The Poor Cope Alone. The Poor Cope Alone.
Poor people learn to keep hopes small.
So when President Clinton came calling on some of the poorest places in the country last year with ideas to make things better, it was like rain in the desert. He was like a charismatic preacher, stirring the congregation to believe. A year later, the president's modest proposals for tax incentives to bring businesses to impoverished communities are still awaiting Senate approval. The idea that anything big might happen to places that have been down longer than they were ever up has long faded. And so has the notion, if it ever existed, that the federal government is the answer to the empty downtowns, idle laborers and the dilapidated buildings all too common in these communities.