Under the baobab: Political outlook in 2022 is promising, but major challenges are ahead
As we begin 2022, congrats and Godspeed to retiring Russ Rose, the most successful women’s volleyball coach ever, and well done to football Coach James Franklin for another successful season.
Congratulations also to the recently elected local political officials, especially those who will be serving for the first time. In State College, the newly elected mayor, Ezra Nanes, will lead a progressive borough council that includes newbies: Divine Lipscomb, Richard Biever and Gopal Balachandran. They will succeed if we as citizens remain active and supportive. Newbies on the State College Area School Board, Carline Crevecoeur and Peter Buck, will be dealing with issues of racial identity, equality and fairness. For the first time ever Ferguson Township will have an all-female board of supervisors, including newbies Tierra Williams and Hilary Caldwell. Pam Robb was re-elected to the town board in Patton Township and will be joined by newbie Sultan Magruder. We Are Inn owner Pat Romano will be cheering on the Lions, as a supervisor in Rush Township.
In the 2022 midterms, Pennsylvania will elect a new Governor, Lt. Governor and U.S. Senator. This will directly affect the direction our nation will take in the immediate future. Georgia will also conduct pivotal elections for Governor and hopefully will send Rev. Warnock back to the U.S. Senate. Last year at this time both Rev. Warnock and Jon Ossoff were elected, and the Senate came under tenuous Democratic Party control for the first time since 2012.
My fellow Yale Law School alum, Stacey Abrams, will be squaring off again against the incumbent to become Governor of Georgia. She almost won four years ago. I believe she may win this time around. She organized the Fair Fight Action voter registration campaign that spearheaded the Warnock and Ossoff upset victories last year. Georgia and Pennsylvania are two battleground states. The outcome of their elections will help determine where we are headed.
Renowned scholar W.E.B. DuBois said the problem of the 20th century would be the color line. If the definition of “color line” is expanded to include post WWII anti-colonial struggles against European based imperialist powers, he was correct. I believe that the two issues of the present century will be: 1) the attempt to reverse climate change and 2) class tensions brought on by income and resource inequality.
We have regressed greatly in income class division since the decades which began our nation. In 1820, the ratio of income between the top and bottom 20% of the world’s population was 3 to 1. By 1991 it was 86 to 1 and growing. In the year 2000 the richest 1% of the world’s population owned 40% of the global assets. The three richest people in the world possessed more financial assets than the 48 least developed nations, combined.
Here things are worse. In September 2019 the U.S. Census Bureau reported that income inequality had reached its highest level in 50 years. According to a UN study, the United States has the highest level of income inequality in the Western World. We have 40 million people living in poverty with more than half of them living in “extreme” or “absolute” poverty. Forbes Magazine found that Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates held more wealth than the entire bottom half of the U.S. population.
Walking through Atlanta at the beginning of 2022, we are impressed with the signs of economic development; skyscrapers, Tyler Perry’s new film studio (largest in the country), the coming election excitement. We are also struck by the number of homeless people panhandling, trying to survive through the holiday season. A major challenge for our new political leadership will be to provide a path to dignity for these sisters and brothers.
Roll up your sleeves folks, we have dry wall to replace.