipated Continental Congress.

In April 1775, a week after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, the colonial legislature authorized raising a 1,500-man ”army of observation” with Nathanael Greene as its commander. Finally, on May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first colony to renounce allegiance to King George III. Ten weeks later, on July 18, the Assembly ratified the Declaration of Independence.

Here are some basic facts about Rhode Island.

Here is information on visting Rhode Island.  I’m gald to say that I’ll be spending a week in Rhode Island this summer.

Below is a picture I took in 2008 of the famous Independent Man statue found on the top of the Rhode Island State Capitol.