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In 2019, long-term poverty was responsible for more than 800 deaths a day in our nation. In the same year, poverty was the fourth leading cause of death. This was the data and the message from the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of the Poor People’s Campaign when he spoke to a full house at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta on Dec. 9.
The gathering met to organize a coordinated day of poor people and low-wage workers at our State House in Augusta, to be held on March 2. Along with people in state capitals across the nation, it will be a call for economic justice, the major goal of the Poor People’s Campaign, originally launched by Martin Luther King Jr.
All of us who attended have been or are: Mainers experiencing poverty; Maine activists dedicated to our Constitution, which establishes justice, and to the Declaration of Independence, which states that all Americans are created equal with certain inalienable rights; or Maine religious leaders of all faiths dedicated to protecting the rights of the poor.
In the two years of the pandemic, 2020-2022, billionaire wealth grew by $1.5 trillion. Billionaires have kept their massive tax cuts by previous administrations. Why?
In the same two years, poverty in Maine decreased significantly due to the expanded Child Tax Credit, the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, expanded SNAP (food stamps) and protection from evictions. Congress has not renewed this expanded support and poverty is once again on the rise. Why terminate programs that provide life, a future, food, housing, health care?
The federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour as contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act effective July 24, 2009. Why? Where is Congress?
As Mainers, we are committed to a moral agenda that calls for Congress and legislators to listen and to act. Join us at the State House in Augusta on March 2.
Carole Beal
Blue Hill
