Hunger Symposium: Panel C Domestic Problems to end malnutrition - Part 1

Side 1

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My name is Dan McLaughlin. I guess you got that from the program, but I'm the academic
 
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chairman of the food marketing department at St. Joseph's College here in Philadelphia.
 
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Food marketing and food distribution, as you probably know, is fairly unique as a college
 
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major in this country. There are only six schools that actually have a food marketing
 
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major as such, so we're rather proud of what we've done and some of the successes over
 
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the years. Our panel today deals with really, the title's kind of long there, I know, it's
 
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the Christian Community and Domestic Programs to End Malnutrition. That's kind of a mouthful,
 
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but basically we're concerned with the problem of food distribution, food marketing, food
 
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service in the United States, that is the domestic problems. I suspect we will concentrate
 
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more on the problem of the low income than the poor, than in general, but at the same
 
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time the subject is broad enough that we can move into several different areas. We have
 
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four panelists here today. Let me just very quickly run them down. Mr. Patrick Temple West,
 
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who is Director of Nutritional Services for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. You can tell which
 
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one Pat is, I guess, fairly easily. Patricia Young, the Chairperson of the Crusade Against
 
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Hunger of the National Council of Churches out of New York. Mary Ellen Lloyd, who is the Elder
 
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of the Germantown Community Presbyterian Church and Chairperson of the Trinity Synod Hunger Task
 
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force on the far end there. And Miss Viola Sanders, who is the educational chairperson
 
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of the Pennsylvania Welfare Rights Organization, so that I think we've got a pretty good mixture
 
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of fairly broad coverage here. We argued for about half an hour who was going to go first
 
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and we finally decided there was only one possible solution, that the gentleman had
 
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to go first. And he doesn't want to, but he's going to anyhow. So that, as I said, Patrick
 
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Temple West is the director of the Nutritional Development Services for the Yash Diocese.
 
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He is a graduate of St. Joe's.
 
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He got his master's at Drexel University.
 
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Pat worked for the Academy of Food Marketing
 
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for two years or more, so that we've worked together
 
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many times over the years.
 
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And I'll turn it over to him at this point.
 
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Pat.
 
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Thank you.
 
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As Dan pointed out, that topic is kind of vast.
 
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The domestic programs to try and talk about in a quarter
 
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now are all federal and non-federal and private programs
 
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to end hunger in the United States is pretty big.
 
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I deal with, within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia,
 
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we deal with most federal and a lot of non-federal programs
 
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which are designed to alleviate hunger.
 
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From the WIC program, through preschool, school lunch,
 
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food stamp outreach, elderly programs, food co-ops,
 
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all these are the sort of things, gardening,
 
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inner city vegetable gardening, this sort of thing.
 
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So one of the things that I have found
 
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in dealing with these programs, it's
 
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very hard to look at a program and see whether or not
 
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it is valid.
 
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How can you tell whether or not the food stamp
 
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program is sufficient?
 
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And what basis do you have?
 
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And if you say, well, what basis is,
 
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what Christian basis is there for the food steps
 
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or for the school lunch program?
 
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Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk
 
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about two things.
 
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I'm going to talk about determining
 
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individual food allotments.
 
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How much food do you give a person?
 
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How do you figure out how much you should give somebody?
 
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And how do you determine whether a person
 
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is eligible or not?
 
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Okay, for that food.
 
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And I'm going to do it, not uniquely,
 
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because you probably had it a lot by now,
 
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But I'm going to read, because this is my life,
 
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and I guess today and this week is where we put our hearts
 
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in our sleeve, from Mark.
 
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And I'm going to read the feeding of the 5,000.
 
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And what I would like you to do is think about,
 
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as I read this, the National School Lunch Program.
 
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It's very simple to think about the National School Lunch
 
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Food Program, the National School Lunch Program in this.
 
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But you can also go through it, think about as I go through it,
 
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the food stamp program and elderly program.
 
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Now, just let me read it, and I may, as I go through,
 
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comment on it, and I will afterwards.
 
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Upon Jesus' just coming off a boat, upon disembarking,
 
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Jesus saw a vast crowd.
 
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He pitied them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd.
 
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And he began to teach them a great length.
 
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He was teaching.
 
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who is now getting late, and his disciples came to him with a suggestion.
 
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This is a deserted place and it is already late.
 
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Why do you not dismiss them so that they can go to the crossroads and villages around here
 
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and buy themselves something to eat?
 
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Let them go home and get something to eat.
 
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You give them something to eat, Jesus said.
 
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And at that they said,
 
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are we to go and spend 200 days wages for bread to feed them?
 
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No, we can't possibly feed all these people.
 
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How many loaves do you have?
 
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Jesus asked. Go and see. Go and find out what you've got.
 
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That's it.
 
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When they had learned the number, they answered, five and two fish.
 
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And he told them to make the people sit down on the green grass in groups or parties.
 
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And the people took their places in hundreds and fifties, neatly arranged like flower beds.
 
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And then taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven, pronounced
 
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a blessing, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples to distribute.
 
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He divided the two fish among all of them, and they ate until they'd had their fill."
 
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That's an interesting point.
 
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And they gathered up enough leftovers to fill 12 baskets besides what remained of the fish.
 
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And those who'd numbered, those who'd eaten the loaves numbered about 5,000 men.
 
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Now, this is very interesting.
 
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Certain things come into consideration.
 
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5,000 people there, at least 5,000 men, we're told.
 
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Maybe it's, being very conservative, a similar number of women and children.
 
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So about 10,000 people, perhaps?
 
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I don't know. I'm not the theologian in my family.
 
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But, well, we can say 5,000 anyway then.
 
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In 5,000, you're going to have, now they all got it, okay?
 
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Everybody got it. Everybody was out there.
 
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Whether they were rich or poor, or in a crowd of 5,000,
 
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you're gonna have a few pickpockets, okay?
 
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You're gonna have a few crooks.
 
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You're gonna have a few hangers on of crowds,
 
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crowds, rather, they all got it, because most of them, when Jesus looked out and saw them,
 
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he said, this group here, as a group, as a category, if you wish, is hungry. It needs
 
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food now. Quite possibly, there were some there who didn't, a few who didn't. They may have brought
 
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their own food, okay? The disciples are not going to go and check each one of
 
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those 5,000 people to find out whether they've got food. They were going to go
 
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around to the first few in the first few rows. Who were there
 
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last night, you know? 300,000 people. That's a lot of people. You can't go
 
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and possibly check on each person to find out what they have. So there were a
 
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few people and they brought their own stuff, but they got food too. So one of the ways
 
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of determining eligibility, that is, who do you give food to? In the United States
 
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there are two ways of doing it. One's called the categorical and one's
 
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individual. One way of determining whether or not people are eligible for
 
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food programs is to go to each one and say how much money do you have? You
 
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personally, how much money do you have? How much money do you have in the bank?
 
