Tuesday, February 13, 2007
News Will "Poor People's Day" draw a crowd?
Posted by Mara Shalhoup on Tue, Feb 13, 2007 at 6:01 PM
This week, Georgia's most unpopular populace will have its day at the state Capitol -- whether the group is welcome or not. No, we're not talking about the gay population. Homosexuals were the subject of lawmakers' scorn in 2004, when there was a successful push for a constitutional ban on the already-illegal act of gay marriage.
On Wednesday, Feb. 14, and Thursday, Feb. 15, those other personae non gratae -- poverty-stricken Georgians -- are expected to descend on the Statehouse for Poor People's Day, during which picketers will demand an increase in the minimum wage, the availability of more affordable housing and access to decent health care, among other reforms. Apparently, the number of poor people -- or at least the number of their issues -- could not be squeezed into a single day.
Given the flood of down-and-out residents who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and have landed in metro Atlanta, as well as the recent federal cuts to Georgia's program offering health insurance to low-income children, the 27th annual Poor People's Day is a worthy cause. Let's hope that it draws even more attention than last week's "motorcycle safety" publicity stunt, which had more to do with gawking over the celebrities who rode their Harleys to the Gold Dome than with promoting actual highway safety. The Feb. 7 event should have been called "John-Travolta-and-William-H.-Macy's-Shameless-Plug-For-Wild-Hogs Day."
Too bad there's no poverty-stricken celebs willing to show up on behalf of Georgia's poor. On second thought, Whitney and Bobby might have some time on their hands ...
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