On Poverty
I warned you that the tone around here would get serious from time to time. Today is Blog Action Day, which, in addition to giving us a reason to post, is cause for reflection.
Truth be told, this blog exemplifies the excess that Westerners (Americans, especially) are so highly favored for around the world. In case that statement isn’t clear: I’m admitting that television and foods made primarily of sugar and butter are not essential to life, though they certainly make it taste better.
While we (okay, I) enjoy many frivolities, others throughout the community, the state, the country and the world go without necessities. Food. Clothing. Shelter. Dignity and respect.
Poverty is a serious subject, and it hits us all differently. I grew up with limited means, and while I may not have been dressed in the label du jour, I always had clothes. While I might have eaten an absurdly imbalanced diet of frozen burritos and frozen dinners, I always had food. So to think I can fully grasp the severity seems a bit absurd.
While political candidates will use their platform to debate root causes of poverty (and anything else that draws attention), I point to an organization that is focused on a solution: Kiva.
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I also have never faced personal poverty. I have for the past year worked in a title 1 school. This school has a free and reduced lunch program and %90 of our students are eliible for it. Today one of the little boys in the Pre-Kindergarten room had hidden his breakfast in his bag. He kept going to his backpack and checking on it to make sure it was there. He cried and cried when the teacher found it.He was saving it because he did not know when he would next be able to eat. It was heartbreaking. When a four year old is hording food because he does not know when his next meal comes it is beyond comprehension.