Just Visiting - my rant

[FirstLight]

(inspired by the MJ article about the dude that lived without money for a year...and how this shit makes my blood boil. I've lived most of my adult life in poverty with children and struggle, and people who "visit" living with nothing piss me off, no matter what their angle.So I wrote what is below....)
~~~~~~

There's an article this morning about a chap who has managed to live 'free of money' for a year. It is supposed to be a feel good article promoting, of course, his book and how he managed to ecologically live free of consumerism. Well it's all well and good, but the REALITY is that most people without money have many more issues to consider than their carbon footprint....and I can bet that even fewer of them have bookdeals awaiting them when they have 'had enough'...

What we have seen with the polarization about entitlements is the vilification of the needy. And there is a big part of me that thinks the articles of people who 'pretend' to live like this for a llimited amount of time, do much more harm than good. Understanding poverty doesn't mean you go visiting for a few months and you know it all. Understanding poverty requires contemplation of what it means to a person to be told they are worthless in the grand scheme of life. That they have no chips to play in the game and they have nothing to offer. Even the most well balanced individual would break under those crushing circumstances, day after day, with no escape in sight. Add to the understanding the social and emotional ills that most of us come into this lifetime with, and you have a lot that can go wrong when there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

The effects of poverty are psychological, emotional, physical and social...and those immersed in this are not able to just hop on a bus and find a new life. And THAT fact in itself is the biggest influencing factor of all - NO End in Sight.

So the person who says 'It ain't so bad,' after visiting for six months or a year, with extra savings in the bank they can come back to, is just not getting it. And those who don't even TRY to look deeper and say 'They *like*being poor and living off the system.' are even more delusional.

This is common sense to me. Poverty is not a choice, it is a social condition.

If we believe that inherently all of us are created equal, then it becomes our duty as compassionate community to find the remedies for our social illnesses. It is national, it is local, and the only ones who can do some good by 'getting in the trenches' are those who come back to tell the rest of us how we can and should help one another...and then pitch in and DO something.

The answer is not cutting social programs.... it is creating programs that teach about community gardens, that create real opportunities or assist people in realizing their goals. The answer is more of us getting involved to create the communities WE want, and for those who are on assistance to be empowered to assist in creating those communities as well.

I hope that someday I can effect this kind of change.

[xchrom]

1. A strong unrec.

He is proving - mapping an experimental pathway.

It's an experimental performance -- so unless you're against all forms of creative protest
Your point is full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Now are people in poverty locked in - yes.
They do not have maneuverability.
That's not the point of this.

[FirstLight]

3. you don't get it

I am not bashing the fellow specifically. I was triggered by the nature of the 'experiment' as someone who lives on the brink of disaster every day...

it may seem like apples & oranges to you, but it affected me a different way.

[dkf]

2. Beautifully said.

I love your ideas on what it takes to get people out of poverty... I don't understand why this is not the focus of our government and our political efforts. There must be a change in circumstance to get out of bad situations. Thinking that government programs that allow a person to subsist are the end of the story are short sighted. Fix the problem...don't simply prolong it.

[FirstLight]

4. I am cultivating an idea for a community project

thinking of using my small suburb of close knit foolks as my experimental group...integrating those that 'have' and those who 'have not' into building community gardens, restorative art and social groups. I'd love it to become a template someday.

but first, i need to figure out how to do all the preliminary paperwork! and that may very well kill me!
being a visionary is a wonderful thing, but the details suck, lol

[rrneck]

6. being a visionary is a wonderful thing, but the details suck

Put that on a tee shirt and I'll bet you could probably fund you and the project.

[FirstLight]

10. +100!

dig iT! and it's not a bad idea... i should start my list of silly sayings like that and start my own Cafe Press site for fundraising...then maybe i'd be able to have a start of something to work with.


hmmmm...now the wheels are churning in mah brain! lol

[Fire Walk With Me]

12. This is something you certainly should consider.

And :hug::hug::hug:; you are not alone and you ARE worthy, each and every day.

[dkf]

7. Oh so true.

I greatly admire your ambitions here. I think growing things and especially feeding people should be a point of pride and gardening can be relaxing and fulfilling.

We've forgotten the basics of life haven't we?

[Jacqueline S Homan]

14. It's a great idea!

I have a few ideas that maybe if we PM/email to hash out the details, I could help you pull off your community plan. I am better with analysis and research and details than I am with community organizing because I am not someone with a lot of patience or emotional capital. I guess my short fuse in the people skills department comes from a lifetime of suffering without any access to health and dental care, having to face everyone (including prospective employers) with missing and visibly decayed teeth from my 20's up until age 40 when I could *finally* afford a denture, all the while being told by middle class snobs that I wouldn't have lost my teeth/have bad teeth if I wouldn't have been "too stupid/lazy to brush properly."

As someone who had to struggle in poverty for 40 out of my 43 years of life, living while poor and female in a country that hates its poor, I share your outrage toward those from the middle/upper classes who think that "slumming it" temporarily somehow makes them a poverty expert. It smacks of arrogance and condescension, as if to say to those of us struggling in poverty (not for lack of trying) that we're nothing but a bunch of dumb-asses who need to be taught how to get with the middle class program. I can only conclude that it serves to invalidate the degree of severity in the suffering and misery that poverty in our society of "ME ME ME" imposed on the poor.

[The Uncola]

5. The sad part..

.. is that even after you explained it so well, there is already a person that didn't get what you were saying. Far too many of our fellow Americans actually believe that even though the game is rigged, being of lessor means is the result of some sort of character defect. As more and more of you join our ranks, perhaps that false perception will change. NO ONE is poor, BY CHOICE.

NO ONE.

[customerserviceguy]

8. Your post reminds me what I thought of Barbara Ehrenreich's book

"Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America". Yes, she came to the 'right' conclusion, but it seemed to me to be somewhat whiny as she discovered things that most working class Americans already know. It was a little like what they did when they sent pampered Paris Hilton to visit a farm on "The Simple Life".

I had a well-admired high school teacher who actually tried living as a hobo, riding the rails. Another teacher told me this, and I asked him about it. He confirmed it, then went on to tell me how he revealed his true status to one of the hoboes that he was riding with, and that the hobo got quite upset with him. Those of us who heard Mr. Hibbard tell this story were quite amazed with the hobo's reaction, clearly our teacher was trying to understand the other side of life.

But today, having experiences of tough times a few times in my life, I understand the hobo's reaction.

[FirstLight]

9. wow, he's lucky he wasn't killed...really

it could happen out there these days...any 'investigative reporter' better bear in mind, eh?

I remember that book as well, and it was very powerful and profound and at the time i was battling about living wage in my town. Did you ever see the PBS special about living wage? can;t remember the name of it now...but we had a local showing at the community college theater a few years back. Not that it made ANY difference to the big employers, and many of the little ones now are bankrupt and long gone...

so ya, many more ARE joining the ranks, aren't they?

[FirstLight]

11. kick for the later crowd...

thanks

[Naturyl]

13. K&R. I resent the "poor for a month" stunts as well.

The people doing them who are patting themselves on the back for their "courage" really need to go get bent.

[Name removed]

15. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.