Sacrificing the Poor

When Robert Scheer (“Sacrificing Kids on the Altar of GOP Ambition,” Column Left, Sept. 12) and George Will (“A Nasty Twist to ‘Women and Children First,’ ” Column Right, Sept. 14) agree on something, America would do well to sit up and take notice. Looking at the “reforms” of Speaker Newt Gingrich and his so-called conservative congressional Republiclones, it’s obvious that the only thing they have any interest in “conserving” is the wealth of those fortunate enough to have any. They pepper their speeches liberally with talk of “family values,” but only well-off, predominately white, two-parent families are valued. They raise a big public fuss about “indecency” in the media and on computer networks, but turn a blind eye to the obscenity of corporate CEOs making an average of 187.5 times the salary of the average worker while 2 million children are going hungry in California alone and 28% are living in poverty.

Congressional budgetmeister Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) stated at Ross Perot’s recent national conference that the 21st Century “ought to be every individual living their dreams.” Leaving the poor, women, children, the elderly and the disabled to go hungry, homeless and sick is a far cry from this vision. Enabling big gains for those at the top while abandoning those at the bottom is a program that’s worked well for the rich and greedy in underdeveloped nations, but it’s a Third World vision, not a Third Wave vision.

RONALD G. ROWE

Moorpark