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let me see, I want to see this. Now, these people come from proven low-income areas,
 
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the vast areas, North Philadelphia, just take North Philadelphia, most people in
 
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North Philadelphia, by any stretch of the imagination, are poor. Now, there will be
 
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one or two people in there, a few hardy souls, who are a little better off, but
 
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The way the food programs in the United States are going now is to go to each one of those people and say,
 
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to be eligible for approved food program, you have to prove to me that you have a certain, you don't have a certain amount of money,
 
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or that you don't have a certain amount of food, or you don't have a certain amount of your house doesn't cost so much, or you don't have two cars.
 
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Okay? It seems to me that a Christian approach to determining people would be on a categorical basis
 
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from the scriptures. We can argue that, but that's how Jesus did it.
 
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I can't go, you've only got a quarter of an hour, so you're going to stop me, right?
 
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The other thing, how much food did Jesus give?
 
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Well, that's an interesting question, but it says they all, they, they, they, and I'm
 
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just taking marks, until it had their fill.
 
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He kept giving it to them, right?
 
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Seconds, thirds, fourths, until they said, I can't eat anymore, right?
 
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I can't eat anymore.
 
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The decision as to when to stop was up to them, not up to Jesus.
 
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Jesus did not say, I am only going to give you two loaves and one fish.
 
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That's enough.
 
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That's all you need.
 
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I decide for you, that's all you need.
 
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No, the decision was up to them.
 
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Okay, now that's a little harder for domestic programs to swallow, to give people until
 
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a rolling with stomach aches. But I think that what we should do is if we err to err
 
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on the side of generosity. And let me take the food stamp program. The food stamp program
 
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has as its basis something called the thrifty food plan. The thrifty food plan is an amount
 
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of food based on the recommended dietary allowances established by the federal
 
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government, it is possible to live on that. It is possible. It is not practical.
 
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People, generally speaking, don't live on that, okay? It would seem to me to be a
 
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more Christian allotment to set up a higher allotment. The government has three
 
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higher allotments, a higher, a moderate, and a low-cost food plans. It would seem
 
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to me that a more Christian approach to setting a base for the food stamp
 
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program would be the low-cost food program, which, picture taking time, which
 
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would, which one could recommend to others. It would be very hard, now some of
 
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you who've been hearing that we have to restrict our food intake, okay, we have to
 
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get others to restrict our food intake. We have to, we are eating, you heard, we eat twice as much
 
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protein as we need. What is a valid amount of protein? Does any, you know, that's a, for a lay
 
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person that is a hard thing to determine, okay. However, the government has all these figures. The
 
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government has, it's broken down, it's higher cost, high cost, moderate, and low cost food plants. I
 
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I would suggest the low-cost food program would be a very good food program for Catholics to assume, for Christians to assume, for all people of goodwill to live by.
 
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It's one that can be lived by. The thrifty food plan, I don't think you're going to get very many people to accept.
 
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Okay? The nutritionists are coming out pro and con. There's a big to-do about that program.
 
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It is not a generous food program. It is a meager food program. It is a meager plan.
 
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Therefore, I would suggest that the low-cost food plan be a more Christian approach.
 
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and any plan that errs on the side of generosity to people.
 
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Present food programs in the United States,
 
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generally speaking, are designed to preserve the status quo.
 
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In fact, most domestic welfare programs
 
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are designed to promote the status quo.
 
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They do not give a person enough to help them to get out of the cycle of poverty.
 
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They don't allow a person to develop himself, to come up to, as in the development of the people,
 
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Pope Paul's encyclical. They do not allow a person to raise themselves up.
 
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We need a Christian approach, would be one which gives and gives, full measure, press down, and
 
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flowing over. Okay? Full measure, flowing over, abundantly, abundantly, is probably the key word.
 
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The decision, if one has the courage to make the decision, or has the courage to do this,
 
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And this is a real lyric leap into faith and into trust and into love.
 
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Because if we are to love our fellow man, that means we are to trust him.
 
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And we are to trust him to make the decision for us.
 
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As Jesus did not make the decision for them when to stop eating, so perhaps we should
 
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and this is a rather hard saying,
 
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but perhaps we should allow the poor to tell us
 
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when to stop giving to them.
 
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Would seem to be a Christian approach.
 
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However, that's so much for food.
 
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And let me, in the light of this Eucharistic Congress,
 
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say another thing.
 
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We can talk too much about food itself.
 
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And let me just continue with the repercussion of what happened at the feeding of the 5,000.
 
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And I'm going to go on from John.
 
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And Jesus went to the boat and he went across to the other side of the lake and the people ran around after him.
 
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And when they found him on the other side of the lake, they said to him,
 
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Rabbi, when did you come here?
 
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And Jesus answered them, I assure you, you are not looking for me because you have seen signs, but because you have eaten of your fill of the loaves.
 
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You should not be working for perishable food, but for the food that remains unto life eternal,
 
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the food which the Son of Man will give you.
 
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It is on Him that God the Father has set His seal.
 
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I myself am the living bread come down from heaven, and if anyone eats this bread, he
 
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shall live forever.
 
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The bread I give is my flesh for the life of the world."
 
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When you think of food programs in that light, that surely is the end result.
 
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We have to somehow get to the point where Mahatma Gandhi was, that we have to be prepared
 
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to starve ourselves so that others may live.
 
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We have the choice.
 
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Other people don't.
 
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I mean, the people who are starving don't have a choice whether they can starve or live.
 
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They just starve.
 
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We have the choice.
 
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We can either starve or live.
 
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We can make that choice ourselves.
 
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Unfortunately, our federal food programs are not conducted in such a spirit.
 
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00:16:57,060 --> 00:17:09,460
And perhaps what I have just said could lead to a more, give some idea of a Christian approach.
 
219
00:17:09,460 --> 00:17:14,460
Food stamps are still big in Congress right now, big in Congress.
 
220
00:17:14,460 --> 00:17:18,800
And there are always bills coming up.
 
221
00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:24,180
It seems to me that if you want a guideline as which vote, which one to vote for, vote
 
222
00:17:24,180 --> 00:17:26,540
for the most generous.
 
223
00:17:26,540 --> 00:17:29,820
for the most generous and I don't think you can go wrong.
 
224
00:17:29,820 --> 00:17:30,620
Thank you.
 
225
00:17:30,620 --> 00:17:39,900
Thank you, Pat.
 
226
00:17:39,900 --> 00:17:42,820
I'm kind of glad you did go first now because you did sort
 
227
00:17:42,820 --> 00:17:44,900
of let it all hang out as you promised.
 
228
00:17:44,900 --> 00:17:47,460
Also, I think that does sort of set the tone for what most
 
229
00:17:47,460 --> 00:17:49,060
of us have in mind, at least I think it does,
 
230
00:17:49,060 --> 00:17:51,220
but we'll see how it progresses.
 
