D.C.’s Memorial Day Parade Is Special, but Also One of Many
• June 1, 2015

Every year, people on a special day are drawn to the long blocks of Constitution Avenue.  People come in families, or singly, or two-by-two, they come from all over the country and the world, and from the past, standing, sitting by the curbs, under the lavishness of trees offering cover from the sun, they come against the backdrop of the big monuments, the historic places not far away, the home of the president, and the president frozen as sculpture.  Not far away is Lincoln, is the World War II Memorial, is the shiny dark wall of names called the Viet Nam Memorial, is the Korean War memorial, is the FDR memorial, is the lonely World War I memorial.

It was once again National Memorial Day in Washington, and people gathered for the annual National Memorial Day Parade.

The National Memorial Day Parade is different here, of course, because of all that history, articulated in time and space every day here.   But if you close your eyes, or see only some things, and hear the music, the marching bands,  you might hear the everywhere of this occasion.  In hundreds and thousands of places all across these United States, everyone is doing some version of the same thing, big and small, elaborate and as simple as a baby carriages and tanks, batons flung high in the air, everywhere.

It is, I think, helpful to think of the parade that way, as one among the many, not so much the most important one, but the one here and now amidst all these memorials and memories, about the fallen soldiers, about the men and women who encapsulate the heart, the soul and idea of service to country.  The parade, here in history land, tells us that Americans have been sacrificing, persevering and fighting on this soil and the sod and sand of lands around the world for a long time.  This country was born as an idea, but created in the aftermath of war.

In the long Memorial Day Week, the parade is powerfully old fashioned and all at once both minuscule and grand.  After the roar of Rolling Thunder, the solemnity of speeches and the ceremonials, presidential and military at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the parade is a kind of bas relief commemorating the lives lost and the battles fought—but also the why of it all, home and hearth, guns and roses, those absent and those present  here on earth.

Perhaps the commonest of ingredients in this Memorial Day—presented on a warm Washington day, full of deft breezes—are the bands—those marching bands from all over, including here (Ballou) to assumedly distant schools chosen who saved up for the trip.

So, these musical bands—the flag-waving girls, the trombones, the bandleaders, the drummers and the furried hats, stepping high—came from where we all come from: home.  From Hampton High School, Pennsylvania,  the Ohio School for the Blind Marching Band,  the Franklin High School Band from Pennsylvania,  the Secaucus High School Band from New Jersey, the West Platte High School Band, from Missouri, the Shiner High School Band from Texas, the Bartow High School Band from Florida, the Henry Ford Marching Band from Michigan, the Pride of Morristown Marching Band from Indiana, the Deer Park High School Band from Texas, the Gateway High School Band from Pennsylvania,  the Mulberry High School Band from Florida,  the Springfield Marching Band from Massachusetts, the Cumberland Valley High School Band from Pennsylvania, the Havelock High School Band from South Carolina, the Kennedy Marching Band from Michigan the Ocoee Marching Band from Florida, the Mariposa Unified Grizzly High School Band from California,  the Childon High School Band from Pennsylvania, the Liberty Technology Magnet High School Band from Tennessee  and the Everett High School Band from Massachusetts.

Marching  bands are the core ingredients of parades, especially at Memorial Day Parades—they’re about tomorrow, tomorrow, which a young princess type was singing on the curb.  They, more than anybody, are the reasons soldiers end up sacrificing and go off to wars.

There were other things in passing—that parade of soldiers from all our wars—who knew there were so many—the pointed hats and fifes of the Revolution, the bunched up dark blue of the Union soldiers and the musicians as Confederates, who did not play Dixie, Buffalo soldiers and young boys dressed like doughboys, and the dwindling veterans of World War II, riding in classic cars, waving a wave to cheerful, heartfelt applause and the carload of men in World War II bomber jackets, jaunty caps and wave, the essence of greatest generation flyboy cool, and there was music, the Smashing Pumpkins and a country star and special guest, actor Joe Mantegna, who plays a serial killer hunter on television’s “Criminal Minds,” but who was here in honor of his uncle WWII vet Willy Novelli.

