So Gov. Rell wants to cut $4.25 million from Operation Fuel, the program that provides fuel energy assistance to Connecticut’s working poor…it’s among a couple of dozen cuts that she has proposed for “budget reconciliation” that will seriously harm working people and the most vulnerable in Connecticut.
Which brings me to a question. I’m in awe of you guys – my friends who work in the non-profits and public agencies – who “get” the legislative process and can decipher the tons of paperwork and the vatican council-type decision-making that ultimately determines the budget and who gets what. But I have to ask: Why are these outrages not being turned into some large-scale highly embarassing public manifestation for Rell?
You represent, directly or indirectly, the interests of tens of thousands of people in Connecticut who are in danger. Real danger. The danger of not being able to heat their homes in the winter. The danger of not being able to get desperately needed mental health treatment in a safe environment (or at all). The danger of losing access to job training programs or legal aid assistance or even to sources of food aid so that families don’t go hungry.
I understand that there are appropriations hearings and lobbying efforts and special meetings with key legislators and number-crunching and bill writing to be done. But this process, as vital as it is, will not engage the people who are in danger. It will not help them to be heard as people and not just as budget line items or as “programs.” It will not give them human faces that the politicians must confront. It will not give them the faces of neighbors and friends and loved ones that will force those of us not directly affected by the budget to care and to act.
Why are we not organizing a visible, public, angry rebuttal to the suggestion that Connecticut should continue as a state where the answer to poverty is “You’re so good at doing without, certainly you can do with less.”
I can’t speak for the people in your community programs or who use your shelters or get food from your food pantries or who depend on the mental health or daycare or counseling services your agency provides. I’m just one outraged individual. But I have to ask: Why aren’t we organizing a tent city on the sidewalk in front of the governor’s mansion? Why aren’t we organizing people to challenge and embarrass Rell every place that she shows her face in public? Why aren’t we confronting politicians who refuse to raise taxes on the rich even to save the lives of the poor? Why aren’t we organizing hunger strikes and picketlines and protests? And why, oh why, do I keep hearing about how this program or that program is too critical to be cut but no unified voice saying WE refuse to allow ANY MORE programs to be cut?
Those of us on the outside of the process do not understand the complexity of grant-writing and budget-writing and program administration and everything that goes in to making these vital social services available on a day to day basis. But I see and hear your anger and disgust over these cuts and your deep concern and fear for the people that you serve. And you and I know that your fear is only a shadow of the fear felt by the people who need these services and don’t know what they will do if they don’t get them.
But I wonder if you know how invisible all of this is to the media, to so many of the politicians, to so many millions of people who don’t know what these services are or why they are so vital. And I wonder why we are relying on meetings in committee rooms rather than bold public acts that will confront the complacency of those in power.
Filed under: Economic crisis
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