I was honored and somewhat surprised when Yancey asked me if I would speak to your fine group today.  I was honored because your ten organizations represent South Carolina’s frontlines on such critical matters as economic development, the fight against poverty, and research to solve the many problems we face, particularly in our rural area.  You are, in fact, trying to accomplish the exact goals of the Palmetto Institute in each of your regions.  I was surprised, however, with Yancey’s invitation because sometimes my “direct way” of talking to people is not quite what you would call politically correct and does not come across as very warm and fuzzy, which tends to limit my invitations to speak.

       Well, I had better apologize to you upfront because this state really needs your help.  We need to talk frankly today about how we can work together to be more effective in our efforts to improve the well-being of our citizens, and I mean all of our citizens – no matter whether they are black, white, Hispanic or whether they live in the metropolitan areas or in the rural areas of our state.  We need to find solutions to the barriers that keep over 600,000 of our population in poverty that does not provide the opportunities, especially in the rural areas, for these citizens to have good jobs at decent wages.  We need to overcome the barriers that prevent us from giving our young people the opportunity to build a future in South Carolina.  As Franklin Roosevelt once said, “Liberty requires opportunity to make a living; a living decent according to the standards of the time; a living that gives a man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.”  So, our challenge today is simple yet daunting.  How do we provide such opportunities?

       To no one’s surprise, I have a few specific suggestions.  But, before I bend your ear, I want you to understand that I am with you.  I know the difficult tasks you are given and with limited resources to solve them.  I understand when everyone talks about making government smaller, the costs are pushed down from the federal level to the state level and usually end up with you taking the hit even though your responsibilities are always increasing.  So, when I express my concerns, please do not take them as criticisms.  I, too, am searching for answers.  I understand the importance of working together.  But, before we can look for solutions, we need to frankly talk about the problems.

       Let me begin by recounting what Harvard Professor Michael Porter told the Greenville Chamber of Commerce about South Carolina’s chances to be more competitive and, therefore, more prosperous.  He was very optimistic.  He believed South Carolina had the assets in place to implement his long-term strategic plan for economic success.  His only concerns were whether we had the commitment and perseverance needed over a long period of time in order to achieve our goals – whether we could change the mentality of South Carolina not to accept something less than the best because we do have the ability to be world class in many areas – and, most important, whether or not we could overcome the parochialism that permeates this state.  Professor Porter believes our number one hurdle is recognizing that the fight isn’t between regions within our state but with China, India and other states.  We must stop fighting over a piece of the pie and work together to make the pie bigger.  We must stop fighting over who takes credit and who takes the blame, and find ways to collaborate with each other.  This brings me to my first point – How can this state with its limited resources effectively provide a coordinated, collaborative effort to improve the quality of our workforce, an absolute critical need for our state, through a system that has 10 COG Districts, 12 different WIA Districts, 16 technical education institutions, and a variety of regional economic development councils that do not, at least from what I see, have any overall coordination and agreement or priorities for improving our workforce?  So, when I hear, “My region has a successful program but nobody else has one like us,” or “We can do it better than the tech schools,” or “We cannot implement a new program because the federal regulations will not let us,” then I know we have got problems.  And, by the way, I have actually heard all of those statements. 

       If Mississippi and Florida can have more coordinated, focused programs that bring all the partners together, which both have recently done, then South Carolina can have a better, more coordinated program to address our workforce quality concerns.  I implore your statewide organization to do everything in its power to make sure we are working together effectively rather than continuing to fight over who gets credit and how big a piece of pie each individual group can get. I promise you, we will work with you to that end.  It is a challenge I believe you are ideally situated to help solve.

       The second issue we need to talk about today is the embarrassing level of poverty in South Carolina.  Census data from 2004 shows South Carolina with 15.7% of its population living in poverty.  Even worse, the rate of poverty for persons under the age of 18 was 18.8% in 2000 but has risen to 21% in 2004.  And here is the problem, we have been talking about these statistics for years and they are not improving.  Of course, one might say, “What does the disadvantaged have to do with South Carolina being competitive?”  You know, I actually heard one of our policymakers ask that very question.  Very simply put, the reason we are striving for South Carolina to be more competitive is because we want a more prosperous life for our citizens.  To be successful at such an effort, we need to improve the quality of life for everyone, not just a select few.  I say this not out of compassion for the poor, which we all share, but out of necessity for the state to be competitive. 

       Mayor Joe Riley put it so well in that heart-rendering piece, “Corridor of Shame,” when he said that the future of South Carolina is the future of our poor and our rural communities, the state as a whole cannot succeed if they fail.  Let me tell you up front – We do not have all the answers for addressing poverty and the isolation of the rural areas.  However, I do know where we have to start. 

