"You Owe Our Children An Apology"-An Open Letter to Newt Gingrich From the Pastors of Poor Children

[kpete]

Mr. Gingrich,

For this you still owe our children an apology:

“Some of the things they could do is work in a library, work in the front office, some of them frankly could be janitorial; what if they clean up the bathrooms, what if they mopped the floors, what if in the summer they repainted the school; what if in the process they were actually learning to work, learning to earn money; if they had their own money, they didn’t have to become a pimp or a prostitute or a drug dealer. (If) they had the dignity of work and learned how to be around adults who actually wanted to mentor them and help them. This is not a casual comment… It grows out of a lot of thinking over many years of trying to figure out how do we break out people trapped in poverty who have no work habits.” – Gingrich

We, the students and faculty of the Delaware Annual Conference Ministerial Institute of the AME Church, representing over 34 congregations and their constituents throughout Delaware and southern Pennsylvania are outraged at your continued demeaning of poor children and their families.

As a candidate vying for the Republican Presidential nomination, to suggest that poor children collectively lack a work ethic and drive for legal and productive work is entirely classist. Your national platform is no place for such irresponsible remarks. Our children deserve better than your degrading rhetoric.

In fact, they deserve an apology, and we — their pastors and advocates — demand one.

Mr. Gingrich, what your remarks have demonstrated is a failure to acknowledge the resilience of many who work daily and yet are unable to escape poverty. For many, low wages, a poor economy, and sparse full time employment opportunities have landed many families into the category of what the U.S. Department of Labor & Labor Statistics call the working poor. Contrary to what your remarks propagate, a significant number of children in households below the American poverty line (and those one paycheck away from it) are in homes with working family members; many of them are in our congregations weekly and are active citizens.

Mr. Gingrich, not only did you get the “cause” of poverty wrong, but your “solution” is just as unsubstantiated and offensive. Mandating that poor children become the janitors of their own failing public schools to better their work ethic is not a well thought out, viable, or realistic solution. Such a proposal is not only insulting, it is ridiculous.

Where would the currently employed janitors work (obviously this is a back handed assault on union employees)? If poor children are to benefit from extracurricular employment, why not at least provide STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) opportunities to increase their competitiveness in the global marketplace? Why not invest in education reform instead of cutting back early education/head start programs? Why not put forth solutions to the unemployment crisis in our nation, so that those who have the dignity, but not the work, can have an opportunity to build a better future for themselves and their children?

But, no — instead you fan the flames of prejudice to get votes. With a move right out of Lee Atwater’s Southern Strategy play book (i.e., “Welfare Mothers” = Lazy Blacks), you have managed to stir the xenophobia and racist fears of your far right republican base with the statement:

“I’ve been talking about the importance of work, particularly as it relates to people who are in areas where there is public housing, et cetera, where there are relatively few people that go to work.” (Emphasis added)

Mr. Gingrich, the poverty of many poor minority children is the byproduct of systemic injustices that bar them from participation in the American Dream because of their racial and social location — not laziness.

We understand that you are of the “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” camp, but the last time we checked Mr. Gingrich, it is impossible to pull yourself up by your own boot straps, and even more difficult when you have no boots to begin with.

Consequently, as pastors and leaders of the poor and their children, we are called to champion those without the boots of opportunity, fair play, and justice. For us not to mandate an apology for such biased, erroneous and offensive remarks would be as irresponsible as the remarks themselves. Today, Mr. Gingrich, we extend to you the opportunity to recant your “war on poor children” rhetoric and the opportunity to apologize to our children for speaking such falsehoods over their lives.

Awaiting your response,
Delaware Annual Conference Ministerial Institute

The Rev. Dr. Janet J. Sturdivant, Dean of Ministerial Institute
The Rev. Silvester S. Beaman, Chairman of Board of Examiners
Sis. Joi Orr, M.Div, Organizer & Institute Student

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joi-ruth-orr/newt-gingrich-racism_b_1217614.html

[xchrom]

1. I hope you get a better response than I did.

I posted in GD - went no where.

[unapatriciated]

2. I'm glad she posted this. I didn't see yours.

If I had I would have rec'd and commented. Newt is the grinch, but I doubt if he has any desire to grow a heart.
We do need to point out every chance we can what a despicable man he really is. Thanks to the AME for doing this.

[xchrom]

3. +1

[glowing]

4. It amazes me that this is the party that claims to be the party of Christians...

Seriously, have any of these Christians ever cracked open the actual pages of their bibles and bothered to read any of it. Where is the compassion? Where is the humanity? Where is Christ in any of their rhetoric?

I guess they are more worried about keeping Christ in Christmas (the most commercialized, over-consumptive time of the year that values stuff over people)... and they are more worried about what other people are doing in their bedrooms... and they are over-zealous with their righteous determination that every sexual act promotes reproduction and that in the event an egg becomes fertilized, the fertilized egg has more rights than the woman... to the point of allowing the woman to die in order to keep the fetus inside the womb, which will die along with the host mother, rather than a Dr and the woman make the decision what to do in regards to medical situation. AND once a baby is born, and it is born to a young, poor woman, then, they don't want to pay more in taxes to eli offset the major costs in raising a healthy baby and child. Hypocrisy knows no bounds with these people.

Exactly, how are these people Christian? And how does the rest of the country take them seriously when their Candidates for serious offices that make the laws that quite literally control the quality of our lives of people, when they bully the GLBT community, make it harder to escape poverty, tell school teacher professionals how to do their jobs with less resources all so that the kids can make it to adulthood and be able to work for the corporations that are sucking the life-force out of everything that has been "good" in America, and seriously, are still race-baiting... Do they not understand that color does not make one person better or another lessor?

[Martin Eden]

7. They're the kind of Christians who boo the Golden Rule ...

... and cheer the suggestion that people without health insurance should be left to die.

[Nikia]

5. For some reason, that letter made me want to cry

I really hope that more people get it.

[Doctor_J]

6. Gingrinch - what stupid people think smart people sound like

Thanks to Krugman for coining that dead-on phrase.

[ejbr]

8. k & r !! n/t