231
00:17:51,220 --> 00:17:53,780
Ms. Patricia Young is the chairperson, as I mentioned,
 
232
00:17:53,780 --> 00:17:55,740
of the Crusade Against Hunger of the National Council
 
233
00:17:55,740 --> 00:17:59,740
churches and I'd like her to go second please.
 
234
00:18:09,780 --> 00:18:13,760
When I began preparing for this, for some reason my thoughts kept
 
235
00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:20,060
going back to a noon session in the Oval Office on December the
 
236
00:18:20,100 --> 00:18:22,860
6th, 1969.
 
237
00:18:22,900 --> 00:18:25,640
The White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health had
 
238
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:31,680
just ended and six of us had been fasting together while preparing to take
 
239
00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:37,280
the message of the White House conference to President Nixon. And as we
 
240
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:43,120
had talked about what kind of a reception we would get there, we became
 
241
00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:47,360
very apprehensive because we had been told that the atmosphere there was
 
242
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:52,200
absolutely frigid. You see Mr. Nixon had come to address the conference and had
 
243
00:18:52,200 --> 00:18:57,820
gotten slightly, slight applause and Mr. McGovern had come and gotten an ovation.
 
244
00:18:57,820 --> 00:19:02,260
And the things that were being said by the people at the conference, such as
 
245
00:19:02,260 --> 00:19:08,400
George Wiley and so forth, were not very acceptable at the White House. And so we
 
246
00:19:08,400 --> 00:19:15,240
would have 15 minutes that we would be allowed one spokesperson and that was it.
 
247
00:19:15,240 --> 00:19:20,640
So as we sat there I was listening because here sat a Jesuit priest and
 
248
00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:25,740
economist and several other people and just before we were
 
249
00:19:25,780 --> 00:19:30,220
ready to leave they pointed to me and said that I was to be the
 
250
00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:35,320
spokesperson in as much as I was the least threatening.
 
251
00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:40,060
There were black and Chicano in the group and I was white.
 
252
00:19:40,100 --> 00:19:42,100
I was lay and not clergy.
 
253
00:19:44,860 --> 00:19:49,360
I was a woman and not a man and I was a Republican and the only
 
254
00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:54,200
one in the group.
 
255
00:19:54,200 --> 00:20:01,200
I naturally, all of a sudden, it felt like the whole world had descended upon me.
 
256
00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:04,120
And at that moment, perhaps the thing that occurred to me that would have occurred to
 
257
00:20:04,120 --> 00:20:10,120
all of you, can someone please say a prayer before we leave?
 
258
00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:14,120
And so Father McEwen did say a prayer.
 
259
00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:17,280
And as we left, people knew we were on the way to the White House, and they were lined
 
260
00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:23,640
on both sides of the lobby as we went through on the way to our White House car.
 
261
00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,000
Everybody said, what can we do for you?
 
262
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,200
And all I could say was pray.
 
263
00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:33,480
And we went to the White House, sat in Mr. Monaghan's office, and eventually were ushered
 
264
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:36,720
into the Oval Office.
 
265
00:20:36,720 --> 00:20:40,160
And I have to believe that that prayer at least helped us get through the meeting.
 
266
00:20:40,160 --> 00:20:44,920
It didn't help much action thereafter, but it helped us get through the meeting.
 
267
00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:48,920
we did have almost an hour and everyone got a chance to talk.
 
268
00:20:50,160 --> 00:20:53,000
Because I said to the president we all have something to say to
 
269
00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:58,140
you. What he said to us was don't judge me by what I say but
 
270
00:20:58,140 --> 00:21:05,360
what I do. I remember that often as we have been working now
 
271
00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:10,120
since 1969 to get something to happen and we have made progress
 
272
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:14,800
in food programs but not in truly alleviating poverty in
 
273
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:19,200
this country are the root causes that bring about poverty.
 
274
00:21:19,200 --> 00:21:25,640
And so we come again to a massive conference with prayer in our hearts that something will
 
275
00:21:25,640 --> 00:21:26,640
happen.
 
276
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:35,720
I'd like to make a point before I start on remarks about domestic hunger.
 
277
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:40,120
The fact that our domestic hunger here in this country is very much a part of world
 
278
00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:43,400
hunger. And then when we speak of world hunger, we must be
 
279
00:21:43,400 --> 00:21:47,000
speaking on hunger in the United States as well. And that is
 
280
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,140
something that is so easy to forget. And I have been grateful
 
281
00:21:51,140 --> 00:21:53,900
every time I've heard Mother Teresa speak, because she has
 
282
00:21:53,900 --> 00:21:57,940
always reminded us, look in your own home, in your own block, in
 
283
00:21:57,940 --> 00:22:01,180
your own neighborhood, in your own community, and there you
 
284
00:22:01,180 --> 00:22:08,180
respond. And that, in effect, touches the whole problem.
 
285
00:22:08,180 --> 00:22:13,160
So there is a world food crisis and much of what is a crisis
 
286
00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:15,920
around the world is a crisis here in the United States.
 
287
00:22:15,920 --> 00:22:19,460
The similarities are very strong.
 
288
00:22:19,460 --> 00:22:23,700
I'd like to put my remarks under three points.
 
289
00:22:23,700 --> 00:22:27,840
One, people power and the U.S. experience.
 
290
00:22:27,840 --> 00:22:31,000
Second, community power and the U.S. experience.
 
291
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:35,780
And finally, Christian faith and the U.S. experience.
 
292
00:22:35,780 --> 00:22:41,920
they are related, but I would lift them up, separate them out
 
293
00:22:41,920 --> 00:22:44,620
to make the focus that I'd like to make.
 
294
00:22:44,620 --> 00:22:46,480
First of all, people power.
 
295
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,960
We just heard from one of the US authorities
 
296
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:53,480
within the last couple of weeks that at a time when there
 
297
00:22:53,480 --> 00:22:58,160
is a real change of possibilities,
 
298
00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:00,640
both for good and for bad in our world,
 
299
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:03,560
there is a real possibility of people power
 
300
00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,640
being the strongest power around.
 
301
00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,600
There aren't superpowers in the international scene as we often think of it.
 
302
00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:16,720
And in our own world, in the U.S., Congress and the administration are somewhat balancing each other.
 
303
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:20,360
And at last, we have a chance for people power and boy, do we need it.
 
304
00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:26,800
To get us to recognize in this country that there was hunger, we needed people power.
 
305
00:23:27,300 --> 00:23:32,220
That period of discovery and decision that began in about 66 and went
 
306
00:23:32,220 --> 00:23:38,580
through the White House conference was the Citizens Board of Inquiry going out and documenting it,
 
307
00:23:39,020 --> 00:23:47,320
some Field Foundation doctors, some individual senators and representatives, a CBS camera crew,
 
308
00:23:48,060 --> 00:23:53,620
some people who established the Senate Select Committee, Dr. Arnold Schaefer and his staff
 
309
00:23:53,620 --> 00:23:59,880
that set out in a supposed to be a 50-state nutrition survey and ended at 10 and got banished
 
310
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:03,560
to Atlanta and a communicable disease center when he discovered
 
311
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:06,340
there was hunger, and at last the White House Conference
 
312
00:24:06,340 --> 00:24:07,740
on Food, Nutrition, and Health.
 
