Why Poverty Matters

Poverty in America:  Facts

• Approximately 36.5 million Americans live below the poverty line.
• The "poverty line' for a family of four is an annual income of $20,650.
• A single mom making minimum wage who works full time makes $7.25 per hour, bringing her annual income to $15,080, before taxes.  If she is supporting two or more children without help from dad, she lives below the poverty line.

Why it Matters to Me

In 1982, I was a college student and a volunteer at the Riverside Church Food Pantry.  The church was around the corner from my dorm, and I would go over on afternoons after classes ended to help distribute food to the needy.  Most days, we would get half-dozen or so people coming in with a letter from a social worker, telling us why the individual or family needed food.  The busiest days were the days just before food stamps arrived, when families struggling on the small amount of government assistance they received each month had not stretched far enough and they were completely out of food.

One day, a church member brought in a bushel of apples that he'd picked in Upstate New York.  Fresh produce of any kind was rare, and the bags we handed out were mainly nonperishables like canned soup, spaghetti, and rice.  Volunteers were delighted to be able to offer up a few apples to the people, and some of the children seemed really thrilled to see them in their bags.

One man in ragged clothes appeared just as we were closing for the day.  I took his letter, and wrote down his name.  He told me he'd walked 100 blocks to get to us, and that he hadn't had anything to eat in about three days.  He said he didn't want to beg for money, since he knew his check was coming.  He was a Vietnam Veteran, a man who'd worn the uniform of his country proudly.  He had come home to a less than warm welcome, with a drug addiction and no resources. He told me he'd tried to get clean for a while, and had just gotten an apartment and was in a program.  His disability check had not arrived, and he kept waiting and hoping, until he couldn't take being hungry anymore.  His caseworker sent him to us, but he didn't have subway fare, so he walked.

As he was telling me his story, he spied the apples in the corner, and sheepishly asked if he might have one.  I handed him two, and he thanked me heartily.  He devoured the two small apples in a couple of bites each, core, seeds, and all.  He held the stems in his hands, and I could tell he was considering eating them, but looked up at me, and reconsidered.  My guess is that the look of incredulity on my face was enough to make him think twice.  The look was there because I was thinking to myself, "How could this happen? How could someone in the richest nation on earth, go without food for three days?"

I handed him his bag of groceries, and tossed in a few extra apples.  We weren't supposed to give money to the clients, but I had a subway token in my pocket and I gave it to him.  "So you don't have to walk all the way home,"   I said.

He looked at me with tears in his eyes.  "God bless you, Miss," he said.

"No, Sir," I said, "God bless you.  I have all the blessings I need."

Twenty-five years later, I still remember that man, the apples, and the blessing he gave me.  Twenty-five years later, there are still men like him who sit on street corners, forgotten and alone.  Twenty-five years later, poverty and despair still exist in our country. 

Back then, it was Reagonomics that forced mentally ill people out onto the streets, put families who lived from paycheck-to-paycheck out of their homes and into their cars and shelters, and sent veterans like this man into desperate circumstances.  By the time I left New York in 1984, the number of people we would give food to went from half a dozen a day to lines that stretched out the door and down the hall.  Lines that stretched so far that we ran out of food before the line was done. 

From the Reagan years to now, not much has changed for the better in this country.  Poor people, whether they deserve to be or not, are still standing in lines at food pantries and shelters.  Hurricane Katrina ripped the lid off of this great untold secret for a moment, and our eyes were opened to the  circumstances that some of our fellow Americans are forced to live in, day-in and day-out.  Now, we're back to "business as usual," and those who were displaced by the Gulf Coast tragedy are forgotten, living in tiny FEMA trailers, hunkering down against crime and violence outside their doors, without much hope of regaining what little they had that was lost in the storm.

Why Poverty Matters to John Edwards

I'm voting for John Edwards because he is the only candidate who gets this.  When I saw him in July, the thing that resonated most with me was his statement that the press asks him why he talks about poverty when that issue is not likely to get him elected.  He said, "The issue of poverty is not about winning a campaign, it's about speaking out for the 37 million people who live in poverty in this country."

People criticize him for being wealthy and talking about poverty, as though you have to be poor to talk about it.  That's like saying Hillary Clinton can't talk about healthcare because she's healthy, or Rudy Giuliani can't talk about terrorism because he's got security guards.  John Edwards attained the American Dream by being smart and working hard, but he never forgot where he came from.  That's why I'm voting for him.  I'm voting for him to help us help people who are homeless, people who are forced to choose between medicine and food, people who aspire to more than their circumstances, but are given little opportunity.  As long as John Edwards is part of the national stage, the 37 million people who have no voice will be heard.  I'm supporting John Edwards because he gets it.

What You Can Do:

• Volunteer at a local food bank or shelter.
• Give what you can to charities like Second Harvest, both food and funds are needed.
• Write your congressional representatives and support legislation to raise the minimum wage, and provide aid to families. 
• Write your Senator to encourage passage of the Farm Bill.  That Bill includes nutrition programs for low-income people like Food Stamps and funding for community food programs.

Resources

John Edwards Campaign on Poverty
One Plus Two- "Brother Can You Spare a Dime?
CNN Money - "The Changing Face of Poverty in America"
HHS Census Data on Poverty
PBS:  "People Like Us"
NPR:  "Fighting Poverty in America"

Cross-posted at MOMocrats.

Comments

[Don't Eat My Buchela!]

I also used to volunteer at a soup kitchen and every time we ran out of food I felt awful.

Until I did that volunteer work, I never knew how deep the poverty that existed in the US can be.

[jen]

what a fantastic post. and i agree about Edwards. he is the only one addressing poverty, the only one coming close to addressing homelessness. i will not and can not support a candidate who does not think poverty and homelessness is worth their platform.

thank you again for this post.

[Kelly]

Very deserving of our contemplation, our action...and that Perfect Post.

[ms chica]

I'm visiting via Jen's link. This such an insightful and well-written post. It's difficult to understand why we don't take better care of our own citizens. We spend too much time looking the other way.

[seventh sister]

I so agree with this post. However, I have to point out that it was not just Reagenomics that put a lot of mentally ill people on the streets. There were a lot of lawsuits brought by well meaning organizations in the 70' and 80's that had to do with patient rights, etc. that have made it almost impossible to keep anyone in a mental health facility against his/her will even if he/she is not capable of making sound decisions. Of course, Reagan did set into motion the health non-care system that we hae today in terms of HMOs and insurance companies being more interested in making money than in paying medical bills.

Here's hoping that we get the chance to vote for Edwards this time next year.