United Way Leader Should Retract Comment

To the Editor:

On behalf of the more than 1,000 community-action agencies across America and the more than 14 million low-income people and families they serve annually, I write in response to Brian Gallagher’s curious remarks that “poor people may start demanding changes through violence — the problem has gotten so big that if it sustains, it’s going to threaten civil society, including civil unrest” (“Nonprofit Leaders Debate Whether or Not All Philanthropy Is Equal,” November 1).

It is unclear whether Mr. Gallagher is confining his views to the poor in the United States or overseas or both. If his analysis is of low-income people in America, I believe that he should either clarify his remarks or retract and apologize for them.

Do Mr. Gallagher and the United Way of America believe that poor people in America are some sort of violence-prone aggregate, ready to take to the streets?

Do they believe the same about senior citizens who may feel shortchanged by Social Security or farm conglomerates that may take a subsidy cut? Will they turn violent too, or is it just the poor people who Mr. Gallagher feels threaten our civil society?

The overall thrust of the article — that charities and the philanthropic community should do more for the poor and minorities — is an important point with which the national Community Action Partnership agrees.

Mr. Gallagher’s implicit justification that poor people should get help or else they’ll turn violent seems counterfactual and like profiling of the worst sort.

Don Mathis
Chief Executive Officer
Community Action Partnership
Washington