To the editor:

I listened in disbelief when President Bush spoke in the midst of the New Orleans French Quarter.

President Bush said, “poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.”

Recent events reveal that while he spoke of conditions that have a long history in our nation, he never intended to neglect his commitment to the very wealthy.

Congress is now adopting legislation, pandering to the very rich. Rather than address issues of race, inequality and poverty, the president is rewarding contractors by suspending the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act in the storm-ravaged areas.

The Davis-Bacon Act was passed during the Great Depression. The Act requires contractors on federally funded construction projects to pay at least the prevailing wage in the region.

Who needs the benefits of prevailing reasonable wages more than unemployed workers in the Gulf Coast areas whose lives have been totally disrupted, whose homes were destroyed and whose employment has been disrupted for the foreseeable future?

Suspending the Davis-Bacon Act is taking money from the working poor and handing it to the wealthy. A construction laborer in New Orleans who would ordinarily be paid $9 an hour, can now be paid less.

So much for the president’s commitment to confronting poverty with bold action and leading us to rise above the legacy of inequality!

Forrest Swall,

Lawrence