why poor people make bad choices…..
“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.”
John F. Kennedy
50 years ago America lost one of its more astounding sons. The "what, why, who" are all still heatedly debated and probably will until this tragic waste of life fades into antiquity. But one of the more engaging things to come from last week’s focus on 50 years ago in America is the sense of possibility that existed in that Camelot of Exceptional America.
50 years later Humanity hasn’t actually managed to extinguish poverty or human life from planet Earth. Nor do we seem likely to anytime in the near future. Our limitations are quite clear when one looks back over the past 50 years.
My wife shared a link on FB yesterday that I read this morning. It was a powerful description of poverty made more so by the fact the writer was still living in poverty at the time of writing it!
Below is a link to the article:
In case some of my Blog followers are unaware of my own origins, I too, was born into poverty and experienced it for the first 30 years of my life. There are too many things that could be said about poverty and too many people who could rightfully own a portion of the culpability of the poverty I experienced. But blaming won’t stop the shaming of the impoverished nor will it remedy the near total ignorance of the more fortunate who live mere blocks from poverty.
Someone or a group of someones came to our house on Thursday night/Friday morning and vandalized our front yard and stole one of our porch tables. It was wrought iron with a heavy glass top and they managed to pilfer it silently without anyone wakening up. The people who did this almost certainly fall into one of two categories.
1. Spoiled college kids with too much time, too much money and too little character who chose to go on a humorous rampage of trashing other people’s things because they have no sense of how much it costs in hard work to pay for anything. Drink, drugs and sheer boredom were probably the instigators of messing up my front yard, my neighbor’s car and God knows how many other yards.
2. Poor kids with a deep well of hopelessness and pent-up rage trashing “rich” people’s stuff and making off with a really nice table because it will look great in their mother’s front yard.
If it was the first group and they were unexpectedly caught I’d gladly make them pay for damages and even be willing to scare some caution into them by allowing the police or their faculty advisor to threaten them with something more frightening than a monetary fine.
If it was the second group: well then, I hope they don’t get caught. If there are some poor kids sitting in front of a wrought iron table laughing at getting one over on those rich people, then I’m delighted they have at least one thing to feel proud of this week. If I knew who they were I’d tell them to bring my table back and I’d take them to Lowe's and buy them a nicer one. The table was a gift so it has sentimental value.
College kids wrecking my yard because they are too dumb to make good choices really don’t deserve my sympathy or much of my mercy.
Poor kids wrecking my yard get all of my sympathy and mercy as long as I don’t catch them in the act!
If this seems unjust read the article about why poor people make bad choices.
As we won’t be curing the curse of too much wealth and the havoc it can wreak, nor will we cure the curse of too much poverty and the havoc it too can wreak I’ll be chaining my porch furniture to the floor and making it harder for anyone to take our stuff for whatever reason….
But just for the sake of the improbable… If you read my Blog and really feel the need to come steal my stuff, please consider coming back in the morning instead and asking me for help. I’d much rather give you something than have your take something…. mostly because me giving you something means we get to know one another….
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