Amid state political discussions down in Montgomery, Alabama, it is easy to get lost in slogans, headlines and partisan battles. But the issues that most shape people’s lives rarely take up much time or make the loudest noise. These are the concerns discussed around kitchen tables across our state — rent, groceries, child care, electricity, medicine and the hope that the water coming from the tap is safe.
If we want a stronger Alabama, those “kitchen table” issues must become the center of our policy discourse at the local and state levels.
Too many families across our state are doing everything right and still coming up short. They work full time and still face impossible choices: paying the rent or buying groceries, keeping the lights on or refilling a prescription. Parents search for child care that doesn’t cost more than a mortgage payment. Rural communities worry whether their local hospital will still be open next year.
There is nothing natural about poverty in a land as resource-rich as Alabama. There is nothing unavoidable about hunger in communities where food is abundant. There is nothing inevitable about families being pushed out of their homes or trapped in cycles of debt.
These challenges are not the result of scarcity. They are the result of policy choices. And policy can change.
Housing should not be a privilege reserved for the lucky few. It is the foundation of stability and dignity. But when rent consumes half of a worker’s paycheck and families are pushed into food, health and recreational deserts, we are not witnessing a simple housing problem. We are witnessing a moral and economic failure.
In an Alabama summer, we know electricity is not optional. Clean drinking water is not a luxury. Yet too many families face utility shutoffs or live in communities where failing pipes and wastewater systems threaten public health. Infrastructure is not just concrete and steel. It is a promise to the people who depend on it.
Child care is often discussed as a private family matter, but in reality it is public infrastructure. When parents cannot afford reliable care, they cannot fully participate in the workforce. When child care workers are underpaid and overburdened, we undervalue the people caring for the next generation of Alabamians.
These aren’t partisan issues. They are measures of our collective human dignity.
Nothing that I’ve said is radical. What is radical is expecting families to build stable lives on wages that do not meet the cost of living. That stability requires an understanding that a single line does not define poverty. It is not a faulty lifestyle choice. Poverty is the systemic result of geography, discrimination and lack of access to good jobs, education, health care and clean water.
If Alabama’s leaders truly want to reinvigorate our state, the focus must return to the issues discussed every night around kitchen tables across our communities. When working families thrive, Alabama thrives. That makes our state stronger, fairer and more prosperous for everyone.
Jerome Dees is the Alabama policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Image at top: Photo illustration by the Խ.
