evince
Truthmatters
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/01/opini...eed&utm_campaign=Feed:+rss/cnn_us+(RSS:+U.S.)
One reader called me in tears. Dozens sent e-mails. The overwhelming message: What can we do to help low-income people in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, which has the highest income inequality of any county or parish in the country?
CNN featured East Carroll Parish and Lake Providence, the parish's largest town, as part of the Change the List project. It's a place where about 40% live in poverty and 16% are unemployed. There's wealth there, too, but it's far from evenly distributed.
Much of the response was incredibly heartwarming and generous. It reminded me that this country does have the empathy and caring it needs to mend our economic divisions.
"I just read portions of your story on Delores Gilmore," a prison guard who lives on the poorer side of Lake Providence, "and I am moved to tears," one reader said in an e-mail. "Although I know that structural change is the only way to truly help people like her, is there a way for me to make a donation to her and her family?"
Another wrote, "Thank you for the enlightening story. I hope I can help some way."
And here's an excerpt of what I think was the most powerful response, which I received by e-mail: "I watched this video and read the article this morning sitting in my 1,400-square-foot house, on my iPad. By the end I was bawling. My family is middle-class and we want for nothing. My husband and I are both college graduates, have great benefits, and our two young children have everything they need or want. ... I have been one of those that bemoaned government assistance and had that 'bootstrap' mentality. However, as your article suggests, how can that happen when there are places where there are no opportunities to be had?"
One reader called me in tears. Dozens sent e-mails. The overwhelming message: What can we do to help low-income people in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, which has the highest income inequality of any county or parish in the country?
CNN featured East Carroll Parish and Lake Providence, the parish's largest town, as part of the Change the List project. It's a place where about 40% live in poverty and 16% are unemployed. There's wealth there, too, but it's far from evenly distributed.
Much of the response was incredibly heartwarming and generous. It reminded me that this country does have the empathy and caring it needs to mend our economic divisions.
"I just read portions of your story on Delores Gilmore," a prison guard who lives on the poorer side of Lake Providence, "and I am moved to tears," one reader said in an e-mail. "Although I know that structural change is the only way to truly help people like her, is there a way for me to make a donation to her and her family?"
Another wrote, "Thank you for the enlightening story. I hope I can help some way."
And here's an excerpt of what I think was the most powerful response, which I received by e-mail: "I watched this video and read the article this morning sitting in my 1,400-square-foot house, on my iPad. By the end I was bawling. My family is middle-class and we want for nothing. My husband and I are both college graduates, have great benefits, and our two young children have everything they need or want. ... I have been one of those that bemoaned government assistance and had that 'bootstrap' mentality. However, as your article suggests, how can that happen when there are places where there are no opportunities to be had?"
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