Americans in Poverty?

Americans have been given an unspoken falsification on what poverty means. It is the parents who cannot afford to have gifts for their children on Christmas Day. The students’ who must work their way through school just, only to be given a fair chance at what so many take for granted. Persons’ whom lower their self-respect by waiting for a grocery store to clear out before they can bring themselves to purchase the necessities needed with food stamps. In all of these examples, the people have taken blame on how they got into those situations despite the fact that they prosper in one of the richest, countries in the world. But, when it comes down to it, their behavior barely touches the tip of the iceberg on what poverty is defined as. The Random House College Dictionary defines poverty as “a state or condition” of having little or no money, goods, or means of “support”; condition of being poor, indigence. I think that these situations put forth the fact that being poor is not a necessary part of poverty. Moreover, I think that in order to understand poverty, one needs to think about what “support” means and what poverty feels like.
It may help to first help to examine the state the parents, students, and family are in. All have been placed in positions where they feel as if they are barely getting by. They’ve recognized the effects their society has put on them, and they assume that life could not possibly be any worse. To an American, these people are considered poor. Nevertheless, statistics alone will show that these people have moments in life when they do not feel poor. In fact, all of them can be confronted by situations that defy being poor. Still, an inner belief –poverty-- sustains them, and they act despite their means of support.

Support is assurance, not just in oneself but in a situation. The students’ who take on jobs to “just get by”, while trying to get an education may have support from other individuals in the same predicament, but they may not have much support that the situation will turn out for the best. They keep telling themselves not to give up, which they don’t (and perhaps even to defend and idea, like “The American Dream”), even as each one silently doubts that their life will become any better. No one I know would dare say that these students’ acted with poverty in mind just because they acted with being poor. Similarly, when parents feel worthless because they cannot give the children gifts for Christmas, they hope rather than trust that their children will receive at least one gift, be it from a grandparent or a friend. They choose to disregard their means of support and takes on the roll as the unfortunate ones.
Now, consider the case of the individuals for wait in a store, despite the time lapse, just so they don’t have to feel foolish paying with food stamps. They don’t have time to experience an emotion like “being grateful”. Like any person in this situation, these people act instinctively. Yet if asked, most people would call their action as grateful. This case particularly demonstrates that being poor is not a necessary part of poverty. Another false assumption about poverty is that it always involves the account of having material possessions. Many times it does, but more often poverty is what lets people risk being put into the publics’ eye. Take, for instance, a case from my past about a child that attended the same school as I. It was the basic elementary school, K-6; I was in 4th grade, so was Desmond, different classrooms though. I remember Desmond also being in the “L.D.”, Learning Disability classes but, all the cool kids were in those classes. Now, this I can only restate after becoming a friend and hearing, first hand, how they felt both emotionally and physically. Before I became friends with Desmond, our school had thought that he was “rich”, including I. I never took to notice that Desmond lived in the lower section of my own neighborhood, which was built for Section 8 families. I remember always being in envy of him, as well as pretty much the whole school. I’m not sure how it finally came out that Desmond wasn’t who we thought he was, but it did come out. Now after this, I can solely spit out the emotions of how I reacted, and others from our school but, becoming a friend and learning Desmond’s way of it is what I can only write.
The incident happened when Desmond resisted peer pressure to steal money from his parents. His friends kept on persisting that he steals from his parents, because they all had done it to their parents. Finally, after constant nagging, Desmond came out with who he was and what his family meant to him. He told his friends that the money that his parents had was for their rent and that that barely had enough to money to pay for a phone. Not only did he say this but, he blurted out everything that had been on his mind. How and why he does the things he does, or acts the way he did around them. When he told his friends he would not do it and why, he was pretty sure that they would not overtly call him poor. However, he suspected that they would not talk to him in school the next day and that they might convince other students to avoid him, which would make him feel miserable. In fact, Desmond’s friends did not reject him; but it took him telling his friends he was/is living in poverty to speak his mind, when he knew how he would feel if they had rejected him. The one thing that Desmond told me will always weigh heavy on his mind is what he admitted to convincing his family in doing. He tries to convince his parents and sister on just about everything: what to wear, where to shop, how to talk, not to mention how much money they don’t make, look for a bigger house in a better neighborhood, act “superior” to others that look “less superior”, etc. Another important thing about poverty—one that may be different for each person—is how it feels.
I had my most vivid realization of poverty the months of the year following September 11. I had never been so aware of the world before. As I followed silently behind millions of citizens, I was shocked from the support America was receiving from the entire world, including the Middle East. Over the months, I religiously watched CNN to better my knowledge of countries that, America has targeted in prior years by location, religion, and/or race alone; ran to our rescue on and after September 11. I could not stop thinking about how ungrateful and inconsiderate my country truly was. My mind had been lied to, my heart had been lost. When I had been watching CNN one day, images, footage, and information I had not previously seen or read on the overall status of only a few of the countries which were helping America in its time of need. Countries which had, by no means, enough funds to bring the tragedies of their own citizens out from the ruins, nor had they acquired any support elsewhere. Yet, these same countries which had been ridiculed and torn down by America, reached out not only their hand, but their heart to help us. It was, and unfortunately still is, poverty. I remember feeling focused and thinking, “it’s now or never, I take my voice”, and then I began my continuous fight. My battle with educating myself, as well as others; in pursuing a future where I could respectively honor so many people across the world with promised futures, better futures, of their own. I felt strong and clearheaded, and suddenly none of my troubles mattered at all. Other people may experience poverty differently, but this is how it felt to me.

In conclusion, I think we need to stop thinking of poverty as a state of mind that requires being poor. Not every person who acts impoverished can honestly say, “I have been forgotten because I am poor”. Sometimes, people who act impoverished are acting on instinct and not thinking anything at all. Other times, they are poor but push aside their doubts and fears to do what they need to do. Also, we should consider that acting with poverty does not always involve where one presides, the persons’ financial status, race, or even how they look and talk. More often, it means being born into a life where not one person around you can help, because 80% of your country is fighting that same losing battle. It means losing hope of a better tomorrow. By understanding more thoroughly the characteristics of poverty, we can understand that no American is poverty-stricken (not even a little) by even one day of our lives.

It took me losing the life that I once knew to realize what I had. But what I had lost, blossomed into what I have gained…a new heart, a new passion.