How to we change poverty?
First of all, gotta admit it. It’s here. It’s everywhere. It’s rampant.
It’s in your neighbor’s eyes.
It’s down the street,
Up the street,
All over.
You see it.
You know it.
Say,
“Ok, there is poverty.”
Now that you’ve said it aloud,
What’s the next step?
You move.
You move towards a change
In your part of the world.
Check out your local shelter.
What do they need?
Not just blankets and food.
They need:
MENTORS.
That’s right.
They need your time and energy.
Can’t buy that.
Once a week, say,
Maybe you sign up to teach
Someone how to read
At that shelter.
Maybe you take somone
On a field trip to a zoo.
Maybe they’ve never been
To a zoo. I bet they’d like to
Share that experience with you.
Or…walking down the street.
Someone asks you for money.
Give them bus fare and
Have a card in your pocket
With shelter/hospital/rehab program
Information.
Give them that
And a phone card
So they can make phone calls.
Talk about poverty.
With your kids,
your family,
your politicians.
Get engaged in creative ways
That you can ebb the flow
Now
So there won’t be a tidal
Wave of homelessness/
hopelessness
Tomorrow.
Simple things.
If everyone starts educating
Working
Volunteering
Just simply NOTICING
Change can occur.
But we all
Have to
Join in
And Make The Change
Together.
It takes all of us
Engaged
To Do This.
Once a week:
Get to it. Let’s do it.
I’m on it. How about you?
andy-dog
says:I don’t think that taking someone to the zoo is a very good way to attack poverty. I agree that if we all spread the wealth we are blessed with
(like you, Lance, and the girls do), we could make a decent sized dent in the poverty we see in our communities. But what is really needed is to DEMAND from our leaders that the wealth that is present be distributed more evenly. Michael Moore recently made the claim that the top 400 people in the U.S. possess more wealth than the bottom 150 million. These people with their yachts and Bentleys and chalets, etc.. do deserve some privilege for being highly intelligent or gifted in some area so they can organize a business, create a corporation, develop an innovative idea, and so on, but once they have moved into the province of great wealth, it is time to give back to the culture that gave them that gift of support, inspiration, and OPPORTUNITY. Most don’t, and the wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of the privileged few. Until we the people decide enough is enough and demand legislation that will ameliorate the poverty, it will remain with us, the “greatest nation on earth” that refuses to provide universal health care for its people, gouges the poor and middle class for the taxes that support our infrastructure without placing a commensurate burden on corporation and the very wealthy, and elects leaders who do not seem to care about the less fortunate. I admire your tenacity to keep blogging in spite of the fact that almost no one seems to be reading it. Your ideas are terrific and I would rather have you as president than anyone who has been in the running for years, including both Clintons and Obama. Politicians want to be elected so they can access power, not serve their constituents.
So whaddaya say, Sara? How about running for president in 2012?
David Shaw
says:Noticing is the watchword. Nanci Griffith once said that nobody had a right to be complacent (or words to that effect) and she was right. I do some work with our church outreach committee … but that’s not nearly enough. Poverty distresses me to no end. But I need to do more…..