Dear Ruth,

Just to focus rhetorically on a single aspect of your review of the Moyer program, I must respond to its statement:[color:red]"an ever greater divide is continuing to grow between the richest people in America and the poor." That piece of "news", apparently intended to shock an apathetic public, is about as statistically significant as the perennial education shocker which states "latest test results show half our children performing below average![img]http://www.the-highway.com/w3timages/icons/shocked.gif" alt="shocked" title="shocked[/img]" What did Mr. Hough mean by the words "ever greater divide"? Greater standard deviation, perhaps, of mean income after taxes? or purchasing power? or population below and above a magic income level? From what point in time until what point in time? at what rate? Did Moyer probe him for documentation of these terms?

I have lived among poor neighbors in both rural America (50's, 60's, 70's) and urban, inner-city America (80's to the present). Poverty is indeed a grim fact of life, and the church must always "remember the poor"--first in her midst, and next among her neighbors--and a wise government will ensure that safety nets are in place. But it must be stated that poverty in America is nearly an oxymoron when compared with poverty in the balance of the world. Having seen it first-hand in urban China, and hearing from friends about, say, Haiti and Afghanistan, the difference between 2nd/3rd world poverty and the West's is staggering, and honestly, makes Mr. Hough's appeal lose its appeal.

Perhaps Aaron--if you're reading this post--could enlighten us as to why the suffering masses of American poor, slaving away below minimum wage, are not applying, by the tens of millions, for work visas in China, Haiti, Uganda, France, Russia, Mexico?

In Christ,
Paul S