I was really enjoying the discussion we were getting into about the essay "What is Poverty?" in class tonight, and thought it'd be a great topic to really expand on. In particular, we ended the discussion mostly talking about the imagery of the essay and how it causes the distance between the reader's position and the author's depiction of poverty to be removed. That feeling of suddenly being forcibly placed into the situation I believe is what makes this text effective.
The last point we were about to discuss (but was tragically cut short) was the assumption that poverty is an urban problem, when in fact poverty is extremely rural in the United States. This essay really got to me, because though I have never had to experience this extreme, I can relate it to my life.
I'm from a small town in northern Michigan, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone and there are more churches than there are businesses. My family moved there from Grand Rapids in 2000 after my mom lost her job after sixteen years and my dad decided to quit the job he was at because of the restrictions it was causing on his family time. We moved from a two-story, two-bedroom house in a decent neighborhood in Grand Rapids, to a trailer in a town that doesn't even have a stop light.
Our family got back on our feet, and since Dad has bought a house, but since I have been at school trouble has run a muck again... The hotel my mother worked for was put under new management, and being a higher-paid employee, she was let go. She was put on unemployment -- that system is a mess. If you miss your window of opportunity to submit your information, you have to wait over a week for another chance. She then got a part-time job, but was working and earning so little she remained on under-employment.
During this time period, her car died. She was without any transportation for over four months. She had to rely on the kindness of her friends to simply get to and from work or to get groceries because the few hours she did work were the times when my Dad's vehicle would have been available. Having to beg to get to a job where you are barely earning enough to keep the electricity and phones on was remarkably demeaning... And that was with friends.
My Mother also found out about a program, through the government, that assisted people in getting cars. It sounded like a great idea, you give them your information and if you qualify they can give up to $2,000 in assistance. That won't buy you a nice pretty car, but it was more than my Mom could ever imagine saving up in her current situation. Her case worker, after having the paperwork completely filled out for over two months, ignoring my Mother's phone calls, tells her out of the blue that she didn't qualify because she didn't qualify for food stamps -- a program she had only been off for about a month.
There was a lot of other stuff that has happened, but I digress. I will never understand why our government's focus is not on helping those in need, but maybe I'm just a philanthropist at heart. I will also never see how food assistance applicability has anything to do with being applicable for help with a vehicle (considering the two costs, one on a week-to-week basis and the other a large lump sum), but maybe I'm too simple minded to understand.
All of this, I am unsure of. But one thing I am completely aware of, is that many of my neighbors were going through the same thing, if not worse. After all, it's a small town and everyone knows everyone else's business. Almost everyone in our little speck of the globe, almost everyone in this town that most people haven't heard of nor will ever look for on a map, are struggling. Living in Ypsi, it is a completely different deal. Yea, there are some extreme cases and there are homeless people on the streets with signs... Yea, there are surely people that are getting government assistance to live their lives... But as far as true poverty goes, there are way too many people living in the periphery that go unnoticed. Too many people that live in the middle of nowhere, and if it wasn't for their friend's couch, they'd be dead. People who live where there are no busy intersections to beg at, no choices but to wait and rely on their community... Yes, there is poverty in the cities, but I would definitely say that poverty is a rural problem.
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