America must help the poor

The Thanksgiving holiday is a chance to reflect on all the things we are grateful for. It is a chance to be appreciative of the food we possess, but more importantly for friends, family and quality of life in general.

Unlike the Christmas season, which has become a chance to exchange presents, Thanksgiving is a holiday absent of gift giving. Perhaps in light of all we are grateful for, Thanksgiving is a holiday appropriate for gift giving. However, Thanksgiving gift exchanges should be something radically different than Christmas presents because Thanksgiving implies the giving of ourselves to those who have little to appreciate.

Unfortunately, America has forgotten the poor and downtrodden. We have forgotten the poor in morals and in our politics. As we reflect on what we have, it is becoming increasingly important to reflect on what we can give to those who have little.

Most of the poor are not looking for a handout or for a free ride. In fact, a large majority of the poor are hardworking Americans who are working minimum wage jobs. Most of the impoverished do not abuse welfare, nor do they even look to welfare for support.

Recent census bureau data showed 35 million Americans living in poverty. Nearly 13 million children - 20 percent - live in poverty. The federal government uses the poverty line as the measure to determine these numbers. For a family of four, the poverty line is just around $18,000. For a single person, the poverty line was estimated at just over $9,000 a year.

Experts agree and most rational individuals can see that these dollar amounts are nowhere near equivalent to the amounts needed for a decent quality of life. Researchers acknowledge the needed yearly income is nearly double the federal figures for a family of four seeking to afford the costs of health care, childcare, food and housing. Using such a benchmark, nearly 30 percent of the American people would be living in poverty.

At a time when the American economy is running strong, those individuals who have much should be willing to give much. The rich and the middle class have a moral obligation - and even a religious obligation - to help the poor. Only by seeing the poor as equals, as brothers and sisters in the human-race, can society attempt to equalize the economic playing field and realize the American dream.

As individuals, if we gave a fraction of income to charitable causes, society would be better off. However, years of welfare and government intervention have proven that simply throwing money at a problem is not the only solution. Society as a whole needs to think outside the box because only by approaching fundamental problems with human solutions can we accomplish the desired ends.

Individuals should volunteer time at a homeless shelter or an AIDS clinic - it is important to identify with people in order to know how to help. Identifying comes through a willingness to volunteer time, get a little dirty and talk with the poor. It requires becoming their equal, it requires giving up what we have for a day or a week and coming down to a lower economic level. We need to go to Appalachia - or a similar place - and get the dust from the coal mines on our faces. Only by coming to see the poor as fellow human beings can we even begin to understand how to help the impoverished.

As individuals, we each have an obligation to do our part to help the poor. However, it is also true that the government has a moral obligation and, dare it even be said, a religious obligation to help the poor. The role of government is to create a safety net for those who fall short while working hard to make ends meet. The role of government is to ensure that there is a minimum standard of living that is upheld for all Americans, as guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence through the right to life.

The government must perceive the poor as individual human beings and not as a collective group. Routine categorization of "the poor" generalizes the impoverished into a single group to which common but incorrect derogatory descriptions of laziness are applied. In reality, the poor are hard working individuals who are trying to realize the American dream. The government must stop thinking of people as groups and must perceive them as individuals.

Tell the West Virginian father of two children who is working 60 hours a week at $5.15 an hour with no overtime compensation and no health care benefits that he is a lazy American. If anything, he is the backbone of America - he is a hardworking American who spends tireless hours to support his family. Yet, despite all of his efforts, his family lives in poverty, absent a decent quality of life and absent any type of health care. Tell the child who attends a failing school that is plagued by drugs and crime that she is at fault for being unable to find a good paying job. The reality is fault finding is irrelevant upon close analysis.

Such situations are perfectly common in America and merit the intervention of government. The minimum wage worker who works overtime without benefits or health care and the child raised in a failing school are victims of a failing institutional structure. When the structure is failing, the individual does not need a handout - the individual needs government reassurance and protection from being victimized by the machine.

As prosperity in America continues to grow, the impoverished compose nearly 30 percent of the population. We cannot expect to help the poor living in the slums of India or in the fields of Africa until we can help our own at home.

Poverty is the issue of our generation and the single problem that can destroy humanity in a way more painful than any war. America is at a crossroads. The time has come for the "haves" to see the "have-nots" as their fellow brothers and sisters in the human journey called life.

Sources:

"Census Shows Ranks of Poor Rose in 2002 by 1.3 Million." New York Times. 3 September 2003.