posted January 28, 2003 at 11:20 a.m. MDTFalling Into the Gap, a NYTimes editorial by BOB HERBERT dated 27JAN03, begins
Adolfo Jesus Recio suffers from asthma, depression and unemployment. His left hand was badly injured in an accident and is now almost useless. He panhandles in the middle of a busy street in the shadow of the downtown Miami skyline.Another NYT item from the same edition informs us that "The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $200 million to identify critical questions about the leading causes of death in developing countries and to create an international competition to entice scientists to solve them.". Uh-hunh ... how ummmmm nice. NYT's treatment of that city's World Economic BlabFest offers another view of the Marie Antoinette set. An item on joblessness from last fall provides something like a backgrounder.
No one pays much attention to Mr. Recio's hazardous pursuit of a handful of dimes and quarters. We've closed our eyes to poverty in the United States. Government aid these days goes to the plutocrats, and the poor are being left further and further behind.
