By Tim Mandell
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Faith is the solution to defeating poverty, talk-show host and former minister and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said Friday at an event in Martin County, Kentucky, commemorating President Lyndon Johnson's visit there 50 years ago Thursday to promote his War on Poverty. (Wikipedia map)
Huckabee, who ran for president in 2008, said the government has spent $27.7 trillion to fight poverty, but the basic poverty rate has remained mostly unchanged in 50 years. "The intentions were quite honorable and appropriate," he said. "While the government has a role to play in all our lives. …the fact
is government can’t replace God. The one thing that causes people to come out
of not only financial poverty but spiritual poverty is that their soul is
quickened from above. Government can't do that. The quickest way to lead people out of poverty is to first
lead them to the cross."
One big problem is that many children are raised in one-parent households, which causes them to be neglected, Huckabee said. He said in 1964 only 7 percent of American children lived in households other than with two married parents. In 2012, about 20 percent of white children, and more than 52 percent of Hispanic children and more than 72 percent of African-American kids were not being raised by two married parents. "The stronger our families are, the stronger our communities," he said.
The event was part of "Dream! Martin County," a faith-based organization that has a goal to establish a mission center in the county. The center hopes to create a foster group home to provide a stable environment for children unable to live with their parents and a family reunification program to provide housing and support for parents and children separated "with the hopes of higher success rates and less recidivism post-reunification." The mission will also have a higher education consortium to "create opportunities for college students to come to Appalachia to conduct their student teaching and internships." (Read more)
Thursday and Friday in Somerset, Ky., "several hundred people from the region met to discuss ideas aimed at boosting the region, which has been battered by coal layoffs and still has pockets of poverty far above the national rate," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The occasion was the first meeting of the 10 working groups of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region, or SOAR, initiative."
"The groups plan to hold a series of meetings this spring and summer where people can submit ideas for improving the economy and quality of life in the region, then sift the suggestions and recommend strategies to pursue," Estep writes. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, "who started the SOAR initiative last year, and others involved in the effort said they're determined that it will produce results, and not just another report to be filed away."
"The SOAR committees focus on subject areas such as tourism, education, health care, business recruitment and agriculture," Estep writes. Suggestions included "cataloging its assets, promoting visitation regionally, and cleaning up a bit," ways to better utilize the economic impact of agriculture, and to market the region as a good retirement destination. (Read more)
Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues
Faith is the solution to defeating poverty, talk-show host and former minister and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said Friday at an event in Martin County, Kentucky, commemorating President Lyndon Johnson's visit there 50 years ago Thursday to promote his War on Poverty. (Wikipedia map)
One big problem is that many children are raised in one-parent households, which causes them to be neglected, Huckabee said. He said in 1964 only 7 percent of American children lived in households other than with two married parents. In 2012, about 20 percent of white children, and more than 52 percent of Hispanic children and more than 72 percent of African-American kids were not being raised by two married parents. "The stronger our families are, the stronger our communities," he said.
The event was part of "Dream! Martin County," a faith-based organization that has a goal to establish a mission center in the county. The center hopes to create a foster group home to provide a stable environment for children unable to live with their parents and a family reunification program to provide housing and support for parents and children separated "with the hopes of higher success rates and less recidivism post-reunification." The mission will also have a higher education consortium to "create opportunities for college students to come to Appalachia to conduct their student teaching and internships." (Read more)
Thursday and Friday in Somerset, Ky., "several hundred people from the region met to discuss ideas aimed at boosting the region, which has been battered by coal layoffs and still has pockets of poverty far above the national rate," Bill Estep reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "The occasion was the first meeting of the 10 working groups of the Shaping Our Appalachian Region, or SOAR, initiative."
"The groups plan to hold a series of meetings this spring and summer where people can submit ideas for improving the economy and quality of life in the region, then sift the suggestions and recommend strategies to pursue," Estep writes. Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear and Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, "who started the SOAR initiative last year, and others involved in the effort said they're determined that it will produce results, and not just another report to be filed away."
"The SOAR committees focus on subject areas such as tourism, education, health care, business recruitment and agriculture," Estep writes. Suggestions included "cataloging its assets, promoting visitation regionally, and cleaning up a bit," ways to better utilize the economic impact of agriculture, and to market the region as a good retirement destination. (Read more)
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