Contact: Martha Waggoner | [email protected]
Poor People’s Campaign requests White House meeting ‘to help create a moral reset’ amid infrastructure, economic investment plan & voting rights legislation debate
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has sent a letter to President Biden seeking a meeting at the White House with a racially and geographically diverse group of poor and low-income people, moral leaders and economists “to put a face on the urgent needs of this moment.”
The letter, which was emailed to the White House on Wednesday, seeks a meeting as soon as possible as Congress debates Biden’s Build Back Better plan and voting rights legislation. The campaign co-chairs, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, called for the meeting on behalf of impacted people, and released the open letter that’s below.
“This is a sad moment in America,” the letter reads. “The issue is not who will back down, moderates or progressives. The question is, do we truly love and care for the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this country? Do we care about workers who need living wages, the sick who need healthcare, the children who need education?”
A similar delegation from the Poor People’s Campaign met with then President-elect Biden’s domestic policy team, led by Ambassador Susan Rice, last December, outlining the urgency of action to address the interlocking injustices of poverty, racism, ecological devastation and the war economy.
In recent weeks, the campaign also met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and staff to highlight the immediate need for investment in physical infrastructure, social infrastructure and the infrastructure of our democracy.
The full text of the letter, dated Sept. 22, 2021, is below:
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing on behalf of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival to request a meeting with you in the White House as soon as possible. As Congress continues to debate your Build Back Better package, we know you have a unique power and responsibility to offer a moral reset for the nation. We believe it is our responsibility to help you do that, and we are prepared to bring a racially and geographically diverse delegation of poor and low-income Americans, moral leaders, and economists to put a face on the urgent needs of this moment.
As you know, we have organized coordinating committees made up of poor and low-income people and their moral and religious allies in almost every state. Listening closely to people on the ground every day, we know the urgency of massive investment in physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, and the infrastructure of our democracy.
This is a sad moment in America. The issue is not who will back down, moderates or progressives? The question is, do we truly love and care for the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this country? Do we care about workers who need living wages, the sick who need healthcare, the children who need education?
The first question should not be how much can we afford to spend? We have the money. We’ve spent $21 trillion on war since 9/11.
The question is, how much do we care about promoting the general welfare of all people? How much do we care about the poor who are made poor by policy decisions? How much do we care about those from the mountains of Appalachia and the delta of Mississippi?
For 140 million poor and low-income people in this country, it is incredibly disheartening to hear Democrats who ran on the platform you are advocating say publicly that they do not see the need or the urgency for more investment. We know that need intimately, and we are prepared to bring people to the White House to demonstrate the need. If you will lift the voices of the people who are hurting because of voter suppression, low wages, lack of access to healthcare and climate catastrophes, you have the power to reset the moral narrative in the country, Mr. President.
We cannot allow the public debate to be about what the compromise is between so-called moderates and progressives. We must shift the consciousness of the American public to realize that we have a shared moral responsibility to establish equal justice and promote the general welfare for every American. This debate must be about our deepest moral values and vision for the country. We must not simply take a step in the right direction; we must show that we can end poverty, and we must do it by rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure from the bottom up. As we push forward together, we certainly can’t take a step backward. And we cannot allow the filibuster, which has been used to stall even a conversation about so much important legislation, to block the action that is so desperately needed in this moment.
We want to help you do this, Mr. President, and we would like to schedule a meeting immediately to make it happen.
Sincerely,
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II
Co-chair, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
President, Repairers of the Breach
Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis
Co-chair, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Director, Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
Rev. Dr. Alvin O’Neal Jackson
National executive director, Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington
Dr. Adam Barnes
Co-lead, national faith team, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Rev. A. Kazimir Brown
Co-lead, national faith team, Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival