Poverty in America... Homeless... the working poor...
Is it their fault? Are they all drug addicts? Are they lazy? Irresponsible? Dumb?
I've been on Seattle project for four days and if there's one thing I've learned about poverty and homelessness, it's that it is so much more complicated than i know. So many facets and so many factors. I have been so ignorant to lump the poor into one faceless group and assume that i know anything or have any understanding of what it is to live in poverty. We are going through a study on project called Compassion by Command, it's kind of life-changing and i think that everyone should have to do it...Anyways, one of the things that we did in the study early on was defined poverty, I have always assumed that being poor was a lack of possessions, no money, no car, no food.. But in reality, poverty is so much more of a lack of options, which can be brought on by a lack of possessions, but goes much deeper than that. If I were in Columbia right now, or even at Clemson, and i had no money, no car, no food, I could find a way to get whatever i needed. I'm definitely not saying that i'm smarter at all, what i'm trying to get at, is that I, and alot of us have resources. We have connections, educations, and an understanding of what we would need and how to get it. So many people living in poverty in the US, don't have the simple things that we take for granted. Many in poverty have no family to turn to and the people that they have an opportunity to meet and connect with are others in the same situations; so we have these social classes where the rich network with the rich, and the poor network with the poor, Okay just slightly problematic. By creating divisions, we trap people within the barriers we erect, and even when they search for a better life, they have no where to start, no where to go.
More problems with the system we esteem, it ultimately attempts to provide a way for people to survive in poverty, and it makes little or no effort to provide them a way to move up in income or social class. In fact, often times, when people are somewhat successful in bettering their situation by getting a better job or working more hours, they are often "punished" by the programs that claim to help. We are watching a video about a single mom trying to raise her daughter with a low-income. And some of the most frustrating things are the way that she gets trapped within a system that makes no sense. After her apartment building is closed down, she is forced onto the streets and seeks refuge at a local shelter. Well, she is told that the only people who are eligible for the shelter are those who don't have jobs because they are the most in need, but the shelter also doesn't provide food, so you have to buy your own meals. What? You can't make money, but you have to pay for your own food? How does that make any sense? Another spiral occurs when she is trying to find a new apartment. First of all, she loses her job because she has to spend a half a day trying to find a place to live. And then she starts looking for a new job, but every job requires an address: so she can't get a job without an apartment, but she can't get an apartment until she gets a job. That is why people live in shelters instead of finding somewhere to live. The system is straight up screwed up and many are completely trapped in this cycle of poverty.
I could go on forever, but it's late and i have to be at jail at eight... haha. that's right i'm going to prison. Anyways, bottom line: poverty is more complicated than we know. The system is flawed. The church is flawed, called to be Christ's hands and feet; we are often not going, and the world knows when we are acting out of self-preservation rather than the sacrificial LOVE that Christ demonstrated and called us to walk in. More to come on that point later.
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