Last week, a 42 year-old man robbed a convenience store outside of Seattle, Washington at gunpoint. This petty crime, now even more commonplace across America in times of economic hardship, did not earn national and international attention in itself. Two other extraordinary factors, however, made the incident particularly noteworthy - and pitiful..
Behind the assailant, a small figure stood by and watched the event in confusion. It was the nine year-old daughter of the gunman. At 3:00 in the morning, the clerk at the counter displayed an unusual amount of sang-froid and used diplomacy diffuse some of the tension. As he handed over the cash, the dispirited, middle aged man offered a rationale behind his crime. Being unemployed, he stated that his action was necessary to feed himself and his daughter.
.
The clerk later told the press that the offender seemed to be a virtually broken individual. He would certainly be qualified to make such a judgment. In one of several interviews afterward, the convenience store worker confessed to doing menial jobs and living on the edge of poverty for much of his life while raising his own daughters. At one point in his past, he was even forced to stay at a homeless shelter for a period of time.
.
The degradation of these two individuals by economic forces recalls an historic event just prior to the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King Jr..
.
On 11 February 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, city sanitation workers voted to go on strike due to their egregious working conditions. At less than $2 per hour, more than one-third of the employees were still eligible for welfare. They were afforded no livable wage, no health insurance and no vacation time. During slow periods, blacks were dismissed for the day without pay as their white co-workers were allowed to remain on the job.
.
By the time King arrived to boost their cause, the 1,300 striking sanitation workers had been picketing with one of the most moving and effective slogans to ever appear on a sign of protest. Their signs simply read, 'I AM A MAN'.
.
As they held jobs with sub-standard pay and no benefits, the strikers had been robbed of their human dignity. Rather than being treated as a vital component to the operation of the city, they were reduced to an exploited group of near slaves. Hence, Memphis officials needed to be reminded that people and labor are not merely expenditures.
.
In the United States today, the wealthiest nation in the world, 47 million people live in poverty or near poverty. Tens of millions more are underemployed and live without access to health care or a pension. These people are men. These people are women, and they have been denied lives of hope and dignity by an economic system devoted to cutthroat competition and greed. President Obama has proposed a system of national service whereby college students can earn a grant for tuition and books by performing community service at homeless shelters. This idea is fundamentally wrong. Federal and state governments need to enact broad measures to end homelessness and the existence of homeless shelters within the next decade, but the eradication of poverty in America will not happen until citizens from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon demand universal housing access, universal health care and a right to adequate-paying, dignified jobs.
.
The gun-toting robber at the convenience store near Seattle is not a robber. He is a man - a man made desperate by forces beyond his control. The sympathetic clerk is not a clerk. He is a man - a once-homeless man trying to eek out a living in an economic system that values money over people.
.
For the sake of the 9 year-old girl, who watched her father steal money at gunpoint, every citizen of the United States is now called to promote human dignity by campaigning for economic justice.
.
(Photo: A scene from the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike - click to enlarge)
.
J Roquen