Silence Can Kill: Speaking Up to End Hunger and Make Our Economy Work for Everyone

by Arthur Simon, Rick Steves (Foreword)

Have faith. End hunger. Ending hunger is a moral imperative that does not stand alone. Hunger thrives on the racial, social, and economic inequalities that are eating away at the soul of our nation and pulling us apart. But ending hunger could now become the cause that brings us together across partisan lines to make our economy include everyone and work for everybody.   The goal of ending hunger nationwide is not only noble but easily within reach. Taking up this goal could give us a corrective lens, a lens of hope for seeing ourselves and our country in a new way. It could also give us better vision for helping the world overcome extreme hunger and poverty. Our failure to speak and write to members of Congress about hunger consigns millions of people here and abroad to diminished lives and premature death, so it is a silence that kills. We can break that silence by urging the nation’s leaders to help end hunger and humanize our economy.  This book addresses all people of goodwill, including agnostics and atheists, but with a special word of concern for religious people—Christians in particular—who help through charity, but neglect to use the power of their citizenship against hunger.

307 pages, Paperback

Published July 2, 2019

Reviews

[Meepspeeps · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book combines historical commentary with a plea. The author makes some good points about why speaking up to those in power is so important. One comparison he makes is to Habitat for Humanity, “Habitat is an outstanding charity, but no substitute for better government housing policies. A similar logic applies to hunger.” Later he says “Does charity undermine justice?...there is often tension between the two, because charity tends to accept a current balance of power, while justice challenges it.” He tries to build an argument that ending hunger in the USA could be a doable, unifying (and bipartisan) goal. “US public opinion is split about whether hunger and poverty are more attributable to structural inequalities or dysfunctional behavior...but rather than arguing about how the fire started, let’s agree to put it out. We could tackle both structural inequalities and behavior.” It’s a fairly dense read and some chapters that ended with “let’s speak up to end hunger” sounded more like a refrain than a conclusion from the chapter details. However, I recommend it to peeps who want to understand how their silence due to cynicism, apathy, revulsion, or whatever makes peeps apolitical,” IS still political and deadly. Speaking up really can make a difference.

[Julie Pahutski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Important book if you are concerned about hunger in our country. It is possible to feed everyone and prepare them to feed themselves, but charity alone is not going to do it. This book talks about the role of the government (which supplies 87% of poverty aid) and the way it succeeds and does not succeed in preventing hunger and its subsequent societal costs (children unable to learn, adults with poor health, crime, etc.). Spoiler alert: the US government may be doing a better job than you think. Although much improvement is needed. Just had to throw in that last sentence there.