Now, This Space does not share the degree of Loring's alarm, which includes, for an avowedly apolitical fellow, a dizzying variety of Democratic Party talking points - rising poverty, a dwindling middle class, capitalism on life support. But it lauds his ambition, which is to reduce the number of poor American children, beginning with kids in Pasco County. And it is enthusiastic about proposed remedies.

All Hands On Deck, Please

Indeed, Loring is suspicious of virtually all governmental involvement in the poverty relief, deploring the sense of normalcy that attaches when generation after generation relies on public assistance, while also disparaging an industry that encourages people to "hole up writing grant proposals" instead of being "out in the community working."
Loring does not just talk the talk; he walks the walk, both as east Pasco's Toys for Tots coordinator and as the founder and foremost promoter of The American Dream, a coalition of professionals and volunteers devoted to breaking poverty's grip on Pasco's youngest residents.

The coalition's sixth annual "congress" convenes Wednesday on the west campus of Pasco-Hernando Community College at 8:30 a.m. Organizers anticipate a robust turnout of delegates from area child-centric agencies, but the ultimate success of any grass-roots effort begins, well, at the grass roots, with volunteers. "Once a year, we ask folks to help us by leaving a toy by their mailbox," Loring says, "and they never let us down. But the need isn't just once a year. It goes on."

It's Everybody's Community

Loring's cure involves re-establishing a sense of community, a transformative state in which the whole voluntarily invests in the health and welfare of the individual, and the individual returns the favor. In an iPod culture that reveres isolating gadgetry, where "community" is defined by the people cleared to access your MySpace account, the good work of the coalition is an uphill push.
The alternatives, however - more government intervention, more class resentments, more societal fractures - could well lead, ultimately, to that ride in the proverbial handbasket. The coalition's efforts need to work, but to work, the coalition needs us.

Columnist Tom Jackson can be reached at (813) 948-4219.

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