I posted Parts 1 and 2 of these sketch-posts previously.
One suggestion, here: Embrace the Poor. To be prosperous, a community may have to focus on its poor.
Americans aren’t supposed to talk about class, but much of that enduring rule recently fell away with the Occupy movement (as it has in earlier episodes of our long history).
(This suggestion is a more direct discussion of two earlier ones: Be candid about problems and Tackle real problems in big ways.)
A community with poverty, with working poor, and with a precariously-placed middle class will be obvious to outsiders as a community with poverty, with working poor, and with a precariously-placed middle class. There’s no hiding as much.
It’s neither right nor practical to pretend that difficult conditions aren’t difficult. The morality of caring for the poor should be evident, but even if not, there’s a prudential interest in making their cause a community cause.
Their condition is inescapable within a community. The marketing of success can neither divert nor obscure a poor economy. Those who visit to invest in Whitewater will seldom accept merely what they are told; they will travel the small town for themselves, seeing problems officials leave unmentioned.
Even if one doubts the morality of care, one should see its prudence: we’ll have to talk about and address that elephant if we are to convince successful newcomers to take a chance on Whitewater.
Making help for the disadvantaged a centerpiece of our policy seems counter-intuitive to some, and that’s where the impulses of socio-economic class hush any discussion. For some among the lower-middle class, talk about the poor is not a matter of compassion, but a social embarrassment, a reminder of their own origins, insecurities, and to them a stigma against their own station.
The genuinely religious or the naturally charitable do not feel this way, but others worry that a discussion of poverty reflects poorly on their own accomplishments. One may deny this all one wants, and yet it remains so very true.
We should wade into this issue, speak about it, organize to assist others, and make this cause a civic cause, one that government also helps publicize whenever possible.
To address it is to simultaneously improve the lives of others and to advance the community’s reputation. Prosperous newcomers will not reject a struggling city. On the contrary, they will join a community that shares their often-considerable charitable impulses and means.
They will, however, reject a struggling city that denies the present condition of many among its own residents.
Many offer assistance, every day, even at risk to their own condition. City government should make those private efforts at the heart of its own relationship to the community.