poverty and neglect

I made it. I emerged from my weekly, monotonous tunnel of work, school, sleep, work, school, sleep...

Apparently, whoever thought of cramming so many classes into the summer has never experienced bare feet on green grass and cheeks kissed by the sun.

I do enjoy school, nonetheless. It challenges my mind. And my time-management skills.

During class this week, we discussed the issue of poverty at length. We made graphs of systematic barriers and oppression. We mulled over glaring statistics and debated over effective solutions. We're the bleeding hearts working for social change, equality, and justice.

Yet, I sit in the middle row, to the left, cynical and indifferent.

I know about poverty; I see it every day. It's kids with dirty clothes and black-stained feet who have lice and empty bellies, whose parents trade their food stamps for spice at the gas station on the corner. The parents who tell me to put their kids in foster care because they are too proud to accept help or go to the homeless shelter. Or the mom who refuses to work and moves her kids and their scant belongings from one man's home to another.

And so I sit and smugly provide my two cents..."it's a mindset...an issue of motivation...a mismanagement of personal resources..."

The thing about social issues is that they are complex and won't leave my mind. Thus, while browning hamburger at midnight (crazy things happen in the tunnel), it finally occurred to me.

I see a lot of injustice at work, and I may see many parents and kids who are poor. But I don't see poverty. I see neglect.  

My job has changed me. It's made me skeptical and pessimistic, with little hope for humanity. I look for the flaw, the wrongdoing that was committed so I can place the blame and alleviate the pain.

But it is unfair to apply my investigator perspective and experience universally.  The absence of money and resources does not imply fault or maltreatment. There are over six thousand people in poverty in my jurisdiction, and I only see a small portion of those people. The reality is that my exposure to and knowledge of social issues is small and rather insignificant. I have so much more to learn in the classroom and in the field.

If nothing else, school has forced me to examine my biases and have a greater sense of self-awareness.