A Crowd for Social Justice Advocate Sister Simone Campbell

The Vienna Branch is pleased that the February Branch program featuring Sister Simone Campbell, author of “A Nun on the Bus,” was attended by at least 168 people on Saturday February 10 at the Vienna Community Center. Attendees included Mark Keam, member of the Virginia House of Delegates for the 35^th District. The Branch is very appreciative of the extensive work and planning by Margaret Davenport, who arranged the program. In addition, many thanks to the Community Center, which donated their large meeting room, and especially to Deborah Smith-Cohen from the Patrick Henry Library, which co-sponsored the program. Information on AAUW and the Vienna Branch can be obtained at http://vienna-va.aauw.net

The Problems of Poverty: Sister Simone’s warmth and compassion connected with the audience. Her presentation focused on the problems of poverty in the U.S., emphasizing that poverty is not explained by saying that people are lazy. She stated that between 1949 to 1979, the income of people in every economic category doubled. However, this shared experience changed thereafter for reasons discussed below.

Sister Simon explained that (taking inflation into account) between 1980 and 2015: the top 20% income category experienced a 65% increase in income; the income of the next lower 20% category increased 28%; the middle 20% category’s income increased 16%; the next to the bottom 20% category barely experienced an increase of 6%; and the lowest 20% income category actually experienced a 9% decline in income (i.e., wages remained flat and did not rise with inflation). However, the more startling statistics are, she said, that the top 5% and 1% of income earners experienced a 100.6% and 170% increase in income, respectively.

There were several reasons for the significant increasing disparity in income, Sister Simone explained, including: (1) undermining of unions; (2) privatization of retirement benefits, i.e., elimination of defined benefit plans and solely offering a 401(k) plan; (3) the short-term profit focus of mutual funds and other investors, which contributes to keeping worker wages low; and (4) the top income tax rate was cut from 70% to 28% during the Reagan Administration. In addition, the greatest disparity in income is experienced by minorities, which results, among other things, from: (1) rescission of the post-Civil War offer of a 40 acre farm and a mule to freed slaves; (2) discriminatory redlining of real estate; (3) discriminatory sub-prime mortgage lending; and (4) segregation and discriminatory policies in the armed forces in WWII which prevented minorities from benefiting from the G.I. Bill benefits for home ownership and education.

How Can an Individual Contribute to Change? Sister Simone urged that every person in the community needs to do their part; begin to talk with each other, even those we don’t agree with. She pointed out that if individuals are not connected with each other, there is a failure of hope. The Sister urged people to talk to someone they haven’t talked to before, even in the grocery store while checking out. Start a process of engagement. Figure out what your part is in this effort. Establish a relationship with your U.S. Representative and Senators, so that they know who you are. Ensure you communicate your views constantly on issues.

Sister Simone stated that our Nation can only heal when the lowest income earners do better. She closed with a poem about the poor that she wrote, which is included in her book “A Nun on the Bus.” The poem ends with:

“Blessed and broken, you are enough.” I savor the blessed, cower at the broken and pray to be enough.