There was a Washington Nationals float, and the running presidents were there—and is it just me or is the Abe guy beginning to look more and more like Bryce Harper?

Someone who looked like General Black Jack Pershing was there, and military dignitaries of lofty rank were there, and women dressed in the bustled dresses of the Civil War, and jeeps from the big one, still seeming to smell like gasoline came by, and the riderless black horse,  and an ace from the Viet Nam War, and folks playing music of the 1940s, as it mixed in with our most hallowed songs—“God Bless America,” indeed, and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”  It was not so much martial, but our way of living, then and now, that was coming by, right before our eyes. 

You could imagine this happening everywhere across the country—small towns by a lake, in the suburbs, way out West, in the Rust Belt and the oceanside places along the Gulf and the magnolia streets of the South.  

You can imagine, as batons spin high into the air, the sun catching them bright and confident. You can imagine all the losses that went into that moment, in the here and now, the wounds that were taken, the aftermath never gone, the different way life went because of them.
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Police Name, Search for Suspect in Woodley Park Murders
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D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department named Daron Dylon Wint, 34, a suspect in the May 14 murders of Savvas Savopoulus, his wife, Amy Savopoulos, their son Philip, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, at the Savopoulus home in Woodley Park.

Because of DNA left on a crust of pizza and a criminal record, Wint matched the forensic evidence.

“He is wanted pursuant to a D.C. Superior Court arrest warrant charging him with Murder One while Armed,” MPD reported. “He is described as a black male, approximately 5’7” in height, weighing approximately 155 pounds.”

Wint is suspected of being in or around New York City, especially Brooklyn.

“Right now, you have just about every law enforcement officer across the country that is aware of his open warrant and are looking for him,” said MPD Chief Cathy Lanier at a midday press conference May 21. “Even his family has made pleas for him to turn himself in.”

“For residents of the District who are rightfully scared and want answers as to why and how this family may have been involved, we want to give you as many answers as we can,” Lanier said. “What we can tell you right now is that we do believe there is a connection between the suspect in this case through the business. So right now it does not appear that this was a random crime.”

Wint is reported to have worked as a welder for American Iron Works in Hyattsville, Md., where Savvas Savopoulus was the CEO. Wint had gone through Marine Corps boot camp but left after five weeks.

On May 21, CNN reported: “On Thursday, U.S. Marshals and NYPD detectives questioned a woman believed to be Wint’s girlfriend, according to two law enforcement sources involved in the investigation. The sources said the girlfriend, who lives in Brooklyn, told authorities that she spoke to Wint and that he was planning to turn himself in.”

The May 14 murder of Savvas Savopoulus, 46, and his wife, Amy Savopoulos, 47, as well as their 10-year-old son, Philip, who attended St. Alban’s School, and a housekeeper, Veralicia Figueroa, 57, has shocked friends of the family, which lived blocks away from Washington National Cathedral and the home of Vice President Joe Biden. After the attacks, the Savopoulus house — valued at $4.5 million — in the 3200 block of Woodland Drive NW was set on fire. The suspect or suspects fled the scene with $40,000 in cash, obtained from Savopoulus.

Savvas Savopoulos and his wife Amy were known around town and were involved with school and other social benefits. The couple’s two teenage daughters were at boarding school at the time of the murder and are safe.

A June 1 funeral service is planned for Savvas, Amy and Philip Savopoulos at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral on Massachusetts Avenue. The remains of Veralicia Figueroa will be sent to her native El Salvador after a funeral here.

Mystery Cannonball Jumper to Celebrate D.C. Pools with Mayor Bowser
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D.C. public pools will open Saturday, May 23, at the start of Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer. The mayor usually helps to publicize and jump-start the fun the day before the opening by jumping into a pool as the press looks on and reports. This year, however, the new mayor, Muriel Bowser, will demur to another diver, yet to be announced.

