D.C. welfare rolls declined 10 percent this year part of the trend now being toasted by politicians across the nation. But getting off welfare isn't the same as getting, or keeping, work. Of the 6,500 people sent by caseworkers into the District's two main job-search programs this year, only 403 found jobs, city statistics show. Reform notwithstanding, Jones doesn't know a single other East Capper holding down a full-time job. East Capitol Street begins at the U.S. Capitol in a graceland of columns and lawns that hold their green in winter.
Welfare reform asks the poor to put fresh faith in meritocracy.
At night, a new dream has replaced the old recurrer the one where she's machine-gunned in the street. In her new dream, she glides down a church aisle. At the altar, she looks down at herself, amazed. No swoon of white, just the navy skirt she wears to work. The lifetime commitment she's making is to labor.