Bunch of rich white folks sit around talking about poverty in Reading

They held a town hall at the Reading Area Community College's Miller Center last night to discuss a topic -- Reading's staggering poverty rate -- that has been a flashpoint in the city since the disgrace was exposed by intrepid journalists with their pulse on Reading (The New York Times).

The panelists gabbed about embracing cultural diversity, making it easier for businesses to open in Reading, improving incentives for companies to relocate to Berks County, and enhancing educational and training opportunities.

Of course, no consensus, nor any path forward, was reached, but the panelists will get to see themselves on the  teevee because the made-for-media shindig, plus replays, are being broadcast on the Pennsylvania Cable Network under the grandiose title "Reading: The New Face of Poverty."

So who exactly comprised this panel of poverty pooh-bahs?

Mayor Tom McMahon and Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach, elected officials who presided over Reading's descent into the poorhouse. Others were Gordon Hoodak, principal of Lauer Park Elementary School;  Michael Toledo, executive director of the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center; Peg Bianca; Jane Palmer; and Gwen Didden. 

In other words, well-heeled -- white -- Berks County aristocrats, with one token Hispanic. And this to discuss solutions to a problem infecting a city that's more than two-thirds non-white. Diversity, eh?

The morning newspaper, in its dull he-said, then he-said, blah, blah, blah account of the forum, did run a photo of local artist Ed Terrell, who vented about how the panel lacked black members. (Admittedly, the reporter had deadline constraints to deal with in banging out the yarn. You can read the definitive account of the town hall in the RACC student newspaper, on campus news racks Monday.)

Meanwhile, while the meeting was going on, there was a stabbing right across the street.

Councilwoman writes about the poor in Reading

Excellent read from Donna Reed:

Like many of you, I saw my e-mail and Facebook accounts fill up in the past two days as folks linked their postings to Tuesday’s New York Times piece and today’s accounts in the Reading Eagle.

I’ve read comments on these postings, on print and broadcast media sites, and on blogs that bemoan the condition of our city.  I agree this is not good news, I agree that it’s depressing and disconcerting, I agree that something – God may only know what – needs to be done.

What I don’t agree with and what makes my blood turn to ice are many of the comments I’ve read and the pure vitriol I heard on a downtown Reading radio station’s local talk show this morning.

Hatred, bigotry, condemnation filled the airwaves.  Resentment directed towards a specific ethnic group.  (Anyone recall 20^th Century history and the rise of a man named Hitler?) 

Approving references to a comment from a current county commissioner about building a wall around the city – and how that won’t work.

Are there louts among us who take advantage of the welfare system?  I have no doubt.  Are they the majority?  Please someone, anyone show me the documentation to prove that.

What I’m starting to see is the same sort of desperation my dad described from his youth:

Along Penn Street I see (two consecutive days this week alone) men foraging through trash cans for food.

A fellow pushing a shopping cart, filling it with aluminum cans to cash in for money to survive.

Couples – middle-aged, Caucasian – sitting on church steps in Reading, the bags of their belongings at their side. 

A constituent in the Fifth District reporting a suspicious man stalking …. a garden for food.

A friend speaking of an elderly woman, a neighbor, checking the trash bags in Centre Park for food late at night and finding leftovers to take home.

A mother, her daughter and her child pushing strollers laden with possession-filled trash bags struggling north on Route 183 just south of the city line – where were they possibly headed?

 A homeless man, a downtown regular, sweltering through steamy late-summer days in layers of coats and hats.

A makeshift settlement on the West Reading banks of the Schuylkill, just east of the busy West Shore Bypass, marked by tents and blue tarps continuing to expand.  (It will be easier for all of us to see when the leaves drop in a few weeks.)

Do YOU have what it takes to dig yourself out of poverty?

Try this interactive exercise and find out.  Didn't think so.