The Department of Parks and Recreation will officially open all District DPR 18 outdoor pools, 24 spray parks and four children’s pools, as well as 11 indoor pools on Saturday and advises: “As part of a tradition of D.C.’s mayors launching DPR’s outdoor pool season, Mayor Muriel Bowser will visit the Banneker Pool. DPR has a mystery jumper scheduled to cannonball into the pool.”

The opening kick-off event will be at Banneker Pool, 2500 Georgia Ave. NW, 3:45 p.m., Friday, May 22. On hand will be Mayor Muriel Bowser, DPR Acting Director Keith Anderson and Department of Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt, M.D. For complete information on DPR’s facilities, operating times and other details, visit dpr.dc.gov.

End the Delay on Hyde-Addison Renovations
• May 31, 2015

The parents and supporters of Hyde-Addison Elementary School on O Street are to be commended for their unwavering commitment to the best education possible for their children and everyone’s – and for their patience.

Hyde-Addison stands for excellence. It is a point of pride for Georgetown, its only public elementary school. The school is over capacity, with 59 percent of its students attending from outside its boundaries. Indeed, Hyde-Addison has students from all eight wards of the District.

The school also desperately needs a real gymnasium, more classroom and meeting space and a connection between the two buildings. The time for delay is over.

We agree with Council member Jack Evans, with the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission and, most importantly, with the parents and teachers of Hyde-Addison. The construction needs to get underway by this time next year.

Here is what an online petition by Hyde supporters argues: “Our Hyde-Addison E.S. community is grateful the Mayor’s FY16 Budget Proposal includes $22.8 million for the completion of our campus modernization. However, our community was stunned to see the proposed budget delays the funding and construction start date for our Hyde-Addison Addition until 2017 despite being assured on March 26, 2015, that construction would begin in May-June 2016.

“Without this re-allocation of the funding into FY16, our campus modernization –which Department of General Services has been working on since fall 2012 – will be stopped mid-way and our children will suffer. Our modernization has already been delayed three times. It was originally scheduled to start in 2013, then 2014 and most recently in 2015.

“Simply put, our children and community must not be expected to wait three more years before having access to a fully resourced campus – complete with sorely needed athletic space, additional classroom space, an updated media center, all-school meeting and performance space and ADA-compliant fixtures.”

We couldn’t agree more. Contact the Office of the Mayor, District Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, At-large Council member David Grosso as well as Chancellor Kaya Henderson and make your voice heard. To support Hyde, for the sake of our children, visit www.gopetition.com/petitions/mayjune-2016-start-for-hyde-addison-es-addition.html.

Culture of Traffic, Culture of Transit
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Nearly 60 years and roughly half a trillion inflation-adjusted dollars after President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid-Highway Act of 1956, most of us spend a significant chunk of our lives on Uncle Ike’s interstates.
Few imagined how the highway system would transform our lives and our nation. One who did was sociologist and critic Lewis Mumford, who wrote the New Yorker column “The Sky Line.” In addition to attacking highways as destroyers of city neighborhoods (and, in the long run, cities themselves), he deplored the overreliance on the private automobile that would result from such a massive investment:

“Now that motorcars are becoming universal, many people take for granted that pedestrian movement will disappear and that the railroad system will in time be abandoned; in fact, many of the proponents of highway building talk as if that day were already here, or if not, they have every intention of making it dawn quickly.”
Any Beltway commuter would recognize Mumford’s 1958 description of the self-defeating process by which the automobile’s promise of freedom leads to gridlock. Washingtonians – and other Americans in densely populated regions – have embraced a culture of traffic.

Twenty years after the highway act, the first segment of D.C.’s Metrorail system opened (Farragut North to Rhode Island Avenue). Probably the country’s greatest transit initiative of the second half of the 20th century, Metrorail went from a standing start to the second-busiest rapid transit system in the United States. It’s hard to imagine Washington without it or remember what the city was like before it.

