But whether inside or outside the walls, the prison of poverty is a constant reality. Earlier this month, Andrew Young spoke to an audience in downtown Wilmington about the immorality of American poverty. A former colleague of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a seasoned civil rights activist, former mayor of Atlanta and American ambassador to the United Nations, Young has earned his moral authority. He calls American poverty the great immorality of the 21st century, comparing it to slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries. Like slavery, he said, poverty is rationalized and its victims blamed.
Poverty continues to exist because it is tolerated.
That could be changed, just as race relations are changing. A first step for Delaware's attack on poverty is to examine the ways in which the correction system contributes to poverty, and how the rest of us ignore it. The Rev. Anne B. Bonnyman is rector of Trinity Parish in Wilmington and a member of The News Journal Community Advisory Board.