313
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:11,020
We even had to call it that kind of euphemism.
 
314
00:24:11,100 --> 00:24:12,560
Even though we knew there was hunger,
 
315
00:24:12,740 --> 00:24:15,640
we still couldn't say the White House Conference on U.S. Hunger.
 
316
00:24:16,260 --> 00:24:20,960
Well, growing out of that came an alliance of a lot
 
317
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:23,320
of groups and some real action.
 
318
00:24:23,860 --> 00:24:26,060
And here clearly everything
 
319
00:24:26,060 --> 00:24:31,060
that I will mention has been a Christian and sometimes Judeo
 
320
00:24:31,060 --> 00:24:34,620
Christian standing together, witness in this country about
 
321
00:24:34,620 --> 00:24:36,100
what are we going to do about it.
 
322
00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,180
The crusade against hunger, for example, had from the very
 
323
00:24:40,180 --> 00:24:42,140
beginning representatives from the U.S.
 
324
00:24:42,140 --> 00:24:43,980
Catholic Rural Life Conference.
 
325
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,960
As we launched programs on school lunch, school breakfast,
 
326
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:49,580
Title VII and so forth.
 
327
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:54,100
When following Rome and the World Food Conference, the
 
328
00:24:54,100 --> 00:24:56,800
The National Council of Churches brought people together at
 
329
00:24:56,840 --> 00:25:00,180
Graymoor to plot what we were going to do ahead.
 
330
00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:01,880
Everything that has come out of that has been a
 
331
00:25:01,900 --> 00:25:05,080
coalitional Christian witness.
 
332
00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:07,980
The Inter-Religious Task Force on U.S. Food Policy in
 
333
00:25:08,020 --> 00:25:11,120
Washington has always been Catholic, Protestant,
 
334
00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:15,960
and Jewish and related groups working in Washington to impact
 
335
00:25:15,980 --> 00:25:19,960
legislation, only it's a much stronger body than it ever was.
 
336
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,420
Bread for the World, a Catholic, Protestant witness.
 
337
00:25:22,420 --> 00:25:24,320
You've heard about that already here today.
 
338
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:26,120
I don't need to go into it.
 
339
00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:28,920
Within the National Council of Churches, again,
 
340
00:25:28,920 --> 00:25:32,260
a domestic working group on hunger and poverty.
 
341
00:25:32,260 --> 00:25:34,360
But wherever we go out into communities,
 
342
00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:35,820
it is always coalitional.
 
343
00:25:35,820 --> 00:25:38,260
When I was in Birmingham, Alabama just a month ago,
 
344
00:25:38,260 --> 00:25:42,000
the Bishop of Alabama was there as a part of our effort
 
345
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,400
to set up some kind of community impact.
 
346
00:25:45,400 --> 00:25:50,480
Wheat World Hunger Education Action Together is a thing
 
347
00:25:50,480 --> 00:25:53,920
that you're going to be hearing about if you work together in your communities
 
348
00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:58,000
and you will come to recognize this symbol. Now that is a Protestant
 
349
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:03,000
consortium, but wherever we work, we work together because we've realized that is
 
350
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:07,000
where power is and that's what we must be doing. I have a chart here which you
 
351
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:11,120
couldn't possibly see, but it shows how all the pieces work together and at
 
352
00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:15,560
first glance it's terribly complex, but what you really will see is that we are
 
353
00:26:15,560 --> 00:26:20,120
trying to share together on all the various levels so that we
 
354
00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:21,320
can make a difference.
 
355
00:26:21,320 --> 00:26:25,220
And incidentally, up here are some pamphlets, a hunger action
 
356
00:26:25,220 --> 00:26:26,220
agenda.
 
357
00:26:26,220 --> 00:26:28,720
There may not be enough to go around, but as many as there
 
358
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,660
will go, and there is an address where you can order more.
 
359
00:26:31,660 --> 00:26:35,160
Again, it is an effort to ascertain what the problems are
 
360
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:38,120
in our community and then work together on them.
 
361
00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:41,620
One of the more interesting ones that has suddenly had a
 
362
00:26:41,620 --> 00:26:45,020
greatly increased participation and a dimension of hunger we
 
363
00:26:45,020 --> 00:26:47,820
haven't talked so much about here is Corporate Social
 
364
00:26:47,860 --> 00:26:50,760
Responsibility, the Interface Center on Corporate
 
365
00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:52,260
Responsibility.
 
366
00:26:52,300 --> 00:26:54,940
I don't know whether the Sisters of the Precious Blood are here
 
367
00:26:54,960 --> 00:26:58,040
at the Eucharistic Congress, but they are currently engaged in
 
368
00:26:58,080 --> 00:27:01,480
filing a suit against Bristol-Myers on the marketing of
 
369
00:27:01,500 --> 00:27:03,800
infant formula in the third and fourth world.
 
370
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:05,840
And if you don't know about it, it's a story that
 
371
00:27:05,880 --> 00:27:07,880
you need to hear.
 
372
00:27:09,020 --> 00:27:12,560
Patrick Temple West talked about ways of looking at food programs
 
373
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:15,880
and deciding allotment and how much and so forth.
 
374
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,740
Another way that is being suggested that we look at it is
 
375
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,700
that food programs are a renewable community resource
 
376
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:27,080
and that they are not only nutritional resources
 
377
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,200
but they are health planning tools.
 
378
00:27:29,800 --> 00:27:32,320
And so I think we have to begin to look
 
379
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:34,940
as we impact federal food programs
 
380
00:27:34,940 --> 00:27:37,620
with whole new agendas, philosophies.
 
381
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,180
The fact that the administration seems built to keep people off
 
382
00:27:41,180 --> 00:27:44,120
of programs and their idea really should be community
 
383
00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:49,560
planning and outreach and participation and gearing up to
 
384
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:53,360
really build a solid floor for all the people in their
 
385
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,800
community using these as one technique.
 
386
00:27:56,840 --> 00:28:00,300
That moves then to the idea of community power in the U.S.
 
387
00:28:00,340 --> 00:28:04,540
experience. Individuals rising up and speaking and saying that
 
388
00:28:04,580 --> 00:28:08,740
we have to do something about these problems have built the
 
389
00:28:08,740 --> 00:28:11,680
momentum which moved us to where we are today.
 
390
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:13,980
And yes, there is a lot more awareness.
 
391
00:28:14,020 --> 00:28:19,560
We heard Sister Anita speak about the fact that all the new
 
392
00:28:19,580 --> 00:28:23,960
awareness is a sign of hope, and it truly is.
 
393
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:27,960
But we haven't yet touched the possibilities of those signs of
 
394
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:29,600
hope.
 
