Over the last 25 years my work has been in the public arena.
I began with an inner city Christian newspaper that I founded moved on to start my current organization CURE -- Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education wrote three books and have written a weekly opinion column for the last five years. Ive spoken at over 200 universities and in 49 of 50 states.
All of this effort has been aimed to deliver one basic message. That the barrier between Americas chronically poor and the American dream is the welfare state socialism which was supposed to be our answer to poverty.
As a young woman I was on welfare myself. I saw from inside the perverse and destructive culture it created. A dehumanized culture of dependence and irresponsibility that encourages behavior exactly the opposite of what a successful life demands.
The result speaks for itself. Some 50 years and a trillion plus dollars in spending after President Johnson announced the War on Poverty poverty rates are unchanged.
Ive often been approached to run for public office. However I always deferred because I felt I could make the greatest difference delivering my message as a free agent outside the formal structure of politics.
But things have changed and now Ive decided to run.
Weve totally reversed the direction we started in after we reformed welfare in 1996.
As I wrote a little over a year ago: I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism. But incredibly we are going in the opposite direction. Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich America on capitalism rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.
The leaders of many of our largest corporations whose founders were among our nations great entrepreneurs are now bureaucrats content to bargain away our nations future happy to play ball with government if it means carving out politically protected profits for themselves.
The government health care takeover that has just been forced on an unhappy America could not have happened without the cooperation of our large pharmaceutical firms and insurance companies. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Just a few weeks ago the chairman of Citigroup one the largest banks in the world came to Washington to testify and thanked American taxpayers -- you and I -- for bailing out his bank.
There is a reason why eight of ten Americans say that our nation is on the wrong track and why according to Gallup only 28 percent of voters now believe most members of congress deserve to be re-elected.
Most citizens retain their common sense because they run a household and have to pay their bills. They see through the duplicity and deception that our political class tries to pass off as governing.
Its estimated that our national debt plus unfunded obligations of Social Security and Medicare is now $100 trillion. As with the health care bill those holding power in Washington will try to deal with this through even greater tax increases and expansion of government -- sealing for good the welfare state transformation of America.
Im challenging a Black Caucus incumbent in a district that political pundits rate safe for Democrats.
But this year no Democrat representing low-income Americans should feel safe peddling the same plantation policies that already have produced our broken schools broken families and broken spirits. Now theyre bringing these bankrupt ideas to the whole country.
Even California Senator Barbara Boxer recently admitted that this year no seat is safe.
Will we resign ourselves to an America where freedom and prosperity are distant memories and where 40 percent out-of-wedlock births and abortion as birth control are our new social norms?
I wont. Its why Im stepping into this race.
-Star Parker is an author and president of CURE Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (www.urbancure.org). She can be reached at www.starparker.com
Over the last 25 years my work has been in the public arena.
I began with an inner city Christian newspaper that I founded moved on to start my current organization CURE -- Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education wrote three books and have written a weekly opinion column for the last five years. Ive spoken at over 200 universities and in 49 of 50 states.
All of this effort has been aimed to deliver one basic message. That the barrier between Americas chronically poor and the American dream is the welfare state socialism which was supposed to be our answer to poverty.
As a young woman I was on welfare myself. I saw from inside the perverse and destructive culture it created. A dehumanized culture of dependence and irresponsibility that encourages behavior exactly the opposite of what a successful life demands.
The result speaks for itself. Some 50 years and a trillion plus dollars in spending after President Johnson announced the War on Poverty poverty rates are unchanged.
Ive often been approached to run for public office. However I always deferred because I felt I could make the greatest difference delivering my message as a free agent outside the formal structure of politics.
But things have changed and now Ive decided to run.
Weve totally reversed the direction we started in after we reformed welfare in 1996.
As I wrote a little over a year ago: I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism. But incredibly we are going in the opposite direction. Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich America on capitalism rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.
The leaders of many of our largest corporations whose founders were among our nations great entrepreneurs are now bureaucrats content to bargain away our nations future happy to play ball with government if it means carving out politically protected profits for themselves.
The government health care takeover that has just been forced on an unhappy America could not have happened without the cooperation of our large pharmaceutical firms and insurance companies. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Just a few weeks ago the chairman of Citigroup one the largest banks in the world came to Washington to testify and thanked American taxpayers -- you and I -- for bailing out his bank.
There is a reason why eight of ten Americans say that our nation is on the wrong track and why according to Gallup only 28 percent of voters now believe most members of congress deserve to be re-elected.
Most citizens retain their common sense because they run a household and have to pay their bills. They see through the duplicity and deception that our political class tries to pass off as governing.
Its estimated that our national debt plus unfunded obligations of Social Security and Medicare is now $100 trillion. As with the health care bill those holding power in Washington will try to deal with this through even greater tax increases and expansion of government -- sealing for good the welfare state transformation of America.
Im challenging a Black Caucus incumbent in a district that political pundits rate safe for Democrats.
But this year no Democrat representing low-income Americans should feel safe peddling the same plantation policies that already have produced our broken schools broken families and broken spirits. Now theyre bringing these bankrupt ideas to the whole country.
Even California Senator Barbara Boxer recently admitted that this year no seat is safe.
Will we resign ourselves to an America where freedom and prosperity are distant memories and where 40 percent out-of-wedlock births and abortion as birth control are our new social norms?
I wont. Its why Im stepping into this race.
-Star Parker is an author and president of CURE Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education (www.urbancure.org). She can be reached at www.starparker.com
