August 14, 2000
Shadow Convention critiques both
parties for neglect of poor & faith
___By Kenny Byrd
___Associated Baptist Press
___PHILADELPHIA (ABP)--Departing from scripted speeches and carefully choreographed Republican and Democratic national conventions, a broad coalition of activists is focusing on poverty, campaign-finance reform and a failed U.S. drug policy.
___The first of two Shadow Conventions 2000 took place several blocks away from the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. The group also plans an alternative convention in Los Angeles to flank the Democratic National Convention this week.
CAMPOLO
WALLIS
___Conveners promised to be "unconventional," and they delivered, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., cut his remarks short and was nearly heckled off the stage when he departed from his campaign-finance reform message.
___McCain backed his former rival, Texas Gov. George W. Bush for president and touted Republican policies, saying that his party's conservative policies were voters' best option.
___One of the conveners of the Shadow Conventions, syndicated columnist Arrianna Huffington, said the events rose out of a "collective longing to fix our political system" and to address issues being avoided by the two major parties.
___Leaders in both parties need to be driven into "donor detox," and some should raise their hand and admit, "I am a fund-raiser-aholic," she said.
___Unless the problem of money in politics is solved, she said, "nothing else will ever change."
___Huffington--a former conservative GOP activist--admits to having changed her mind on a number of issues, and how to solve poverty is one of them. She said the country is forming two segments--a wealthy class whose voice in the political process is heard and the others without money whose voices are not heard.
___Huffington also said America needs to move from "incarceration to treatment" in combating drug use.
___Another convener, Call to Renewal head Jim Wallis, addressed the issue of poverty.
___Both the Republican and Democratic candidates have endorsed the idea of "charitable choice" to fund faith-based organizations, noted Wallis, who is open to the idea.
___But he gave this warning: "If you want to be partners with faith-based organizations--churches and synagogues and mosques--then the terms of partnership are these. You must put the people and the families whom we live and work with on your political agenda."
___With so many politicians lauding the good economy, Wallis asked, "What's all our prosperity for anyway?" He said there is "record prosperity and rising inequality."
___"The rising tide has lifted all the yachts, but not all the boats," he said to a young crowd of activists holding signs designed to look similar to those displaying names of state delegations on the convention floors of the two major political parties. But these signs read: "disillusioned," "disregarded" and "disrespected."
___Wallis admonished both Republican and Democratic leaders to heed the words of biblical prophet Amos: "Take away from me your useless noise and empty festivals but let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
___The crowd viewed a sobering video by minority children who documented the "other" Camden, Pa. Hours later, GOP leaders were planning to enjoy a boat show on the Camden waterfront.
___But the video showed pictures from the Camden across the river--a predominantly African-American and Hispanic community where buildings are condemned, drug dealing is rampant and violence is common.
___Both major political parties are "under the judgment of God because they are neglecting the poor," Tony Campolo told the Shadow Convention.
___Campolo, who has been a spiritual counselor to President Clinton in the aftermath of the Monica Lewinski scandal, said neither party will do what ought to be done in the areas of foreign aid and full-scale forgiveness of debt by impoverished countries.
___Campolo specifically addressed a movement known as Jubilee 2000 to cancel the debts owed by impoverished countries to wealthy ones as an example of the government's failure to help the poor.
___He said of the 17 top industrialized countries of the world, "we are dead last in per-capita giving to the poor of the world."
___The United States likes to give the appearance of "being great generous people," Campolo said. "We're not. For every $1 Americans give on a per-capita basis to the poor of the world, Norway gives $70."
___"As we sit here today, 44 children will die of either starvation or malnutrition," he added.
___Campolo said both parties should be ashamed of their policies.
___Half of all U.S. foreign aid goes to Israel, and it's not for food, education or health care, he said. "It's to build a military machine. That scares me."
___Campolo said he is "absolutely committed to the maintenance of the state of Israel," but "if we do not simultaneously stand up for justice for the Palestinian people, we are failing as a people."
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