A Moral Obligation

This statement was made by The Reverend Bonnie Osei-Frimpong at the Raise Illinois Lobby Day in Springfield on Tuesday, January 31.

A family earning a minimum wage of $16,000 a year can not afford for the car to break down. They can not afford to take time off work if someone gets sick. They can not afford health care, child care, or elder care. A family living on a minimum wage can hardly afford nutritious food.

A family living on a minimum wage can afford to advocate for what is best for their well-being, and for their community's well-being. A family living on a minimum wage income can afford to march and move and mobilize for the sake of the American Dream. They can afford to buy-in to the common good, if they are given the chance to live, with a living wage.

There is one thing you learn very quickly when you are poor in America. Being poor is very, very expensive. When you are broke, and start cutting corners, juggling debts, when you skip your insurance payment just to get by, that is when things start to go wrong. That is when people get sick, home fires happen, bad luck hits.

When the only bill that gets paid this month is the bill that hit the ground first when you threw them all up in the air, then it is time for you to earn a wage that is enough to live on.

I was speaking to a man at my church. He told me, "It's not that I'm afraid to work. I work hard. I don't expect things to be easy. But what I don't understand is why it has to be so hard--why it feels impossible. I don't know why it is impossible."

Brothers and sisters in Christ, securing a living wage for the poor is a moral obligation. We in the state of IL have a responsibility to promote the livelihood of our fellow citizens by establishing a living wage. This is why the legislature should pass Senate Bill 1565 during this calendar year.

We are all criminals

Last week, I had the opportunity to hear the author of The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander, speak. During my time at PCG, I had heard of Alexander and her work during our many ongoing conversations about criminal justice, but to hear her speak was certainly inspiring. The statistics, of course, are shocking. In no uncertain terms, African Americans, specifically African American men, are incarcerated at rates that far outpace whites in the United States. In fact, there are more African American adults in prison today than enslaved in the 1850s, a number not correlating to the actual increase in crime rates. She spoke on the effects the War on Drugs has had on poor communities of color, the engrained discrimination that African Americans encounter daily for "looking like" they might posses drugs, whatever that means.

However, the most poignant points that Alexander made were about the ways in which we might overcome such shame and stigma. She pointed out that, in our current cultural climate, we refuse to allow people deemed "guilty" to have their stories heard. They are silenced twice, once by the system that imprisons them and then again upon their release by society who refuses them housing, employment, and voting rights. We tell them they are less than human, not worthy of care or relief. This is what we can change regardless of legislation.

Michelle Alexander was talking about those labeled prisoners, but her words extend to all the "guilty" innocents - those in poverty, those without proper documentation, those who lack health care options. This is why ignoring the very poor is not a gaffe - it is an intentional, dangerous mindset. How can we all heal when we do not offer a hand to those who we have ourselves have harmed? In her lecture, Alexander said "We are all criminals." She mentioned off hand that she noticed church people have no problem claiming the mantle of "sinner," admitting their violation of God's law. However, they are much more uneasy when told they have all violated the law of the state. We are all guilty. We are all redeemed.