       In a report entitled “The State of the South 2004,” published by MDC, a North Carolina Research Foundation, the basis then was “Fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education race still matters, but poverty, regardless of race, matters even more.”  Their solution was even more to the point:  “The only road out of poverty runs by the schoolhouse.”  And, I would add, the road also must run by our technical education colleges, our universities, by programs such as Work Keys, by internships with businesses, by apprenticeship programs, and by a strong community involvement with all of these entities and programs.  Again, I ask you to be the catalysts.  Demand involvement from your communities.  Support policies that work and raise hell against the ones that do not.  We are not going to solve our problems without a sound, equitable education foundation.  You know it and I know it.  Let’s make sure everyone else knows it too.

       Finally, I must raise one last point.  If we are going to approach these tasks I raised today as honest brokers for success, there is one issue we must face head on.  This issue, if not addressed, will continue to hold our state back. Of course, I am talking about the racial divide that still today, in 2005, permeates every aspect of our lives in South Carolina.  You see the numbers in your organizations just as we see them at the Palmetto Institute.  Between the two races, there is a substantial and growing gap in per capita income, median family income, educational attainment, etc.  We cannot turn our backs on these statistics.  It is hard to talk about competitiveness when individuals do not have jobs with adequate wages and fringe benefits.  Nor can we talk about wealth creation when individuals do not own their own homes.  Bottom-line, we cannot talk about empowering our rural areas through wealth creation and raising the per capita income of African Americans unless we talk about the number one obstacle to such an effort – communication.  That is right, “communication.”  While all sides are talking about what everyone needs to do, no one is talking with each other.  We must find a way to have everyone at the table to address these issues.   If we can’t, we will fail.

       Recently, I was urging a group of individuals to support the implementation of the Education and Economic Development Act as well as to expand our 4-year kindergarten effort, both programs being critically needed to better prepare our young people.  The first question asked me by an African American was, “What are you doing to help African Americans?”  His question was certainly legitimate but there was a disconnect.  Both of these programs go directly to the assistance of African American children in our education system but yet he believed it did not address his concerns.  This means, clearly, there is, at least, a communication gap and probably a credibility gap, and we are not going to solve it unless we find a way to sit at the same table with the same agenda looking for answers together. 

       Leonard Pitts, a Pulitzer Prize winning African American columnist, summed it up remarkably in one of his columns.  He stated that, “Blacks seldom publicly concede some of the dysfunction suffered by the black underclass is self-inflicted for fear of giving aid and comfort to bigotry.  So, when analyzing racial progress or the lack thereof, black folk tend to emphasize racism.  Whites, on the other hand, are often loathe to concede racism remains the great ball and chain of black life for fear the admission will besmirch their benign self-image or be used to make them feel guilty.  So they tend to emphasize dysfunction instead.”  He illustrated his comments by making the point that, for some, a white boy on crystal meth is “troubled,” while a black boy on crack will be described as proof that 37 million people are “unredeemable.” Pitts went on to make this point which I want to emphasize today:  “Much as some white folk pretend otherwise, racism did not vanish one fine day long ago.  It lives here, now, still.  And it is, by definition, not something black people can cure through self-improvement…And yet, this also is true: For all the woes it brings, racism is not the proximate source of all the ills that beset the black underclass.”

       On this persistent, nagging topic, I offer you the very, very wise words of Jewell Jackson McCabe, Founder of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, who said, “You factor in racism as a reality and you keep moving.”

       So, today I urge you to help start the process.  Begin by putting representatives of all of your regions together to see if we can find some solutions.  Communicate to the Palmetto Institute on how we can help.  Communicate to your representatives, your community leaders, and your faith leaders on how they need to be involved.  Whatever we are doing today is not working.  So, let’s start by at least communicating with each other rather than about each other.

       Please understand, for me this subject is personal.  As a female growing up in Lake City I not only came to understand “cropppin’, suckerin’ stringin’, handin’, tyin’, gradin’, heisin” and all the skills involved in “puttin” in, I also came to understand the challenges and discrimination of living in a small rural town in South Carolina.  But, here is the important point, I have also learned that you can overcome them. 

       For this state to have a real chance to succeed, for us to be competitive, we have to build partnerships between communities – between organizations – between different faiths – between the private and public sectors – and between all segments of our diverse population.  We must give our young people hope.  We must do everything we can to prevent them from becoming disconnected.  If we can get them to graduate from high school and then seek additional training and education, South Carolina should have an economy strong enough to offer the good job opportunities with solid wages, the chance for advancement, and, most important, a chance to participate.

       That is our role – the councils, the Palmetto Institute and all of the other concerned people here today – it is our calling – it is what our efforts are all about.  So, please join me today in this cause.  Our reward for succeeding will be a legacy -- a legacy of prosperity for all of our citizens, not just a select few.

       Thank you.