Saturday December 13, 2008
Posted by David Rothenberg on Tuesday, December 16, 2008
America is marking time until the Obama presidency begins…with hopes soaring. His task is enormous as he starts to dig us out from the last eight disastrous years.
Obviously, the economy is the pervasive issue that the new President will be facing. If you read the polls and paper, it is almost as if the war in Iraq doesn’t exist. Obviously, the Mideast will absorb a great deal of the Obama’s attention…but America’s danger, these days, seems to be less from terrorists and more from the pitfalls created by avarice and mismanagement in business and government. The Robber Barons have always been ubiquitous in our nation’s checkered history, but the great failings, like the Depression in ’29 and the current fiscal crisis, arise when the ruling government is slovenly and complacent…ingredients which define the Bush years.
It is my hope that a few important issues won’t be lost as the new President focuses on the economy and the Middle East. For example, the 2010 Census is vitally important and has far-reaching implications. How the census is calculated will have an impact on how government dollars are distributed and who is served. The census has never been a sexy issue and therefore receives scant attention.
One of the first things that I hope will happen in New York State – and those other states with similar abuses – is that people in prison not be included in the towns where they are incarcerated. They should be recorded as residents of those hamlets in which they resided at the time of their arrest. This is not just about government statistics. It has important political and economic ramifications that affect the neediest people in the state.
When a town like Attica is credited with 2,000 residents – the inmates who cannot vote –
political power shifts unfairly to that town at the expense of the city areas where the prisoners initially resided. It means that government monies that are distributed based on population are disproportionately available for upstate schools, parks, hospitals, police, firemen/women and other civic necessities. The poor communities that housed the many men and women who became inmates lose…and their desperate needs are expanded, continuing the very conditions that nurtured anti-social behavior.
If democracy and equity are to exist, the 2010 Census must make some adjustments. All it will take is some leadership that recognizes what is fair and in the best interest of the people. We can’t continue to deny our cities the dollars that fight crimes. Otherwise, we are investing money in building and maintaining prisons while city services are limited.
We are not talking about spending more money…always the stated concern of conservatives. (In fact, especially during these hard times how the dollar is spent is the concern to us all.) We are talking about a fair distribution of dollars based on the real population of a community. We are continually informed of the seven neighborhoods in New York City which are responsible for a great number of people who end up in jails and prisons. It doesn’t take a social scientist to realize what is afoot here. The Census is only one area in which work must be done, but it is a good place to start and can initiated by a flick of a pen.
There will be some opposition to re-evaluating how the Census is compiled…even though the adjustments will comfortably fit into a democratic framework. There are some seats in the state legislature that exist only because of numbers inflated by the inclusion of the inmate population. These elected officials will see democracy as a barrier to their posts so what on the surface appears to be a cut-and-dried issue will have strong resistance.
But Census 2010 is only one of the issues which the Obama presidency must face, hidden as it may be because of the economy. It will take a concerned and alert constituency to remind the President-elect of various issues that must be considered.
Think of your own priorities…at your job or in your neighborhood, and how you will organize and affect change. The time is ripe for real change and it can come from the grassroots. We can start with Census 2010.
I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb.
Obviously, the economy is the pervasive issue that the new President will be facing. If you read the polls and paper, it is almost as if the war in Iraq doesn’t exist. Obviously, the Mideast will absorb a great deal of the Obama’s attention…but America’s danger, these days, seems to be less from terrorists and more from the pitfalls created by avarice and mismanagement in business and government. The Robber Barons have always been ubiquitous in our nation’s checkered history, but the great failings, like the Depression in ’29 and the current fiscal crisis, arise when the ruling government is slovenly and complacent…ingredients which define the Bush years.
It is my hope that a few important issues won’t be lost as the new President focuses on the economy and the Middle East. For example, the 2010 Census is vitally important and has far-reaching implications. How the census is calculated will have an impact on how government dollars are distributed and who is served. The census has never been a sexy issue and therefore receives scant attention.
One of the first things that I hope will happen in New York State – and those other states with similar abuses – is that people in prison not be included in the towns where they are incarcerated. They should be recorded as residents of those hamlets in which they resided at the time of their arrest. This is not just about government statistics. It has important political and economic ramifications that affect the neediest people in the state.
When a town like Attica is credited with 2,000 residents – the inmates who cannot vote –
political power shifts unfairly to that town at the expense of the city areas where the prisoners initially resided. It means that government monies that are distributed based on population are disproportionately available for upstate schools, parks, hospitals, police, firemen/women and other civic necessities. The poor communities that housed the many men and women who became inmates lose…and their desperate needs are expanded, continuing the very conditions that nurtured anti-social behavior.
If democracy and equity are to exist, the 2010 Census must make some adjustments. All it will take is some leadership that recognizes what is fair and in the best interest of the people. We can’t continue to deny our cities the dollars that fight crimes. Otherwise, we are investing money in building and maintaining prisons while city services are limited.
We are not talking about spending more money…always the stated concern of conservatives. (In fact, especially during these hard times how the dollar is spent is the concern to us all.) We are talking about a fair distribution of dollars based on the real population of a community. We are continually informed of the seven neighborhoods in New York City which are responsible for a great number of people who end up in jails and prisons. It doesn’t take a social scientist to realize what is afoot here. The Census is only one area in which work must be done, but it is a good place to start and can initiated by a flick of a pen.
There will be some opposition to re-evaluating how the Census is compiled…even though the adjustments will comfortably fit into a democratic framework. There are some seats in the state legislature that exist only because of numbers inflated by the inclusion of the inmate population. These elected officials will see democracy as a barrier to their posts so what on the surface appears to be a cut-and-dried issue will have strong resistance.
But Census 2010 is only one of the issues which the Obama presidency must face, hidden as it may be because of the economy. It will take a concerned and alert constituency to remind the President-elect of various issues that must be considered.
Think of your own priorities…at your job or in your neighborhood, and how you will organize and affect change. The time is ripe for real change and it can come from the grassroots. We can start with Census 2010.
I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb.
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