395
00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:33,940
The full implementation of the federal food programs would mean
 
396
00:28:33,980 --> 00:28:36,740
that nearly everybody that needed it would at least have
 
397
00:28:36,740 --> 00:28:44,220
basic food, but we have like 3% participation, 14% participation, 20% participation, 50%
 
398
00:28:44,220 --> 00:28:45,220
participation.
 
399
00:28:45,220 --> 00:28:50,260
In no food program that we have do we have the full potential that legislative intent
 
400
00:28:50,260 --> 00:28:52,300
had planned for.
 
401
00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:56,380
Then you move on to what can we do in some sort of separated areas.
 
402
00:28:56,380 --> 00:29:01,820
All right, let's use it as a health planning tool and link up agriculture and health and
 
403
00:29:01,820 --> 00:29:06,920
preventive kinds of health care rather than mopping up after people have become
 
404
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:11,060
either retarded or malnourished because of hunger and therefore weakened and
 
405
00:29:11,060 --> 00:29:15,520
diseased. There's a need to bring the business community into some new
 
406
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:20,420
alliances with neighborhood groups.

Side 2

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,680
The supermarkets are moving out of the cities and the floor space is being gone.
 
2
00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:10,400
And even if they had the money, they couldn't buy the food.
 
3
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:13,840
And if they buy it, they buy it in a mom and pop store instead of a supermarket that ought
 
4
00:00:13,840 --> 00:00:14,840
to make it easier.
 
5
00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:21,800
Well, Woodlawn in Chicago shows where a corporation uniting with a neighborhood organization,
 
6
00:00:21,800 --> 00:00:25,900
even though there's a lot of vandalism in the streets and other stores, in that particular
 
7
00:00:25,900 --> 00:00:29,680
grocery store it doesn't happen because it's part of the neighborhood.
 
8
00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:32,080
The corporate social action that we're talking about.
 
9
00:00:32,080 --> 00:00:35,520
How do we use our power on the corporations?
 
10
00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,960
What new alliances can we form between producers and consumers,
 
11
00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:41,840
the retail store, the farmer, the labor union,
 
12
00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:44,680
the person in the city hall, and so forth?
 
13
00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,120
What kind of legal action can we take?
 
14
00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,080
The food stamp suit that has been filed against the government,
 
15
00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:53,680
which is a brand new breakthrough of the kind of alliances.
 
16
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,480
We have states, we have city governments, we have labor unions,
 
17
00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:09,680
We have churches and we have needy families and they have called to a halt the implementation of some very damnable regulations that our president called for.
 
18
00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:12,680
And that leads us to something on political action.
 
19
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,180
The right to food, incidentally.
 
20
00:01:15,180 --> 00:01:26,680
You know, I know that, and as a Republican you heard me say it, our administration is up there in Congress testifying against the Bread for the World right to food resolution.
 
21
00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:35,680
Now that may alarm you and make you vote for Carter, except what I read is that Mr. Carter is going to appoint a cotton farmer as Secretary of Agriculture.
 
22
00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,680
In a time when we have a world food crisis, we're putting a cotton farmer in.
 
23
00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:51,680
The new food block goes all the way from the Wall Street banker to the hired hand, and if we ever get together, it can be a very exciting kind of coalition, and they'd better watch out.
 
24
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:55,680
But I think we have to begin to practice what we're going to do at the local community.
 
25
00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:02,680
We can have all this rhetoric about a comprehensive world food policy or a national food policy or a state food policy,
 
26
00:02:02,680 --> 00:02:05,680
but where it better begin to work is in the local community.
 
27
00:02:05,680 --> 00:02:12,680
What can we put together that will get us aware of the problems, the tensions, the drama?
 
28
00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:20,680
All of the mixture that comes to play in the international scene happens right in the local community.
 
29
00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:22,280
How do we spend our money?
 
30
00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:24,040
Military spending.
 
31
00:02:24,040 --> 00:02:26,720
How do you spend revenue sharing funds?
 
32
00:02:26,720 --> 00:02:29,280
You say that we need land reform in the third world,
 
33
00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:31,960
in the fourth world before anything begins to happen.
 
34
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,020
We need land use laws in this country.
 
35
00:02:35,020 --> 00:02:39,200
We talk about waste on the fields and improper use
 
36
00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:40,700
of the land and so forth.
 
37
00:02:40,700 --> 00:02:43,360
There's plenty of waste in this country.
 
38
00:02:43,360 --> 00:02:46,400
We talk about the difference between understanding
 
39
00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,240
categorical food programs and welfare reform is the same thing
 
40
00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:54,700
is the difference between disaster aid and long-term development aid. And on and
 
41
00:02:54,700 --> 00:02:59,960
on we could go if you really wanted to examine how you can begin to build a
 
42
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just, intended, and healthy kind of human settlement, as Barbara Ward puts it. And
 
43
00:03:05,720 --> 00:03:10,880
that would bring us finally then to the Christian faith in the U.S. experience. I
 
44
00:03:10,880 --> 00:03:15,440
like this term I've just acquired by being at the Eucharistic Congress. TNC,
 
45
00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:19,300
in my notes, has always meant the transnational corporation. It's now
 
46
00:03:19,300 --> 00:03:23,560
become to mean the transnational church constituency and I think that's a much
 
47
00:03:23,560 --> 00:03:28,520
better way to look at it. Well we know that there are specialists. There are
 
48
00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,720
hundreds of them and they need to be brought together under some sort of
 
49
00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:35,500
Christian umbrella to talk about the theology and ethics of what they're
 
50
00:03:35,500 --> 00:03:41,840
planning to do. But they know what needs to be done and how. But the specialists
 
51
00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:48,920
know that. God's people know why. Jonas Salk in his book, The Survival of the
 
52
00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:53,100
wisest is talked about we are at a shifting in history.
 
53
00:03:53,540 --> 00:03:59,180
Epoch A is when it was the biological survival, survival of the fittest physically.
 
54
00:04:00,020 --> 00:04:05,640
Now it's going to be the survival of the wisest, those who develop techniques for living
 
55
00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:10,780
for new kinds of values, and that surely is what the church would bring.
 
56
00:04:12,340 --> 00:04:18,780
And I have suggested in other audiences that I think what the church brings primarily is how
 
57
00:04:18,780 --> 00:04:25,320
we look at food or bread? There are at least four ways that we can look at it,
 
58
00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:29,580
and as Christians, it seems to me we bring a different perspective. Food is a
 
59
00:04:29,580 --> 00:04:36,800
necessity for human life. Does anybody question that? Yes, it is being questioned,
 
60
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because we have triage and lifeboat ethics suggested that we can really say
 
61
00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:49,120
that not everybody has a right to food and therefore food is not treated as a
 
62
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necessity that must be under everything that happens. Food is a commodity. We
 
63
00:04:55,840 --> 00:05:00,560
accept the fact that it can be held and bought and sold and traded and given
 
64
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away and so forth, but when do we reach that point when we say first we will
 
65
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make sure that those who need it and then we will sell or give or trade and
 
66
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And there is a difference between the decisions made,
 
67
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whether it's a commodity that one sells or that one shares.
 
