Two headlines in separate newspapers this morning juxtapose
the political contradictions of our times.
In the New York Times, the
headline announces “House Republican Pass Deep Cuts in Food Stamps.” And in the Daily Tar Heel, the campus newspaper at the University of North
Carolina, the front page leads with “Food Stamp Need Triples in County.”
The college paper reports on Sonya Dixon (a.ka. “Cookie”),
who prepares and serves meals at a childcare center but whose own daughter has
cerebral palsy, which means she can only work part time. With limited earnings, she depends on food
stamps to put meals on the table. Sonya
is African American and is one of 6, 357 others in Orange County who receive
food stamps. The unemployment among
blacks in North Carolina is over 17%.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office says the
Republican backed measure in Washington would cut about four million recipients
like Cookie from the rolls of those who receive help feeding their
families. Congressman Marlin Stutzman
(R-Indiana) promises, “This bill eliminates loopholes, ensures work
requirements, and puts us on a fiscally responsible path.” Has the Congressman asked Sonya Dixon how she’s
going to feed her disabled daughter?
Here’s a poem by Susan Griffin titled “I like to think of
Harriet Tubman,” which I dedicate to Mr. Stutzman and his colleagues in the
House.
I like to
think of Harriet Tubman.
Harriet
Tubman who carried a revolver,
who had a
scar on her head from a rock thrown
by a
slave-master (because she
talked back)
, and who
had a ransom
on her head
of thousands
of dollars and who
was never
caught, and who
had no use
for the law
who defied
the law. I like
to think of
her.
I like to
think of her especially
when I think
of the problem
of feeding
children.
The legal
answer
to the
problem of feeding children
is ten free
lunches every month,
being equal,
in the child's real life,
to eating
lunch every other day.
Monday but
not Tuesday.
I like to
think of the President
eating lunch
on Monday, but not
Tuesday.
and when I
think of the President
and the law,
and the problem of
feeding
children, I like to
think of
Harriet Tubman
and her
revolver.
And then
sometimes
I think of
the President
and other
men,
men who
practice the law,
who revere
the law,
who make the
law,
who enforce
the law
who live
behind
and operate
through
and feed
themselves
at the
expense of
starving
children
because of
the law.
men who sit
in paneled offices
and think
about vacations
and tell
women
whose care
it is
to feed
children
not to be
hysterical
not to be
hysterical as in the word
hysterikos,
the greek for
womb
suffering,
not to
suffer in their
wombs,
not to care,
not to
bother the men
because they
want to think
of other
things
and do not
want
to take women
seriously.
I want them
to think about Harriet Tubman,
and
remember,
remember she
was beaten by a white man
and she
lived
and she
lived to redress her grievances,
and she
lived in swamps
and wore the
clothes of a man
bringing
hundreds of fugitives from
slavery, and
was never caught,
and led an
army,
and won a
battle,
and defied
the laws
because the
laws were wrong, I want men
to take us
seriously.
I am tired
wanting them to think
about right
and wrong.
I want them
to fear.
I want them
to feel fear now I want them
to know
that there
is always a time
there is
always a time to make right
what is
wrong,
there is
always a time
for
retribution
and that
time
is
beginning.
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