Yet even as Metrorail continues to expand, what was once a world-class system has been allowed to deteriorate and, in certain respects, become obsolete – sometimes (as recently as this past January) with fatal consequences.

The same process is consuming our national rail system, even as ridership increases. Last week’s derailment in Philadelphia – which resulted in eight passenger deaths – is only the most tragic of numerous warning signals. Even if the investigation ends up calling it a case of human error, the incident is a tangle of contributing factors and if-onlys.

To what extent the deficiencies of Metrorail, Amtrak and other rail (and bus) systems are due to inadequate funding, inept management, insufficiently qualified and trained staff and bureaucratic snafus is debatable. However, all of these conditions are made worse by the absence of a culture of transit: a widely held belief that public transportation is of social and economic value.

Despite the multiplication of services that reduce the reliance on privately owned automobiles, such as Zipcar, Car2Go, Uber, Lyft and Capital Bikeshare; the implementation of bike lanes; and the lower rate of car-ownership among millennials associated with these trends, our obsession with personal vehicles continues to leave public transportation in the dust.

Just how destructive of our time and sanity, not to mention the environment does America’s culture of traffic need to become before a culture of transit – supporting the kind of reliable, efficient and affordable service taken for granted in Europe, Japan and elsewhere – gains traction?

Helping Out Our College Grads
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Touring my old neighborhood in Logan Circle with my daughter recently, looking for her first one-bedroom apartment without roommates, I was shocked to find that the average rent was north of $2,000.

What 20-something, much less a recent college graduate, can afford that rent by herself? I often hear people say that they don’t know how kids these days can afford to live, but this didn’t sound right.

I went home and crunched some numbers. When I lived in my daughter’s neighborhood 34 years ago, my rent was $875 with an inflation rate of three percent. That same rent would be $2,390 today. I did some more math. My starting salary was $18,000, which is the equivalent of $49,175 today.

It is any wonder that over the next couple of weeks college graduates all across the country will be accepting jobs, packing their bags and moving back in with their parents?

As parents we have raised our children, begged them to do their homework, sent them packing for college and cheered at their college graduations. After they graduate, it’s time for them move out, pay rent and start contributing to their 401(k), right?
It’s harder than ever for college graduates to find jobs, afford rent and pay off rising student-loan interest rates. Even more worrisome, only one in four Americans has emergency savings. We, their parents, are the primary source of help when our graduates have to deal with emergencies.

This got me thinking. Maybe, if we really want our children to be independent, we should welcome them back home rather than encourage them to move into an apartment they cannot afford without our financial support. Perhaps we are making the biggest parenting mistake of all by helping them with money, rather than with wisdom and experience.

This is the time to help our recent college grads get a head start on their financial future by saving for law school tuition, for a down payment on their first house or for the seed money to launch their own business.

But no matter what it is, make them pay. If they move back home, mandate that they save the monthly equivalent of rent in the community they want to live in, teach them to maintain a budget, encourage them to sign up for online money-management apps and show them how to grow their credit score.

After a couple months, they will have saved enough money for an emergency fund and to splurge on life experiences. You will have taught them to live within their income, while giving them the tools and understanding to save systematically. Perhaps most important, you have also given yourself the time to get to know your kids as adults, a friendship that you will treasure.

Walking around my old stomping grounds with my successful, financially independent daughter reminded me that parenting sometimes means being flexible. But when you get to watch them set themselves free, it is worth every penny.

A registered principal of Cambridge Investment Research and an Investment Advisor Representative of Capital Investment Advisors in Bethesda, Maryland, John E. Girouard is the author of “Take Back Your Money” and “The Ten Truths of Wealth Creation.”

Weekend Round Up May 21, 2015
• May 26, 2015

Attend an Info Session to Become a Georgetown Ambassador

May 21st, 2015 at 05:00 PM | Event Website

The Georgetown BID is opening a new Georgetown Visitor Center this spring, and we need people like you to volunteer as Georgetown Ambassadors. Ambassadors will assist visitors by giving directions, answering questions, and making recommendations.

