A Marshall Plan for Dysfunctional Neighborhoods

"The Interrupters" is a documentary from Frontline.  It chronicles the lives of residents living in dysfunctional families, institutions and neighborhoods in Chicago.  Some will say 'you really need to see this.'  I guess so.  It is 'good.'  But I am reacting to it not as more fuel for 'we should be doing something' argument.  I've heard and told this story for the last 50 years beginning in the same Chicago neighborhoods.  And this story is not only about Chicago or cities.  Try our Native communities, too.  The story is about young, middle-aged, and older people, mostly African-American who live their lives in poverty.  But as William Julius Wilson, the sociologist observes, this is a different kind of poverty.  And I find myself frustrated and paralyzed regarding 'solutions.'  This kind of poverty begs the question of simplistic solutions(throwing money at the problem) or targeting blame( pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.)  The polarized camps of those who subscribe to 'self-help' only on the one hand or those who advocate for social programs on the other, does not lead to fruitful dialogue. The resources of these communities have been reduced to money, drugs, guns, and survival tribes.  Safety and security are rare.  Desperation oozes from every encounter.  The mildest of commentary, neighbor to neighbor,  is seen as an attack on self-hood. "Your talking about my cousin." Such a remark produces at best a fist fight, at worst a retaliation ending in severe injury or death.   Is this a judgement?  Yes. In  the sense that every attempt to describe carries within it judgement. Any comment carries with it a note of judgement.  No, it is a description.  This 'wrap-around kind of poverty' has so far eluded all attempts at help.  This poverty reigns even as noble efforts are made to recapture and ignite the human dignity which has been tromped on or gone quiet.   We're talking about decades of isolation.  The dominant (not only) myth of the neighborhood is survival.  These surroundings do not suggest that other opportunities exist.   There are attempts at providing alternatives.  Community does exist through street gangs, churches, families, schools and other programs. But a steady comprehensive community building strategy is lacking.   Individuals are on their own, left to prey on others.  An August 2012 article in the New York Times  about President Obama and the Rosedale community in Chicago describes the President's history in proposing some policies to address these settings.  Now, however, no mention of 'poverty' or the 'poor' shows up in the campaign speeches of either party.  We need a new 'war on poverty' but it needs a name and description that actually describes the reality and does not get lost in superficial solutions from the left or right.   We did the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.  We keep having successes in outer space.  Every one of us has a stake in finding better alternatives for our citizens caught up in dysfunctional neighborhoods.  Does any party deserve our vote if they are not envisioning some kind of national commitment to framing the situation of the least among us as a priority?  That is the Heart of the Matter.