Bringing politicos together to discuss real-world problems

George W. Bush and Al Gore, take note: Debate season is no longer just for presidential candidates. One day after the third and final clash between the two White House hopefuls, a group of campaign representatives and community activists brought some of the most pressing political issues to the table once more last night in a town hall-style discussion in Houston Hall. Entitled "America's Democratic Promise," the forum was organized by the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development and focused on how government and institutions of higher education can work together to end poverty in America. For over two hours, a team of officials from the four major presidential campaigns -- Bush, Gore, Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan and Green Party nominee Ralph Nader -- joined a group of Philadelphia-area academics, students and community activists to discuss the causes of poverty and the means by which it can be eradicated. While the discussion never did become quite as heated as some of the exchanges between Gore and Bush, the sparse audience of about 50 area students and community residents -- 200 were expected -- was treated to an in-depth look at how issues surrounding the poor are viewed in the political environment. "Poverty is very much tied to a lack of good, stable, decent-paying jobs," Buchanan representative and Philadelphia attorney Freedley Hunsicker said. "These, in turn, are linked to our trade policy, which neither of the two [major] parties are currently discussing." Like Hunsicker -- whose reference tied directly into his candidate's well-publicized support for trade protectionism -- the three other campaign spokesmen discussed the primary issue of poverty only in vague terms that they could positively associate with their respective party or candidate. One of the speakers offered a particularly cynical view of the power of government and higher education in combating poverty. "What are we doing abolishing poverty?" Bush representative and GOP state committeeman James Gimpel asked. "Isn't it the right of a person to be impoverished if they want to?" "Much of our poverty is due to a social decay," Gimpel added, "and the breakdown of the social fiber that has made this country great." After the four campaign spokesmen took their turns at the microphone, the discussion shifted toward those speakers who attended on behalf of community organizations. Their sentiments were dramatically more direct than those of the campaign spokesmen. "I believe that education is the single most important factor in eliminating poverty," College senior and Center for Community Partnerships representative Jeff Camarillo said. "I believe that government and higher education have to work together to use undergraduate [college] students to solve so many of these issues that are affecting America." The discussion even reached a feverish tone when one speaker began to attack the other panelists' tendency to analyze the situation of poverty without offering remedies for its destruction. "Poverty is not a theory. Poverty is a reality," Eagle's Nest Academy Director Bishop Dickie Robbins said. "And the fact of the matter is that all of the money we spend on these studies of poverty could be spent feeding people who don't have the money to do it themselves." The forum was part of a weeklong series of election-themed events at Perelman Quadrangle, which are co-sponsored by The Daily Pennsylvanian.