Community reactions to economy and stimulus bill

“They don’t need to cut taxes,” Maryjane Marron, a petite 21-year-old caretaker and resident of South Los Angeles with flowing brown hair, declared as she stood in a long line of people, waiting for her free breakfast Tuesday morning at Denny’s in South Central. “But they need to help the poor people,” she urged with a stern look on her face.

This sentiment of the federal government stepping in to help communities in need around the country is shared throughout the area surrounding the University of Southern California. With the economy spiraling into the worst shape it has been in since the Great Depression, and with an unemployment rate of 7.6 percent nationally and greater still in California, community members look to the federal government for help. They want to see that change the President Barack Obama promised in his campaign.

Lorna Ward, a jovial woman — who refused to give her age, saying “she is retired and that’s all anyone needs to know” — is an online proprietor of herbal medicines and active member of the South Los Angeles community whose short cut hair matches her spunky attitude. She said that party divisions aren’t the only things keeping the country’s two political parties from coming together in this economic crisis. “The people are not together,” she said very sharply. “Everyone is very selfish. They think, ‘What can I get now for myself?’”

Ward says that, though federal support is ultimately needed, it is the responsibility of the members in a community to come together and work for a common cause. “[During the 50s and 60s], we had the mentality of ‘I need it now,’ so we worked together and did what we needed to do to get it,” she explained. “Nowadays there are no common goals.”

But Ward is looking forward to the stimulus bill working. She, like many other community members, sees that monetary support from the government is the only way to insure that common goals are accomplished.

Charles Lewis, a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran with tired eyes, says that the government needs to take better care of military veterans. “We need more money for war vets,” he demanded. “We need to increase that amount of money [going to veterans].”

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs Veteran data and information Web site, there were 23.8 million veterans living in the United States at the end of 2007, 7.9 million of whom were from the Vietnam War era. However, Lewis claims that he and his fellow veterans are losing their benefits, which he says are already below the poverty level. “There are over 7 million Vietnam vets in the country — and they go unpaid,” he explained angrily. “The government is just not paying attention.”

The $787 billion stimulus bill provides for $14.2 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security recipients, to poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and to veterans receiving disability and pensions. But Lewis believes this is not enough. “There is a lot more they can do — they should do,” he added, pounding his fist on an invisible desk.

Another area of concern for South Los Angeles community members is education. When asked where federal funds should be spent, 13-year-old Deshon Hamilton, small and bright-eyed, said the money should go back to the people, in his case, the children. “We need more money for school,” he said.

Alfred Green, 14, who stood with a straight back and head lifted high, as if to show his authority on the matter, echoed the need for educational funding. “We need more money for books and stuff. Everything is all raggedy,” he pointed out.

Ward said she had only one child go through school in the Los Angeles Unified School District. “The education system in Los Angeles is terrible, and I have seen it go from bad to worse.”
Vera Lewis, who is developing an afterschool arts program, says she thinks the city needs to have more performing arts schools. “I want to see dance and music come back into the community.
We need to have it set up so that younger generations can better express themselves.” Though she seemed reserved at first, not wanting to divulge too much information, she said this last statement with true conviction.

But she, like her fellow community members, knows that help needs to come from the federal government. “We need a way to finance this. It needs to be affordable to the people in the community,” she added.

The stimulus bill will give $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to help prevent layoffs and cutbacks, with flexibility to be uses for school modernization and repair and $25.2 billion to school districts to fund special education and the No Child Left Behind Act for students in K-12. There is no indication, however, that there will be enough funding to start bringing arts programs back into public schools.

And in a final thought about the passing of Obama’s stimulus bill, tax cuts or not, Marron and the rest of the community said they are looking forward to a change. “I just hope the Obama [administration] helps the people.”