Come to one of our information sessions and chat with Georgetown BID staff and find out more about this volunteer opportunity!

Light refreshments will be served, and drink specials will be available.

Address

The Alex at the Graham Hotel; 1075 Thomas Jefferson Street NW

Culinary Garden Summer Music Series

May 22nd, 2015 at 06:00 PM | Free admission | harrimansdining@salamanderresort.com | Tel: 540.326.4070 | Event Website

One Friday each Month

Friday, May 22 – Come out for the first of our Culinary Garden Summer Series featuring Jazz Musician Marcus Johnson and FLO wines.

Friday, June 26 – Meet the Chef Jamie Leeds, learn about Stonestreet Estate Vineyards& their wines and sling back local Rappahannock oysters.

Friday, July 24 – Find the perfect
pairings between Napa Valley’s Duckhorn Vineyard wines and farm-to-table food.

Friday, August 28 – Stay tuned!

Address

Salamander Resort & Spa; 500 North Pendleton Street; Middleburg, VA 20117

Welcome to St. Tropez! A White, Blue & Pink Affair

May 23rd, 2015 at 06:30 PM | $20-$30 | info@blacknightevents.com | Tel: (202) 681-9560 | Event Website

BKE proudly presents its 5th edition of the Fashion and Art series on May 23rd

Welcome to St. Tropez! A White Pink Blue affair, Get ready to enjoy a stylish Spring evening and dive deep as we present the Fashion Music art from the French Riviera .
The event will feature a “fashion in motion installation” with an art exhibit.

Address

The Manor; 1327 Connecticut Ave

Spanish Conversation Club

May 26th, 2015 at 11:00 AM | Free | julia.strusienski@dc.gov | Tel: 202-727-0232 | Event Website

Looking to grow, revive, or begin to develop your Spanish skills?

Join the Georgetown Neighborhood Library this May for weekly casual conversation hours, led by instructor Luz Verost.

Address

Georgetown Neighborhood Library; 3260 R St. NW

Glendalough Whiskey Dinner

May 28th, 2015 at 07:00 PM | $60.00 | marycatherinecorson@rira.com | Tel: 202-571-2111 | Event Website

The Whiskey Room at Rí Rá Georgetown Presents Glendalough Distillery Dinner + Tasting.

Thursday, May 28th at 7:00pm, $60 per guest includes Poitín Cocktail Hour with Charcuterie and Irish Cheese Selection, Three Course Specialty Menu and Glendalough Whiskey Pairing.

For event information and ticket purchase, please contact marycatherinecorson@rira.com

Address

3125 M Street NW

It’s the Garden Tour but a People Show, Too
• May 21, 2015

Neighbors and visitors alike got a chance May 9 to see some of Georgetown’s “Edens Unveiled,” as the May 6th Georgetowner described this year’s eight select spots around town that show how great or small a garden might be.

It was time again for the Georgetown Garden Tour – the 87th annual – presented by the Georgetown Garden Club, an affiliate of the Garden Club of America. Beginning at Christ Church, the gardens-curious marched along the sidewalks, east and west, stopping at 30th and N Streets to see a classic backyard that contains the northeast boundary stone of “olde George Town” or basking in the expanse of the Cafritzes’ back lawn with pool and “the Architect’s Garden.” It was perhaps the biggest star on the tour.

On the west side, Mrs. Knight was welcoming many to her intimate side garden, at once enchanting and practical with its perfectly pruned trees and plants. The next door neighbor’s garden was equally impressive with its new refinements. Three blocks away, easily entered from the alley, were the Italianate garden of Patrick McGettigan and the perfectly remade Georgetown garden of designer Gwendolyn van Paasschen, along with a three-car garage and jacuzzi, to boot.

While the gardens’ plants, layout and the home thereof were the top draw for most, the Georgetown Garden Tour also sets up the added fun and ease of neighbors and friends meeting each other along the walkways. Plants are named, conversations go on and people linger in the sun-kissed, spring day.

