The Paper 031314

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Volume 44 - No. 11

by lyle e davis

It begins with me. Then we add you.

Together, you and me make an “us.” We add another and suddenly “us” becomes “we.”

Add more, and more, and more, and in a very short time we have “We the People.”

A determined, angry group of people who are focused on bringing this nation back to the greatness it once enjoyed.

We the People have work to do.

When a determined group such The Paper - 760.747.7119

website:www.thecommunitypaper.com

email: thepaper@cox.net

March 13, 2014

as ours gets together and approach our legislators at the federal level, we have the power to say, “Get off your bony backsides and do the job you were elected to do! Stop this damned bickering and get the work done!” (We may want to be just a wee bit more tactful than that, but the thrust of the message is there and needs to be clearly heard by our Congress Critters.)

We’ve had similar problems in the past and Leadership stepped forward and helped alleviate the problem. We had heavy unemployment and a down economy. Way down.

Then President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued an executive order creating the WPA (Originlly Works Progress Administration, later changed in 1939 to Works Project Administration). It was funded by Congress with passage of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 on April 8, 1935.

The WPA was largely shaped by Harry Hopkins, close adviser to President Roosevelt. The WPA was initially intended to be an extension of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration work program, which funded projects run by states and cities. Many were for infrastructure, such as bridges, roads and parks, but they also included archeologi-

cal excavations of significant sites, the Historic American Buildings Survey, and other historic preservation activities. Both Roosevelt and Hopkins believed that the route to economic recovery and the lessened importance of "the dole" would be in employment programs such as the WPA. Today, we still have “the dole.” It comes under various names, “unemployment insurance,” “food stamps,” “welfare,” etc. Time moves on, but similar problems stick around. Until addressed. And solved. One wonders why today’s leadership doesn’t get it in gear and come up with a similar plan. Back then, about 15% of the household heads on relief were

It Begins With . . Me Continued on Page 2


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