Lent C. Carr, II
- May 23, 2021
- 11 min read

Lent Carr On Poverty In Raeford/Hoke County & Remedial Solutions

Video Produced by Emmaus Corp. Embassy Enterprise Group, LLC Publication & Digital Media Production Firm.

On this platform issue of grave proportion, Lent Carr will explore the roots of economic prosperity and offer suggestions for finding the path out of extreme poverty for the City of Raeford/Hoke County's poorest citizens and offer remedial solutions alternatives for bringing down Hoke's crime rate as a result of tackling one of the most overlooked issues of Hoke County---POVERTY. For more than 30 years in the Ministry; also as the National President of The National Congressional Voting Caucus for Human Rights International Organization, and altruistically serving those less fortunate of our local and national communities, Carr's foot work advocacy for this segment of our County, his experience of having been raised in the Projects of North Carolina under extreme poverty conditions, and extensive research has led him to an unyielding and keen understanding of what it means to be poor and left behind socio-economically right here in the United States of America, and exactly what it will take to end this inhumane cycle for our County's poor Blacks, Whites, Native Americans, other ethnicities--Democrat, Republican and Independents. The result of such experiences of understanding is this practical "platform issue" , which combines practical experience with acute professional analysis and a belief that ideas, if well thought through and based on sound thinking and historical experience, can play a central role in eradicating poverty in our time and in our great County.

I think it appropriate to first look back into history trove's of unlimited thinking and possibilities in order to artfully present this argument of eradicating poverty in our backyard. Not long ago, on September 12, 1962 a man of limitless ideas walked on the magnificent stage and postured himself behind a huge oak finished podium at Rice University in Houston Texas and declared without any reservations of doubt and/or apathy: "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too."

That man was none other than President John F. Kennedy; a man of vision and resolve. I, like President Kennedy believe that anything is possible when we build a strong consensus of our "will to do." The cynic says: "why move on such an ambitious issue?" I say: "why not!" If a man could dream and make that dream a reality of going to the moon, then certainly one could easily envision a City without extreme poverty. Kennedy made history in sending the first man to the moon, and at this pivotal time in our County's history (amid Covid-19 and it's aftermath) we can all make history (as a National Model) by eradicating major poverty here in Hoke County, North Carolina.

For those of you who say that poverty is a global shame, but there is no way to fix it, I say just view this issue with an open mind and follow Hoke County's Commissioner hopeful, Lent Carr's reasoning with an attentive eye on the solutions rather than the problem itself. It is promised in this platform that Carr's experience and wisdom in collaboration with other major think tanks on the subject matter as relating to this issue will tell us something very different. For even if you do not agree with all of his prescriptions, it is impossible to deny that the needless deaths of so many people every year from extreme poverty does call for action on a local, national, state and global scale.

I am proposing herein that we can make those targets, and could actually cut by half the extreme poverty in Hoke County, in all its dimensions by the year 2025: that we can make those targets, and that we can see our way through a decade beyond, and actually end extreme poverty in the County within the coming 20 years. My proposition is that we are the first generation in history that can honestly make that claim. The fact that we can make it, in my view, also makes it unavoidable that we try. It is one thing for millions of people to be dying every year because they are too poor to stay alive; it is another thing for millions to be dying every year because they are too poor to be staying alive and for us to know it and not to act. In my calculation, this my Fellow Hoke Countians is not another wasteful pork project, but rather a human rights priority that must be addressed NOW!

That, I think, is the real existential situation of our County, that there is no excuse. The deaths are on our watch. The Homelessness and Hunger of hundreds of children and their Families are on our watch.Inevitably to do nothing NOW to correct the misguided policies of our current Board of Commissioners (most who've served thereon for decades; not to mention permitted the only Homeless Shelter to shut down for temporary relief of those suffering under their lame duck governance to provide solutions to this critical question) will likewise have every citizen signature of those unnecessary deaths scribed in our name. The deaths can stop, and the vicious cycle of homelessness can be abated with the compassionate and experienced problem solvers Leading our County's Board of Commissioners. If not now; then when?