Poverty is failure when you live in a nation that measures success by the size of your paycheck. Poverty is humiliation when you live in a culture where pride is determined by the things you own. I am not referring to great personal wealth, I am referring to simply having the ability to buy groceries, simply being able to buy shoes for your child. I have been surrounded lately by people who have some sense of a redeeming social value in personal poverty, people who 'choose' to live in poverty or glamorize the idea of being poor. But when you cannot feed your children, when taking your child to the hospital is making a choice to take on debt that you may never fully recover from, when you don't know where you are going to live from one day to the next, when you have to rely on others to provide for you what you cannot provide for yourselves, it is painful and it is destructive.
The stress of worrying about bills and food causes people in poor communities to have higher rates of heart disease and diabetes. According to the U.S. Department of Justice 55% of homeless girls are engaged in formal prostitution. Children in poor communities are far less likely to graduate high school. I find it to be so condescending to claim that living in poverty is in any way living simply. Poverty is complex and overwhelming for those trapped in it.
I know this all seems obvious. And I know that most people just want to help those in need, but it seems to me that sometimes people want to help "the poor" but have no idea how to begin to relate to the people living in complex situations that have led to poverty.
1 comment:
I love this. so fresh and to the point. I keep thinking about the convo we had about this. What does it really mean to chose to live in poverty??? It is almost offensive making poverty "cool". I mean we can all live simply and love one another but we don't have to pose as something that we aren't to really love people. so fresh. thanks!
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