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NewsHour Links:
Outside Links: Children's Express is an international, non-profit news syndicate that produces stories by young journalists, 8-18, for adult media. Jay and Aiysha are Children's Express reporters.
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Bushville's
Going About it the Wrong Way GOP CONVENTION-- We're glad that people are trying to fight poverty. But it seems that some of the protesters at the Republican National Convention are going about it the wrong way. In the 1930s, after the Great Depression, thousands of unemployed people lived in downtown Washington, DC in cardboard shelters. They called this area Hooversville, in response to President Herbert Hoover's ineffective welfare policies. Today, in North Philadelphia, there is another box city; only this one is named Bushville. The Kensington Welfare Rights Union founded Bushville to make people aware that more than 35 million Americans are living in poverty. We talked to the co-chair
of their local committee, Galen Taylor, who told me the Bushvillers
are in Philadelphia to get media coverage and to educate the public
on this issue. Tyler and the Rights Union don't want to work with politicians. The Greedy and the Needy You would think it would
be essential to work with politicians to solve this overwhelming problem.
The Rights Union see politicians as greedy, power-hungry, rich people
who they feel don't what it is like to live in poverty. Politicians play a major role in the decision-making process and cutting them out is a huge mistake, because they are the major players. Just like in school politics, if the student body wants a dance and the students never tell their representatives, nothing will ever happen. No one will hire the band, put up the streamers, or invite the people. It's the same thing if we don't involve our elected representatives. It totally defeats the point of having a congress, and poverty will continue to be a huge problem. If you were a reporter, what question would you ask George W. Bush or Al Gore ?
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