Blog Action Day 2008: The scourge of poverty

A homeless person's stash near Place de Madeleine, Paris, one of the city's wealthiest commercial districts.

 

In the Mississippi Delta
children go to bed hungry
as their parents despair.

Living on minimum wage,
just trying to survive
now the factory's shut
and the money's run out.

 

Forced to rely on charity
and the kindness of strangers.
Trying to hang on,

living hand to mouth:
society's forgotten class.

Struggling to make ends meet
as more government programs cut.

Hard-working, honest people
trying to keep a roof over their heads,

food in their bellies
and their children in school.
Praying nobody gets sick;
health insurance is a luxury
they simply can't afford.

 

The car went last week;
couldn't keep up the payments
after the mill was mothballed:
a silent brooding sentinel,

waiting for a brighter day.

 

A day that will never come for their neighbor,

who shot himself in the Wal-Mart parking lot,

unable to face the indignity

of the bailiffs arriving

to auction the family farm,

where four generations worked the land

and earned community respect and recognition.

 

Unable to weep at the funeral,
his brother put his fist through the wall
of the county clerk's office

raging at the injustice
as news cameras whirred, recording the drama:
an ordinary life under extraordinary pressure,
no one ever should have to bear.

 

Helpless and nearly invisible

in a society that rewards achievement,

while shoving aside the needs of the poor.

No longer able to provide basic necessities

in the richest country on earth

where the government once served the people

with responsibility and decency.

 

In New Orleans

Katrina took their homes and jobs;

two years later

government assistance still thin on the ground

and home is a cot in a cousin's house.

Barbara Bush should see them now.*

On a New Mexico reservation

a group of rusty trailers
heat like a furnace in the desert sun
and the nearest job is a half-tank of gas away.

In Michigan, production is shipped overseas
and entire families are out of work,
out of benefits,
out of time.

Hard to hang on
hard to trust
hard to believe
this is America.

 

*Barbara Bush famously said that those who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina were "doing very well now" in shelters in Houston and other cities.

Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Joe Biden have plans to assist the 37 million Americans currently living in poverty. Read their Blueprint for Change here.

Read other contributions to Blog Action Day here.

Comments

[Colette]

Bravo for this. There's too little compassion and understanding in the world for the poor, the homeless. (And someone who owns 7 houses wants to rule the world. sick).
xoxox

[Yoli]

Of course they are all alright. What do they know about Katrina? What do they know about actual suffering and every day struggles. Nothing. Did you see the debate last night Tara?

[Di Overton]

It is HARD to believe that it is like this in America and also here in the UK

[maryam in marrakech]

And the very saddest thing is that those living in shelters after Katrina are doing so much better than so many in countries around the world:-(

[Gillian]

I'm eager to read the blueprint. I feel that the ripple effect if Obama gets in would be tremendous. Not only for Americans, but for the world.
Great post. We see homeless people all over our town too. They are everywhere. They get stepped over daily. It isn't right.
The world can sustain all of us.
xox

[Hans]

Well said. Copy paste on Internations.)
kindest
hans

[tangobaby]

Tara,

You're back, and the first thing you do is make me cry.

The way you speak the truth is powerful and so beautiful, even when it's very very sad.

[Leau]

PS: You and Christina inspired me to write something today as well. Thanks

[Ally Bean]

Well said. I miss responsibility and decency-- in government and in individual behavior of American citizens. It baffles me and scares me to see such a decline in civility and discourse. I mean, where do we go from here? Farther down the slippery slope?? Let's hope not.

[Christina]

These words are true, and close to home. I am so happy you were the one to get the message about blog action day, to me.

This picture is reality!

Thank you, friend!

[Leau]

Amazing writing dear one, there is a Navajo expression "they just keep on not getting it" that applies to people like BB who think that there is progress being made around the issues of poverty and homelessness. Why aren't we as a nation more ashamed? There is HOPE on the horizon!

[Brenda Kula]

True words. Sadly true. America has become a place I thought I'd never see. Wonderfully said.
Brenda