Poverty

Poverty in the United States is odd. There’s so much abundance, yet some people haave so little. It’s something that destroys your mind and motivation. When I was a young child, I learned to identify as poor. It’s part of my identity as a human being now.

My mother frequented food banks, signed up with churches for Christmas and Thanksgiving. She went into the Savation Army for help with our utilities. When I was in middle school, we went without running water in the home for several months. I washed my armpits and my t-shirt in the public library bathroom. I’d run my shirt under the hand dryer for 5 minutes and wear it out of the bathroom soaking wet.

I knew my parents were broke, and I couldn’t do anything about it as a kid. $250 in food stamps doesn’t go very far in feeding six people. I learned to eat whatever I could. Dinner was canned vegetables and powdered potatoes. I learned to ask people if there was any food I could take home with me. When food stamps hit our account, we’d ride bikes and skateboards to the grocery store, and we’d relish in having a box of Hot Pockets, or a bag of pizza rolls.

I left home at age 16 to find a better life. Living around other people my age, I saw the level of entitlement people had. What world were they living in that they had all these wild expectations of others! It’s me who didn’t see my own worth: my own possibilities. It’s taken decades to grow beyond feeling like I was surrounded by spoiled people!

Still, I feel undeserving of pretty much anything. You have only one life on this Earth, and it’s okay to want good things for yourself. Instead of feeling bad about being selfish, why not accept the kindness of others, feel loved, and pay it forward when you can? Poverty makes it hard to understand that kind of thinking.

Hunger and homelessness should be abolished. Medical care should be a right in any modern society. Employment should not be required to have safety and security. We need better options for people barely making it. If people can’t just grow food, forage, and build shelter for themselves, we need to provide these necessities.

Is misery a good way to motivate people to do better? I don’t think it is. Most people just give up. It’s hard to learn anything when you have given up already. Let’s abolish poverty and show people they are inherently deserve to be cared for.