BEST CHANCE IN 100 YEARS TO OPEN PROSPERITY TO ALL.

Byline: Kathy Cooper-Ledesma and Sam Mistrano

The hope of the Christmas season is the promise of a new, better tomorrow. Indeed, as the New Year comes upon Southern California, we look toward a future that is rich and positive for all. There is a renewal of values among families and communities today, a rejection of the more crass and materialistic aspects of American culture even in the midst of a booming economy. In this season of plenty, it is appropriate to consider what parts of our society have not shared in the civic prosperity of the past year.

Families who rely on our nation's safety net have not fared well. The fact is, the rhetoric of prosperity doesn't match the statistics. Despitemultibillion-dollar government surpluses, poverty is not declining. One out of every three children in Los Angeles County lives below the poverty line. Homelessness is clearly not going away. Millions of people still do not have health insurance despite years of public debate on the issue.

Contributing to these problems is a lack of political leadership aroundthe programs designed to support families in need. Social Security, Medi-Cal, welfare, food stamps and subsidized child care all face rising demands, but lack the initiatives needed to make them truly effective. Forexample, welfare reform was supposed to build new links among communities to better direct services to impoverished families. New partnerships between faith-based organizations and government, between the community and the bureaucracy, even between welfare recipients and employers were explicitly promised as a way to ease poverty. But these partnerships did not materialize. Instead, the welfare system languishes as it always has in inertia, bad customer service and poor delivery of education, training and support services.

The booming economy seems to have replaced the need for political leadership. Even so, boom times are always followed by downturns. Polls repeatedly indicate that the continuing disparity between the rich and the poor remains one of the chief concerns among families of all income levels.

Why might the average Southern Californian be concerned about issues ofpoverty? Because we recognize that more and more people in need are normal people who fail to make ends meet. No longer are they ``those people'' who are different from ``us.'' Laid-off aerospace engineers who can't find jobs, mothers who can't find child care, seniors who choose between medicine and food, students without health insurance, congregation memberswho rely on their church's food pantry these people are us.

In the midst of economic plenty, we must ask ourselves this question: Hasn't the time come for our society to truly seek innovative fixes to problems of poverty, family and community that prevent us all from sharingin the civic prosperity?

A strong economy mixed with millennial hopes means that the year 2000 is the time to take risks to solve the ingrained problems holding California back. Unless we act decisively when times are good and our communities have energy, we may miss the last best chance in a hundred years to open prosperity to all. Our political leaders have a moral obligation to take steps that address inadequate housing, lack of child care and health care, increasing poverty. And our communities have a moral obligation to support risk-takers and leaders who get to the front and offer these ideas.

Two thousand years ago a baby was born with the promise of justice and righteousness. Let us work as a community to bring about a new beginningfor all Californians, so that our babies born in the next year might not hunger for food and justice.