Poverty

When I told my husband I'd decided to participate in Change.org's Blog Action Day, he asked: "Are you for it or against it?" He already knew the answer - I'm against it. I'm against all kinds of poverty - poverty of morals, poverty of ideas, poverty of information and education - one could make a case for all kinds of poverty.

Wikipedia's definition of poverty:
Poverty is deprivation, the denial of access to those things which make a life of dignity possible, including not only food, shelter and safe drinking water, but also such as 'intangibles' as the opportunity to learn, to engage in meaningful employment or to enjoy the respect of one's fellow citizens.

As someone who's worked both professionally and as a volunteer in the not-for-profit sector... and as someone who now lives in rural Missouri, I feel like I could write a multi-volume book on the subject. To your vast relief, I won't.

What I will say is that while Lehman Brothers were partying at their fancy resort, three more factories here laid off their third shift employees and cut the rest to part time.

While our elected officials voted for an over 800 billion dollar Wall Street bailout, our local newspaper noted that the local food pantries are empty.

While my Democratic Congress member was assuring me that he had to vote for the "economic rescue bill," the local Share Your Christmas organization announced that their funding was half what's it's been in previous years.

While another day has passed with another few billion dollars spent in Iraq, local reserve members are serving their third tours of duty while their wives try to keep body and soul together for their children.

This summer I was aware of more than one family living under a bridge or camping out somewhere in the countryside. What will happen now that the weather is changing? Forget about Christmas presents, how about shoes, clothes and food for those children?

According to the World Encyclopedia close to 12.8 percent of all Americans, about 31.5 million people, are classified as poor by federal standards; that is, they sustained an income of $12,675 or less for a family of four. Given the state of our economy, that figure is bound to increase this year. Could you raise two children on that income? Even living in a midwest community with a very low standard of living, I couldn't.

Throughout the years Americans have shown time and time again how generous they are in contributing to causes in the world... especially to third world countries... as individuals and through our government. As I watch the evening newscasts and read the news on the web, I've come to realize that America is approaching third world standards of living. We're becoming a poor nation where it is becoming increasingly difficult to live with dignity. We're beginning to see and feel the effects of a poverty of action, ideas and moral values.