68
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Food is a weapon.
 
69
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No one ever thought that food would be used as a weapon,
 
70
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at least as a cornerstone of government policy.
 
71
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And yet the CIA has a report, and Mr. Butts has just been around the world,
 
72
00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:39,120
bragging that U.S. exportable food is the largest weapon in our U.S. arsenal.
 
73
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And that is apparently the way we intend to have control on the world.
 
74
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And I think that national security from a Christian standpoint is not based on that kind of weapon.
 
75
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And finally, what we're hearing so much about here, food, is a mystery.
 
76
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Bread for myself is a physical question.
 
77
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Bread for others is a spiritual question.
 
78
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Or as Gandhi said, if Christ appeared again, he would come as bread, for that is the only
 
79
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way that the world would recognize him.
 
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Seems to me very proper, very exciting, a message that should be carried to all the
 
81
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churches and all worshipping communities.
 
82
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This relationship of mystery and the practical bread, as we're hearing it so strongly in
 
83
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this Congress because we get our spiritual strength at the
 
84
00:06:35,220 --> 00:06:39,260
Lord's table and we get our physical strength at the human
 
85
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table.
 
86
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Thank you, Pat.
 
87
00:06:52,300 --> 00:06:55,660
I think that's pronounced cotton farm, not farmer.
 
88
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Better watch that, I guess.
 
89
00:06:59,580 --> 00:07:04,300
Our next speaker is the Pennsylvania Welfare Rights Organization, Ms. Viola Sanders.
 
90
00:07:04,300 --> 00:07:05,860
And I'm not being chauvinistic.
 
91
00:07:05,860 --> 00:07:11,100
She asked me to introduce her as the educational chairman, so I did not pick that term myself.
 
92
00:07:11,100 --> 00:07:12,100
And Viola.
 
93
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I want to give honor to God
 
94
00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:41,560
and to thank Him for the most
 
95
00:07:41,560 --> 00:07:48,240
magnificent way he has been leading me for the past 10 years.
 
96
00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:53,840
When we first learned that we were going to, that we had been invited to take part in the
 
97
00:07:53,840 --> 00:08:00,720
Eucharistic Congress, it kind of scared us a little bit.
 
98
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And then knowing that I was the one at WRO who was a religious person, it was given to
 
99
00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:17,980
me to begin to work something out that I should say. I prayed and I asked God, you know, now
 
100
00:08:17,980 --> 00:08:25,180
are you sure that I'm supposed to do this as an advocate to question the church? And
 
101
00:08:25,180 --> 00:08:31,540
I, as I asked him that question, I kept writing pieces of thoughts down on paper and I would
 
102
00:08:31,540 --> 00:08:35,420
lose the piece of paper and then I'd be sleeping and I'd wake up and God would
 
103
00:08:35,420 --> 00:08:39,500
have laid something on my mind and I would write it down and then I would
 
104
00:08:39,500 --> 00:08:46,180
lose it again and I kept suffering like this until one Sunday after church when
 
105
00:08:46,180 --> 00:08:51,540
I was sitting in my backyard which is in the project God sort of told me I want
 
106
00:08:51,540 --> 00:08:57,340
you to do it this way and I knew exactly what I had to do and all that suffering
 
107
00:08:57,340 --> 00:09:04,140
that I had gone through was right because Jesus Christ had to suffer so
 
108
00:09:04,140 --> 00:09:14,200
then I bring your attentions to John the 21st chapter verses 15 and 17 so when
 
109
00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:25,000
they had dined Jesus sayeth unto Peter son of Jonas love is found me and Peter
 
110
00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:31,840
Peter said unto Jesus, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
 
111
00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:37,320
And Jesus saith unto Peter, Feed my lamb.
 
112
00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:47,720
Jesus saith unto Peter the second time, Simon Peter, son of Jonas, lovest thou me, Peter?
 
113
00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:50,880
Lord thou knowest that I love thee.
 
114
00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:55,000
Jesus said to Peter the third time,
 
115
00:09:55,000 --> 00:10:00,640
Simon Peter, son of Jonah, lovest thou me?
 
116
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Peter was grieved because Jesus had asked of him
 
117
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:08,600
for the third time, lovest thou me?
 
118
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And Peter said unto Jesus, Lord, you know all things.
 
119
00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:15,640
You know that I love thee.
 
120
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Jesus said to Peter,
 
121
00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:19,420
feed my sheep.
 
122
00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:23,040
I have often wondered too,
 
123
00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:26,240
why the Lord asked Peter three times
 
124
00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:29,620
this very, very, very important question.
 
125
00:10:29,620 --> 00:10:32,260
Because that is exactly what it is.
 
126
00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:36,000
And we have to be so sure,
 
127
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so positive,
 
128
00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:39,720
so absolute,
 
129
00:10:39,720 --> 00:10:41,980
that we do love
 
130
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before we step out and say that we do.
 
131
00:10:44,980 --> 00:10:48,280
And this is what Jesus, I believe, was trying to get Peter
 
132
00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:52,120
to understand because he knew that he was soon to be leaving
 
133
00:10:52,160 --> 00:10:56,360
Peter and Peter would have to hold up the bloodstained banner.
 
134
00:11:00,100 --> 00:11:05,200
I come to you from the Welfare Rights Organization bearing the
 
135
00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:11,700
burdens that Christ came bearing over 200,000 years ago.
 
136
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As he did not have, I do not have any cannons or guns or bombs or political game.
 
137
00:11:20,980 --> 00:11:27,380
But I come bearing the burdens and the sorrows of the poor.
 
138
00:11:27,380 --> 00:11:40,820
Yes, there are 30 million Americans living under the poverty line of $4,700 per year for a family of four.
 
139
00:11:40,820 --> 00:11:47,300
Approximately 11 to 14% of the 30 million are on welfare,
 
140
00:11:47,300 --> 00:11:50,620
or are called the working poor.
 
141
00:11:50,620 --> 00:11:56,500
That puts them approximately $1,000 or more
 
142
00:11:56,500 --> 00:12:00,460
below the poverty level.
 
143
00:12:00,460 --> 00:12:01,260
We are hungry.
 
144
00:12:03,780 --> 00:12:06,380
And it's not because we don't like food,
 
145
00:12:06,380 --> 00:12:09,480
or because we don't know what to buy.
 
146
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We do know what to eat.
 
147
00:12:11,020 --> 00:12:13,420
We do know what is nutritional.
 
148
00:12:13,460 --> 00:12:15,720
But we simply do not have the money.
 
149
00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:29,200
Why are people being hungry in this rich nation?
 