The book, “Gardens of Georgetown: Exploring Urban Treasures,” sold briskly before and during the day of the tour and is on sale at GeorgetownGardenClubDC.org. It is not for sale at Amazon.com, as reported in last week’s newspaper.
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Friday Is Bike-to-Work Day
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This Friday, May 15, has been dubbed Bike-to-Work Day. Commuter Connections and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association aim to gather more than 17,000 area commuters for a celebration of bicycling as a clean, fun and healthy way to get to work.

Bike riders can stop by one of 79 pit stops throughout D.C., Maryland and Virginia to receive refreshments and enter into a raffle for a bicycle giveaway.

Each pit stop will also provide registered attendees with free t-shirts. T-shirts are available to the first 14,000 who register and attend.

Cyclists can visit as many pit stops as they would like on Bike-to-Work Day. However, the free Bike-to-Work Day t-shirt can only be picked up at the pit stop one chooses while registering.

The Georgetown Business Improvement District has invited participants to come by its pit stop, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., at Georgetown Waterfront Park, where commuters can enjoy refreshments, snacks and bicycle-themed giveaways. Registration is free. The first 300 visitors will receive a Bike-to-Work Day water bottle.

Before the bike-themed festivities, the Georgetown Professionals, a networking group that hosts monthly happy hours, will partner up with Washington Area Bicyclists Association and the Georgetown BID on May 12 to host an afternoon bike-from-work day happy hour at Malmaison, starting 4 p.m., at 3401 K St. NW. Send RSVPs for the happy hour to erinflynn09@gmail.com.

Visit www.BikeToWorkMetroDC.org for more details.

Obama at Georgetown: ‘It’s Hard Being Poor’
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A unique panel met May 12 at Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall to discuss the difficult topic of poverty in America. One of the panelists happened to be the President of the United States.

President Barack Obama sat next to discussion moderator E.J. Dionne, a Washington Post columnist and Georgetown faculty member, along with Harvard professor Robert Putnam and Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute.

The four men looked for solutions and advanced perspectives that went beyond the everyday left-right rigidity in addressing the plight of poor Americans, a widening economic gap and how to advance opportunity for all.

If the dialogue was not quite a clarion call for concerted national action, it almost did become that, as the president showed a more personal side to issues about national policy.

The president first answered the question of why this panel and this discussion: “I think that we are at a moment — in part because of what’s happened in Baltimore and Ferguson and other places, but in part because a growing awareness of inequality in our society — where it may be possible not only to refocus attention on the issue of poverty, but also maybe to bridge some of the gaps that have existed and the ideological divides that have prevented us from making progress.”

“And there are a lot of folks here who I have worked with — they disagree with me on some issues, but they have great sincerity when it comes to wanting to deal with helping the least of these.  And so this is a wonderful occasion for us to join together,” Obama continued.

“Part of the reason I thought this venue would be useful and I wanted to have a dialogue with Bob and Arthur is that we have been stuck, I think for a long time, in a debate that creates a couple of straw men.  The stereotype is that you’ve got folks on the left who just want to pour more money into social programs, and don’t care anything about culture or parenting or family structures, and that’s one stereotype.  And then you’ve got cold-hearted, free market, capitalist types who are reading Ayn Rand and think everybody are moochers.  And I think the truth is more complicated.”

Putnam, author of the recently published “Our Kids: the American Dream in Crisis,” spoke of the slowing of social and economic mobility — a given for Americans for decades.

“I think in this domain there’s good news and bad news, and it’s important to begin with the bad news because we have to understand where we are,” Putnam said. “The president is absolutely right that the War on Poverty did make a real difference, but it made a difference more for poverty among people of my age than it did for poverty among kids.” 

“And with respect to kids, I completely agree with the president that we know about some things that would work and things that would make a real difference in the lives of poor kids, but what the book that you’ve referred to, “Our Kids,” what it presents is a lot of evidence of growing gaps between rich kids and poor kids; that over the last 30 or 40 years, things have gotten better and better for kids coming from well-off homes, and worse and worse for kids coming from less well-off homes.” 

