Compassion V. Tough Love or Mother Teresa V. Marie Antoinette Page: 1 of 10
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Barbara Jordan
Federation for Community Planning
Cleveland, OH
March 20, 1992
COMPASSION V. TOUGH LOVE
OR
MOTHER TERESA V. MARIE ANTOINETTE
1992 appears to have brought in its wake a heightened divisiveness in the midst of
diversity. This lingering recession has exacerbated tensions between the haves and the have
nots; the welfare dependent poor and the working poor; (the working poor present a
troubling statistic. One may work full time, all year, receive the minimum wage of $4.25
per hour, total=$8,840.00, thereby remaining poor by income definition). The 1992 Federal
poverty level=$l1,570.
Divisiveness/diversity--middle class--underclass; homeowner--homeless; gay--straight;
the aged--the young. Whatever happened to e Dluribus unum, from many one. Can we re-
invigorate the American spirit and renew a sense of the common good? You who are
engaged in the arena of health and human services must say--YES! The need is for front
line resisters of those policy advocates who, under the guise of the code "tough love,"
penalize the victim. Those advocates try to impose social choices on poor. We have a
collective responsibility for those who have been short changed by society. Adam Smith,
sometimes called the father of capitalism, said some 200 years ago; "the custom of the
country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without."
Our task as a people is clear. The work of this community is politically correct. No matter
how intractable the problems appear--you can never say, "I quit."
The problems...???
Thirty-seven million Americans without health insurance; over 25 percent of the
women from ages 18 through 24 who bear children have no health insurance; more than
two-thirds of adults who fall below the official federal poverty line are women and more
than half of the nation's poor families are headed by women; sixty percent of children
coming from families defined as poor have one or more chronic diseases; infant mortality
rises considerably as income decreases; and for the poor, the risk of dying under the age of
25 is four times the national average. How can we allow all of this to happen in a nation
capable of designing a bomb that can descend from miles in the sky, enter a targeted door
and explode after it has come fully into the room? How can we allow this to happen in a
nation that all but shrugs when another 25 billion dollars is requested to bail out bankers
who made foolish loans, a priority item on this week's congressional agenda...after "rubber
gate." This question of priorities is certainly not a new one. Writing in 1790, in Reflections
on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke said:
"But it is better that the whole should be imperfectly and anomalously
answered than that while some parts are provided for with great exactness,
others might be totally neglected or perhaps materially injured by the over
care of a favorite member."
Does that quote speak deeply to you? Have we not over cared for some of our
institutions while others--have been totally neglected and materially injured?
In 1932, when she became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, a situation we
plan to materially change this year, Hattie Caraway of Arkansas described a situation
alarmingly similar to the one we find ourselves in today. Senator Caraway said over 60
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Jordan, Barbara C. Compassion V. Tough Love or Mother Teresa V. Marie Antoinette, text, March 20, 1992; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth595177/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Southern University.