150
00:12:31,340 --> 00:12:36,640
With your indulgence, I would like to gear in on this city
 
151
00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:42,340
and this state because I believe that Jesus would have me do so.
 
152
00:12:42,380 --> 00:12:47,220
The earth is rich and filled with life.
 
153
00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:52,460
It cries out as a healthy womb cries out to do what God has
 
154
00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:57,120
created it to do and that is to produce.
 
155
00:12:57,160 --> 00:12:59,920
Then why do we not plant?
 
156
00:12:59,960 --> 00:13:05,540
Why are rich farmers subsidized and in our terms given- they're
 
157
00:13:05,540 --> 00:13:11,220
given welfare and accepted but it is called subsidy. Why are rich farmers
 
158
00:13:11,220 --> 00:13:18,220
subsidized thousands and thousands of dollars not to plant and to sow? I have
 
159
00:13:18,220 --> 00:13:25,100
seen milk being poured down the streets by the large corporate milk producers
 
160
00:13:25,100 --> 00:13:31,740
just to prove that they had a right or need to raise milk prices. I have seen
 
161
00:13:31,740 --> 00:13:38,260
cattle shot for the same purpose. I have seen potatoes or I have read of
 
162
00:13:38,260 --> 00:13:44,540
potatoes being plowed back underneath the earth to keep their prices high. I
 
163
00:13:44,540 --> 00:13:51,700
have watched as thousands of tons of wheat was being sold to Russia while a
 
164
00:13:51,700 --> 00:14:01,540
While a price of a loaf of bread climbed from 27 cents to 59 cents,
 
165
00:14:01,540 --> 00:14:12,140
can you imagine what it must do to a person who has to eat on a dollar and ten cents a day?
 
166
00:14:12,140 --> 00:14:17,320
If you are un-welfare, if you are disadvantaged,
 
167
00:14:17,320 --> 00:14:22,940
If you are unemployed and no longer have any unemployment compensation, you have to turn
 
168
00:14:22,940 --> 00:14:25,060
to welfare.
 
169
00:14:25,060 --> 00:14:31,060
Welfare or the Department of Public Assistance is the agency that this nation has established
 
170
00:14:31,060 --> 00:14:36,340
to deal with those among them who do not have in time of need.
 
171
00:14:36,340 --> 00:14:45,420
It is a legal and a moral responsibility that this nation has and must see to in an adequate
 
172
00:14:45,420 --> 00:14:47,260
way.
 
173
00:14:47,260 --> 00:14:52,060
Over 500,000 children are in the state of Pennsylvania.
 
174
00:14:52,100 --> 00:14:56,600
Think about those children having to live on an eat with a
 
175
00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:00,840
dollar and ten cents a day and then try to think what we are
 
176
00:15:00,880 --> 00:15:05,480
doing to them psychologically and emotionally and think
 
177
00:15:05,520 --> 00:15:07,520
seriously as a Christian.
 
178
00:15:09,280 --> 00:15:11,280
Programs.
 
179
00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:17,320
I need every program that's out there, but I do not get the
 
180
00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,960
benefit of the programs that are out there.
 
181
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,060
Our young sons need to be involved in all kinds of
 
182
00:15:25,100 --> 00:15:30,240
recreation and in all kinds of social programs that would help
 
183
00:15:30,260 --> 00:15:34,900
them maintain themselves and have dignity about themselves.
 
184
00:15:34,940 --> 00:15:36,980
They do not reach us.
 
185
00:15:36,980 --> 00:15:41,780
By the time the programs part for the poor,
 
186
00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:46,220
there's no more money or either there's no more funding or the
 
187
00:15:46,260 --> 00:15:49,360
people who were running the project just didn't see it that
 
188
00:15:49,400 --> 00:15:56,400
way and all we see as a poor is total confusion.
 
189
00:15:56,440 --> 00:16:00,200
This is why I say we are weary of the programs.
 
190
00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:05,240
They do very little to ensure dignity and self-respect for us.
 
191
00:16:06,980 --> 00:16:14,660
Also, in 1969, the Philadelphia Welfare Rights Organization
 
192
00:16:14,700 --> 00:16:18,660
began to question education in this city.
 
193
00:16:18,700 --> 00:16:29,300
We had to sue in 1972 through Title I Project to get them to
 
194
00:16:29,340 --> 00:16:33,840
agree to give breakfast to hungry children.
 
195
00:16:33,840 --> 00:16:43,540
we had to sue a city through the state to make them implement a
 
196
00:16:43,580 --> 00:16:49,620
program that had funds for its implementation and had no reason
 
197
00:16:49,660 --> 00:16:53,380
not to be implemented, but they would not do it.
 
198
00:16:53,420 --> 00:16:59,220
We wonder why there is so much resistance against doing the
 
199
00:16:59,260 --> 00:17:02,800
little bit of good that appears every now and then.
 
200
00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:06,040
And we wonder why, and especially as a Christian,
 
201
00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:07,340
I wonder why.
 
202
00:17:07,380 --> 00:17:11,840
Because there is nothing that the Church of God cannot do,
 
203
00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:13,880
if they really want to do it.
 
204
00:17:16,080 --> 00:17:20,580
There is a meat that poor people use in seasoning
 
205
00:17:20,620 --> 00:17:22,620
their vegetables.
 
206
00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,700
Years ago, my parents told me that this meat was thrown away,
 
207
00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,660
but poor people on the plantation began to use it
 
208
00:17:32,660 --> 00:17:35,060
And this meat is called fatback.
 
209
00:17:35,060 --> 00:17:38,260
It is nothing but fat.
 
210
00:17:38,260 --> 00:17:42,980
But my people use it to season their vegetables
 
211
00:17:42,980 --> 00:17:45,460
and various things that they cook.
 
212
00:17:45,460 --> 00:17:54,260
I have watched this meat go from $0.10 a pound to $1.09 a pound.
 
213
00:17:54,260 --> 00:17:55,940
And I'm talking about fatback.
 
214
00:17:55,940 --> 00:17:58,180
You might not even know what it is.
 
215
00:17:58,180 --> 00:17:59,420
But it's fatback.
 
216
00:17:59,420 --> 00:18:02,940
and it went from 10 cents to a dollar and nine cents a pound,
 
217
00:18:02,940 --> 00:18:08,580
and that's what poor people have to pay for that same mess
 
218
00:18:08,580 --> 00:18:11,780
if they're going to have it.
 
219
00:18:11,780 --> 00:18:13,740
OK.
 
220
00:18:13,740 --> 00:18:19,740
Do you realize that 54% of your tax dollar
 
221
00:18:19,740 --> 00:18:25,540
goes to ensure death and destruction?
 
222
00:18:25,540 --> 00:18:30,980
Can you imagine how pleased God would be if we would suddenly
 
223
00:18:31,020 --> 00:18:34,480
demand just the opposite?
 
224
00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:39,120
Can you imagine how our Lord Jesus Christ would smile as he
 
225
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:44,760
sits on the right hand of God to see his church truly being the
 
226
00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,860
kind of social worker he was indeed?
 
