Garfield is one of those neighborhoods that straddles the vague line between “safe” and “unsafe” parts of the city of Pittsburgh. On one street, pedestrians stride smartly along leafy sidewalks, and students crowd into bohemian coffee shops, and a few blocks away, 60-year-old row houses crumble into decrepitude.
Canvassing here is an adventure. On the late-June afternoon when we walked these streets, several times I raised my hand to knock at a house, matching the number to my list, only to find the door plastered with eviction notices, gas shut-offs, maybe even a formidable “CONDEMNED” sign that made me drop my hand and scrawl “moved” onto my paper.
Our grassroots organizing activities this summer are touched deeply by the current recession. We have encountered an unusual number of defunct addresses and phone numbers; leading us to disconnected phones, boarded-up houses, or confused new occupants bewildered by the names we ask for.
These constant reminders motivate me to work harder; in times of economic turmoil, the attention of the public and the politicians often drifts far from health and education. These fields are often painted as soft and insubstantial, at least compared with the meatier business of trade and finance. The Pennsylvania state budget has bowed to these perceptions, slashing dozens of valuable education and health programs.
Our work is even more vital in times like these. How can we ensure the continual viability of our country and its people? The answer is a little cliché, but no less critical for this: invest in our youth. Young people today need a full and honest – in a word, comprehensive – education to prepare them to be contributing members of society. Pennsylvania’s schools are denying students this preparation for life, robbing them of the education that will help them lead a healthy, safe sexual life. If our young people are not healthy, how can they revitalize our ailing economy?
A lot of people will tell me that this is a stretch; that connecting the Healthy Youth Act to our country’s economic well-being is a political wordgame. But our day canvassing in Garfield convinces me otherwise. From the 62-year old lady who described in a low voice the young people – the children, really – who were getting pregnant or contracting STDs in the neighborhood; to the 25-year old women with the 8-year old son who, this early in her career, is already playing catch-up, the people I talked to provided compelling evidence that comprehensive sex education is essential for our country’s well-being. And that’s worth knocking on a hundred empty houses.
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