“And I don’t mean Bill Gates and some homeless person,” Putnam continued. “I mean people coming from college-educated homes — their kids are doing better and better, and people coming from high school-educated homes, they’re kids aren’t.  And it’s not just that there’s this class gap, but a class gap on our watch — I don’t mean just the president’s watch, but I mean on my generation’s watch — that gap has grown.”

“You can see it in measures of family stability. You can see it in measures of the investments that parents are able to make in their kids, the investments of money and the investments of time.  You can see it in the quality of schools kids go to.  You can see it in the character of the social and community support that kids — rich kids and poor kids are getting from their communities.  Church attendance is a good example of that, actually.  Churches are an important source of social support for kids outside their own family, but church attendance is down much more rapidly among kids coming from impoverished backgrounds than among kids coming from wealthy backgrounds.”

Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute answered the question on expanding the socio-economic safety net in a non-partisan way: “One concept that rides along with that is to point out — and this is what I do to many of my friends on Capitol Hill — I remind them that just because people are on public assistance doesn’t mean they want to be on public assistance.  And that’s the difference between people who factually are making a living and who are accepting public assistance.  It’s an important matter to remember about the motivations of people and humanizing them.  And then the question is, how can we come together?  How can we come together?”

“I have, indeed, written that it’s time to declare peace on the safety net.  And I say that as a political conservative.  Why?  Because Ronald Reagan said that; because Friedrich Hayek said that.  This is not a radical position.  In fact, the social safety net is one of the greatest achievements of free enterprise — that we could have the wealth and largesse as a society, that we can help take care of people who are poor that we’ve never even met.  It’s historic; it’s never happened before.  We should be proud of that.”

In response, Obama said: “We don’t dispute that the free market is the greatest producer of wealth in history. It has lifted billions of people out of poverty.  We believe in property rights, rule of law, so forth.  But there has always been trends in the market in which concentrations of wealth can lead to some being left behind.  And what’s happened in our economy is that those who are doing better and better — more skilled, more educated, luckier, having greater advantages — are withdrawing from sort of the commons — kids start going to private schools; kids start working out at private clubs instead of the public parks.  An anti-government ideology then disinvests from those common goods and those things that draw us together.  And that, in part, contributes to the fact that there’s less opportunity for our kids, all of our kids.

“Now, that’s not inevitable.  A free market is perfectly compatible with also us making investment in good public schools, public universities; investments in public parks; investments in a whole bunch — public infrastructure that grows our economy and spreads it around.  But that’s, in part, what’s been under attack for the last 30 years.  And so, in some ways, rather than soften the edges of the market, we’ve turbocharged it.  And we have not been willing, I think, to make some of those common investments so that everybody can play a part in getting opportunity.”

“Now, one other thing I’ve got to say about this is that even back in Bob’s day that was also happening.  It’s just it was happening to black people.  And so, in some ways, part of what’s changed is that those biases or those restrictions on who had access to resources that allowed them to climb out of poverty — who had access to the firefighters job, who had access to the assembly line job, the blue-collar job that paid well enough to be in the middle class and then got you to the suburbs, and then the next generation was suddenly office workers — all those things were foreclosed to a big chunk of the minority population in this country for decades.”

“And that accumulated and built up,” Obama continued. “And over time, people with less and less resources, more and more strains — because it’s hard being poor.  People don’t like being poor.  It’s time-consuming. It’s stressful.  It’s hard.  And so over time, families frayed.  Men who could not get jobs left.  Mothers who are single are not able to read as much to their kids.  So, all that was happening 40 years ago to African Americans. And now what we’re seeing is that those same trends have accelerated, and they’re spreading to the broader community. ”

The meeting was part of a three-day Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty at Georgetown. At the summit, put together by the university’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life and the National Association of Evangelicals, attendees included leaders from various religious communities, policy makers, researchers and community organizers.
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