you've heard alot about the war on poverty and homelessness. ehhh....me too. i've heard it, i've read it, i've thought about it. a lady on twitter posted an entry the other nite that caught my eye. it asked the question....so who are these poor we keep hearing about. how do you define poor and who defines it.
it was one of those posts that came back to me a couple of times when i was thinking about something else or another topic would come up in a conversation. who are these poor we keep hearing about?
why...it's the victims of economic violence of course. it's the disadvantaged and weaker among us. it's the victims of income inequality who suffered thru years of earning disparities. it's the socio-economic results of years of inner city living and environmental issues. it's the victim of one parent families that never recovered from the trauma of not knowing his father and was forced into poverty thru lack of self esteem.
now seriously...have you ever such a paragraph of ridiculous things? the poor are just that....the poor. they don't make enough money or they don't have a job. they are on welfare and on snap. they live in sub standard housing alot of times with little if any resources to fall back on. they are constantly worried about food and the staples of life. they wake up poor and they go to bed poor. they live their life in between that time being poor. they are black. they are white. they are hispanic. they're christians, jews, muslims and hindu. they're poor. there is no other tag or description that fits all of them except poor. it's the common denominator.
the homeless are the same way. they're homeless. there are other adjectives that you can use to describe the homeless. mentally ill, unemployed, under employed, victims of domestic abuse, physically impaired or disabled, advanced age, drug addiction, alcoholism...homeless. the common adjective that fits them all is homeless.
now here's my point. if we can't call the poor and homeless exactly what they are....poor and homeless...how can you ever think you could come up with a viable solution for them. if you have to nice up the description or you have to come up with some politically juiced up word that will impress your audience instead of saying poor or homeless, how could i ever trust you to come up with and implement a plan to end poverty and homelessness. you can't even use the words....so you think i'm going to believe you're sincere about fighting the two issues? what i'm going to think is that you have yourown agenda and you like to feed your own ego with words. homeless and poverty aren't eloquent, don't try to be when you speak about them
pssst....i'm homeless. i'm poor. it's ok...i know it. i don't mind if you call me that. what i do mind is you letting words get in the way of a viable option and solution to the plight of the homeless and poor. being homeless and poor isn't nice. you don't have to make it seem like it is. being homeless and poor doesn't make me a victim, so don't pretend i am.....i don't. homeless and poor means exactly what the words imply. so use them to describe us. maybe america will believe you and trust you then. maybe they'll join you in the fight against poverty and homelessness. until you do....all they'll hear is nice words. all they'll see is another man using nice words with no meaning. remember.....homeless.....poor.....poverty. they are the correct words. keep it simple
see you around town