Americans Are Angry, All Right -- But at What?

When I first came to Washington in 1966 all the cab drivers were black and very few worked in my office building. When I returned in 1974 there were two black girls in my office and some of the security guards were black. When I returned in 2000 half my co workers were black, all of the security guards were black and most of the cab drivers were from mid east countries. When I retired in 2007 I had met and worked with many blacks who were talented, worked hard, made me laugh and whom today I'm proud to say we can still go out and have a laugh at lunch. Don't close your eyes to other Americans because they look different, help them if they need it, your life will be the better for it.

Fascism. Corporations running the government. All our problems stem from it. From Cheney's corrupt, collusion committing Halliburton to the scumbag polluters Monsanto and their GMO filth and desperation to ban real food, to sleazy pirates Goldman Sachs to freakin murderous BP destroying half the country forever, not to mention Baxter (Donald Rumsfeld owns that, no surprises here) with their phony profiteering "pandemic" which was down to them giving out live vaccines, OOOops... These monsters are never held accountable and are beyond criminal. They are the destroyers of our sovereignty. Our government is more interested in appeasing terrorists and hostile invader than protecting Americans from vultures. Our weak, gutless, treasonous Congress will do anything for a bribe. That's what I am pissed about. What's so hard to understand? They want to ban anything healthy, force poison in about 87,000 forms onto us, tell us to eat corexit laden fish and lie about everything. Is this directionless anger, I don't think so , state run media, politburo...

There will always be people that are poorer then others. If the lowest paid worker made a million dollars a year then that would be a poor person as all others were making more. When salaries go up then it costs more to produce products as everyone along the line is receiving higher wages. These costs are then reflected in the price the product sells for. SO: The Union leader that gets you a raise will himself take more money. As he produces nothing that will raise costs and you are actually worse off.

The last administration used the term we went to war with the information we had even if it was not perfect.Now when the Obama administration came in in the midst of crisis that was presented as we must do something right away we couldn't wait,we went on with the bailouts based on the information that we had and now this administration is getting all the anger.Where was the anger the last 8 years?We accepted everything that the Bush administration told us.I believe it was VP Cheney that said deficits don't matter and we accepted this. Lets give this administration the same courtesy. Norma

Poor does not mean stupid. Abraham Lincoln did not start as a well to do child. He had to educate himself. He became one of our greatest presidents. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower did not start as wealthy persons, they also became Presidents. Did you ever hear about the wealthy parents of Einstein, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or the Walton Family - Well no one else did either. Thee were no Government handouts so that they could get ahead. THEY did it. The Government only promotes mediocrity.

Ms. Curtis I get your point... The comments you are talking about are clearly insensitive and frankly cruel. However, I think the real frustration with child poverty statistics is with the cycle of poorly educated women of ALL races who are having multiple children often times out of wed lock and while already living in poverty. No responsible adult should bring a child into the world without the means to support it. Now we aren't talking about the youthful misjudgment here or a family that's fallen on hard times. We are talking about folks having two, three and even more children sometimes with multiple fathers and no possible way to support their kids. I have personally seen this and in my humble opinion it's comparable to child abuse. We despite the efforts of some, live in a country where women have the right to choose an abortion. We as a society believe women have the right to control their own body and terminate a pregnancy. Conversely a woman also needs to be responsible about a childs conception. Now I completely agree with you that we need to help these families in need... we shouldn't throw those kids and their mothers to the wolves, but the issue of responsiblity on the part of the parents must also be addressed equally. It is also a well known statistic that children raised in this fashion are more prone to repeat this cycle than escape it. So perhaps the comments you are seeing however cold and terrible are a reflection of the publics frustration with this side of the problem not being addressed. I don't honestly think we can ever completely get rid of poverty but I think we can create a better safety net AND foster more responsibility if we can get past the politics.

I see this as a growing problem with the Republican party. A FB friend recently posted that no one making minimum wage should have children (she stopped short of advocating sterilization, thankfully) Dealing with poverty and all that goes along is just too difficult and rather than find a remedy they have decided to find a scapegoat. I don't believe liberal policies are the answer, but at least they recognize there is a problem and it belongs to all of us. There are solutions. But we must remember, the poor will always be with us, and somehow that is the hardest part to swallow.

Conservatives who constantly accuse people of color of playing the "race card" (the Right's new favorite comeback for any subject addressing race relations in America) never seem to have much to say when faced with the blatant, loud, evil and ignorant bigotry and pure racism against people of color--black people in particular--that this article proves still exists in this country.

Actually the "eugenics" idea came from the founder of Planned Parenthood, I believe, a woman who has been thoroughly discredited for that reason. What voters are upset about is that much of this "poverty" is government engendered and pretty much preventable: the single parent model usually (spare me the diatribe about Mothers Who Made a Difference-- I taught high school in an urban setting for 42 years and I could tell YOU some stories of heroism and sacrifice by single parents) doesn't work very well. It fosters a spiral of neglect and disrespect that ruins both the parent's life and the child's. All that government check does is let some seventeen year old think she can make it on her own. She can't.

This rhetoric is so stale.This narrative about blacks and other minorities is so offensive. The reality is there are individuals of all races that "aren't doing their work." Nevertheless, we always have to bring up race. No whining here Bob. I wish you like-minded people such as you afforded me the luxury of hearing your rambling in person. I guarantee you would learn quite quickly your assumptions and stereotypical rhetoric would not be tolerated. I don't have the time or energy to fight a bunch of white people about racism in this country. It's clear it exists and people believe in it. I'm simply trying to navigate through the nonsense and network with people of all races that we can't be silent about this anymore while the rantings of bigotry spreads to more brain-washed people.