Forum Post: Hearing on Occupy K Street.. 9:30am 1/24/12. Rayburn Bldg, Cap Hill, Wash., DC

The Subcommittee on Health Care, District of Columbia, Census, and the National Archvies will hold a hearing entitled, "McPherson Square: Who Made the Decision to Allow Indefinite Camping in the Park?" It will take place on Tuesday, January 24th at 9:30am in room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building.

THE DISTRICT’S HIV/AIDS RATE IS AT EPIDEMIC LEVELS AND IS THE HIGHEST IN THE COUNTRY. On taking office, Mayor Gray formed a commission to make recommendations on the issue. The Mayor wrote a letter to the National Park Service asking that this encampment be moved to Freedom Plaza so that the city could clean and rehabilitate the park.

Washington, DC has America's highest median income, surpassing even Silicon Valley. The average pay of District-based federal workers is $126,369. The District of Columbia also has higher income inequality than any state.

The richest fifth own 84 percent of the nation's wealth, while the bottom two-fifths -- 40 percent of the population -- owns 0.3 percent of the nation's property.

The median wealth of white U.S. households in 2009 was $113,149, compared with $6,325 for Hispanics and $5,677 for blacks. Those ratios, roughly 20 to 1 for blacks and 18 to 1 for Hispanics, far exceed the low mark of 7 to 1 for both groups reached in 1995.

Gray, Issa and the Congress of the US should focus on these issues, not this encampment.

This hearing should be about income inequality or the fact that the District’s HIV/AIDS rate remains at epidemic levels and is the highest in the country. THIS IS GENOCIDE!