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A Gallup poll out today found that Americans are most concerned about the high cost of healthcare, unemployment, and the budget deficit, going into this year’s presidential election. Gallup found the President is favored for his healthcare stance, while the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is seen as stronger on the deficit. However when it comes to unemployment, which 82% of Americans say is extremely or very important to them, neither candidate is preferred over the other. One reason could be that each candidate has expressed more concern for so-called job creators over the plight of the job-less. Just last Sunday, 230,000 Americans who were out-of-work for over 1 year lost their unemployment benefits, but this went unmentioned by both President Obama and Mitt Romney even while each fought to appear stronger than the other on economic issues.

Meanwhile, since last Summer, Princeton Professor Dr. Cornel West and broadcaster Tavis Smiley have traveled across the country on what they call The Poverty Tour to spark a national dialogue about poverty in America. As part of this effort the two wrote “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto,” a straightforward and passionate account of their travels that shines a light on what it means to be poor in the richest nation on Earth. The book is filled with first hand stories from Americans who are poor. Readers learn Samuel’s story, whose 15-year-marriage ended in divorce after his business collapsed during the recession. We meet 11-year-old Chastity, a victim of the dilapidated Mississippi school system that reinforces the pattern of generational poverty. Tavis Smiley and Cornel West argue that the crisis of poverty has been a long time coming — the result of a delusional adherence to capitalism and decades of wage stagnation and the neglect of infrastructure and pulbic education. The 2008 economic crisis shattered the illusion of the American Dream and ended the economic security taken for granted by the middle class. In the Rich and the Rest of US Smiley and West write: “We can no longer judge anyone who is living poor in America as someone who is lazy or who has made a series of avoidable bad choices. Such pat indictments and stereotypes obscure a fundamental truth; there is a poverty of opportunity in America.”

Smiley and West are beloved radio personalities heard on Saturdays here on KPFK, and the station hosted them in Los Angeles, at an appearance at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church on April 15 to present their book and meet the audience.

Thank you Gifts:

The Rich and the Rest of US – book – $80

Smiley and West recording – CD – $50

Smiley and West recording – DVD – $75

Smiley and West Pack – $180

Call 818-985-5735 or click on the links above to make a pledge.