227
00:18:47,900 --> 00:18:53,100
In fact, he was the first social worker ever that walked this
 
228
00:18:53,100 --> 00:18:59,860
earth and the best and no one will ever be able to outdo him. Does it make you
 
229
00:18:59,860 --> 00:19:07,380
feel any more secure to know that the United States along with Russia could
 
230
00:19:07,380 --> 00:19:14,940
destroy the world three times if it wanted to? How many times would you
 
231
00:19:14,940 --> 00:19:23,940
choose to die. In 1969 also, three quarters of a million dollars was spent
 
232
00:19:23,940 --> 00:19:31,980
on a hunger conference to study, to restudy, and to restudy the ways of
 
233
00:19:31,980 --> 00:19:37,380
hunger. The Philadelphia Welfare Rights Organization was invited to attend as a
 
234
00:19:37,380 --> 00:19:44,580
tokenism. We knew it was tokenism, but we prayed that maybe, maybe our being there
 
235
00:19:44,580 --> 00:19:51,100
might help. It was very difficult for us and the only thing that we could do to
 
236
00:19:51,100 --> 00:19:58,180
express our frustration at the conference was to refuse to eat and that
 
237
00:19:58,180 --> 00:20:05,000
is exactly what we did. We just sat there while all the big shots ate and had a
 
238
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:15,640
a good time. That same government set a floor of two thousand four hundred
 
239
00:20:15,640 --> 00:20:21,860
dollars a year for an urban family of four to live on. In some cases this would
 
240
00:20:21,860 --> 00:20:26,780
have had reduced some welfare grants and in some cases it would have raised some.
 
241
00:20:26,780 --> 00:20:33,880
But just to think that a government that earns over- that earns exactly if I'm
 
242
00:20:33,880 --> 00:20:39,180
wrong always correct me, does not bother me to be corrected,
 
243
00:20:39,220 --> 00:20:47,860
that earns $200,000 a year would dare say that four people could
 
244
00:20:47,900 --> 00:20:55,000
maintain a healthy and decent standard of living on $2,400 a
 
245
00:20:55,040 --> 00:21:01,640
year. With studies we later discovered that that same man,
 
246
00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:08,740
Richard Milhouse Nixon spent $2,400 a year to feed his dogs.
 
247
00:21:08,780 --> 00:21:12,380
And we didn't take it easy and we let him know it.
 
248
00:21:12,420 --> 00:21:14,120
And God was with us.
 
249
00:21:14,140 --> 00:21:16,140
God is always with me.
 
250
00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:24,620
Many times we were warned and we were- and people told us,
 
251
00:21:24,660 --> 00:21:27,800
back up, ease up, you better get off the president.
 
252
00:21:27,820 --> 00:21:31,000
You better stop calling him an insane maniac.
 
253
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:37,800
You better stop all of that because the CIA is infiltrated in between you and you're in danger.
 
254
00:21:37,840 --> 00:21:43,780
There is no danger if God works within you because you aren't doing anything.
 
255
00:21:43,820 --> 00:21:45,740
It's God that's doing the thing.
 
256
00:21:45,780 --> 00:21:48,960
So we ignore all that.
 
257
00:21:48,980 --> 00:21:51,860
Welfare rights is not funded in any way.
 
258
00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,560
So you see we are free.
 
259
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,600
No money can be cut because we tell the truth.
 
260
00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:03,900
No funds can be stopped because we call it the way it is.
 
261
00:22:03,940 --> 00:22:07,600
Our cry for justice is bold as an organization,
 
262
00:22:07,640 --> 00:22:10,640
and I pray and trust that it will stay that way.
 
263
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:18,220
But as God would have it, the time had strangely arrived when
 
264
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:22,560
the victims would begin to question the injustice of this
 
265
00:22:22,580 --> 00:22:27,420
nation, and we have to admit that God has blessed America,
 
266
00:22:27,420 --> 00:22:29,960
But has America blessed God?
 
267
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,560
And there's where our problem is.
 
268
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,300
There is no reason for hunger or suffering.
 
269
00:22:36,340 --> 00:22:42,740
Is hunger and suffering an accident in this nation or is it
 
270
00:22:42,780 --> 00:22:46,380
a sin-sick plan?
 
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Is Satan truly loose, going about on his last round to
 
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destroy all that he can?
 
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We think so. We think so with warfare rights.
 
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Will our national leaders put human needs before death and
 
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destruction? We the poor doubt it very strongly.
 
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The hard struggle of the past gives us little hope that our
 
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national leadership will, nor do they know how,
 
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to put human needs first.
 
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This makes us very sad.
 
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But nevertheless, we shall continue to fight as a poor
 
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people's organization.
 
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Our hearts and our minds reach to God for strength and courage
 
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to go into the future.
 
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We pray that God will keep us strong and dedicated to the
 
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destruction of poverty instead of people.
 
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We further pray that the church will recognize its true role
 
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and begin to support the poor and work with the poor as they
 
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struggle to help themselves.
 
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Money has its place if we are to deal with hunger and suffering
 
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in this nation, but what man needs now goes far beyond money.
 
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To be more precise, Philadelphia Welfare Rights believes that the
 
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world needs Christ-like leadership with the will and the compassion to provide
 
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for the needs of the people. Christian leaderships, therefore, we feel that the
 
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church must lead the way to human dignity and justice for all people. If we
 
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are to be representatives of Jesus Christ and followers of his teachings
 
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then it is nothing then there is nothing that we can't do we have a challenge to
 
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meet we must be patient as Job wise as Solomon and as bold as John the Baptist
 
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we must leave our ivory towers and attend to the total needs of the poor
 
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We thank you for this opportunity and we say to you Godspeed. May he keep you as
 
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he has kept us and he has kept us with nothing. As I said it is not because we
 
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are professional people being salaried to fight this fight. We are poor people
 
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crying out for justice and holding on to God for the strength. I think of
 
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one other Bible verse before I sit down and it goes like this Peter and John
 
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with it being the ninth hour went up to the temple to pray and laying there at
 
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the temple stairway I suppose was a man who was born lame from his mother's womb
 
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When seeing Peter and John, he said to them, he begged alms of them, perhaps so
 
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that he could buy food to eat. And Peter turned and said to the man, look on me.
 
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And the man looked on Peter. And Peter said, rise up and walk. And the man leaped
 
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up and went running and shouting and praising the Lord but the best part of
 
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that to me is when Peter said silver and gold have I none but such as I have I
 
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give thee such as I have from the Christian point of view I have given to
 
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you here today and I dare you to try God and trying to make some of these things
 
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come about.
 
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When there is a national leadership that sounds as if he
 
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is decent, he must be supported.
 
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And he should be supported without any hesitations or any
 
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kinds of reservations.
 
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And I truly believe that that is the only way,
 
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Christian leadership.
 
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Thank you.