September 1, 2006
X TRUMPS KING:
Getting Past Katrina (JUAN WILLIAMS, 9/01/06, NY Times)
For anyone who wants to get out of poverty, the prescription is clear.Finish high school, at least. Wait until your 20’s before marrying, and wait until you’re married before having children. Once you’re in the work force, stay in: take any job, because building on the experience will prepare you for a better job. Any American who follows that prescription will be at almost no risk of falling into extreme poverty. Statistics show it.
The suspicion that the poor cause problems for themselves was at the heart of President Clinton’s effort to “end welfare as we know it.†It is also the guiding principle in the latest wave of poverty programs. Backed by private dollars from nonprofits and foundations, these programs encourage individual responsibility by rewarding the poor for getting high school diplomas, finding jobs and being good parents. There are programs to help determined inner-city residents find good jobs in the suburbs, where they can live in neighborhoods that haven’t been defined for generations by the bad schools and rampant crime that breed poverty. The emphasis is on nurturing a will to do better.
Bill Cosby’s controversial appeal, in 2004, for the poor to see — and seize — the opportunities available to them is in line with the inspiring African-American tradition of self-help and reliance on strong families and neighbors. There were complaints that he was blaming the victim, minimizing the power of racism, and failing to understand that larger social forces keep the poor — especially black poor — at the bottom of the economic ladder. But Mr. Cosby’s critics ignored some sound advice: getting those in need to recognize that there is a way out, and that it’s in their power to find it, is the best anti-poverty program.
They followed Brother Martin when they should have followed Brother Malcolm. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 1, 2006 12:00 PM
OK, who is this and what did they do w/Juan?
Posted by: Sandy P at September 1, 2006 12:59 PMThey follow bro' Jesse.
Posted by: ic at September 1, 2006 1:39 PM> OK, who is this and what did they do w/Juan?
``President Clinton’s effort to “end welfare as we know it.”''
He smuggled a message out to us, to let us know he's still alive.
Juan's in there. He waffles back and forth in the book. His heart tells him Cosby is right, but his brain tells him he better stay on the right side, that is to say the left side of the media or he'll find himself out in the cold.
Posted by: erp at September 1, 2006 3:01 PMJuan and his former fellow co-worker, the Washington Post's Richard Cohen, are two of the most interesting liberal columnists to read or listen to, because even though they often come up with some incredibly dense statements, there are occassional moments of clarity that give you hope that they and others on the left will eventually figure things out and not be forever locked into sterotypcial beliefs about domestic and foreign policy.
Posted by: John at September 1, 2006 3:19 PMInasmuch as Juan has pretty much lost his adversarial persona for "Special Report with Brit Hume" on Fox, I'm praying the producers are able to "con" some NYT columnist to take on the thankless of job of countering facts with feelings.
My first thought was it's a toss up between MoDo and Krugman, but, I'll go with MoDo as first choice as she is much more attractive, visually, than Paul.
Second team to represent Lefty thinking, still from the NYT, Frank Rich and or Bob Hebert.
Would Sulzberger ever let any member of his first or second team go head to head with Brit on a daily basis?
Any answering yes, contact me, I have a very profitable bridge for sale.
Mike
--Inasmuch as Juan has pretty much lost his adversarial persona for "Special Report with Brit Hume" on Fox,--
he sounded like an idiot most of the time. Or a parrot.
Posted by: Sandy P at September 1, 2006 8:59 PMJuan's 20's-something son is a registered Republican
Posted by: ghostcat at September 2, 2006 12:38 AMJuan was on Hannity yesterday, pretty much slamming the poverty pimps across the board.
He doesn't see his book as 'favoring' the Right, but he knows that it damns the Left. It sounded like he knows what that means for his future. Good for him. If he 'grows' (in the truest sense of the word), he'll be a much more interesting member of the FOX panel.
Posted by: ratbert at September 2, 2006 2:08 AM