Fact: There are fewer voting rights in place today for people of color than 50 years ago when the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Fact: As of July 2017, 25 states have passed laws which pre-empt cities from passing their own minimum wage laws.

Fact: Since 1976, the criminalization of poverty has raised federal spending on prisons tenfold to 7.5 billion a year. 95 percent of the growth in the incarcerated population since 2000 has been from defendants who cannot make bail.

Fact: Of the 40.6 million people who fall below the poverty level, 16 million are women and children. Seventeen million of all people living in poverty are white.

Fact: Over the past 30 years, rents have gone up faster than income in every urban area. Since 2010, affordable housing stock has declined by 60 percent.

Fact: At the height of the Vietnam War, military spending was $354 billion annually. Today it is nearly twice that while anti-poverty programs receive only about $190 billion.

Fact: Fossil fuels, chemical and other industries have been allowed to poison our air, water and soil contributing to an estimated 9 million pre-mature deaths worldwide in 2015. In the U.S., at least 4 million families with children are exposed to high levels of lead from drinking water.

Systemic racism, poverty, the war economy and militarism and ecological devastation have created a moral crisis. A moral revival is necessary to save the heart and soul of our democracy. The Poor People’s Campaign is a national call for a moral revival to reclaim the moral narrative often promoted by religious extremists in the nation from issues like prayer in schools, abortion, gun rights, gay marriage to one which is concerned with how our society treats the poor, those on the margins, women, LGBTQIA folks, workers, immigrants, the disabled, the sick. It is not about left or right, democrat or republican or any candidate or election. It is about right and wrong.

The campaign and all its participants and endorsers embrace nonviolence. To find out how to get involved, go to www.poorpeoplescampaign.org and sign the pledge.

Catherine Woolner

Northfield