Monday, November 22, 2004

Toot, Toot
Words I wrote have now been published in the New York Times, in Bob Herbert's column today:

A new study by the Center for an Urban Future, a nonprofit research group, found that more than 550,000 families in New York - a quarter of all working families in the state - had incomes that were too low to cover their basic needs.

We just had a bitterly contested presidential election, but this very serious problem (it's hardly confined to New York) was not a major part of the debate.
...
In its introduction, the study says, "The implied bargain America offers its citizens is supposed to be that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can support his or her family and move onward and upward."
...
Franklin Roosevelt, in his second Inaugural Address, told a rain-soaked crowd, "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little."

I can hear the politicians in today's Washington having a hearty laugh at that sentiment.

I wrote that introduction. While Herbert is sometimes too predictably left-ish for my colleagues and me, I have to admit it's still kind of thrilling to see words I wrote in the Paper of Record.

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