Today is Blog Action Day. The theme is Poverty. Big theme.
Back in my college years, the big credit card companies were just figuring out that college students were suckers for easy money and I got myself into real financial jeopardy starting out of college. Not only a college loan debt but ridiculous debt on top. I've been recovering from my shaky start ever since.
I've had the constant phone calls from creditors and debt collectors. I've had my phone shut off. And I've had the electricity shut off for failure to pay. I've had my car threatened with repossession. I've lived through the humiliation and self-flagellation of being overwhelmed with debt. Is that the edge of poverty?
We were talking at school today about the financial crisis and how best to teach it to our students--as both a current event and in context of The Stock Market Crash & The Great Depression. Someone mentioned that it would be interesting to gather together a panel of speakers--from a bank president to a financial counselor--to talk with the students and explain what's going on and how to solve it. To talk on a broad, international level, all they way home to our local economy. I'm disappointed that the Twenties & Thirties aren't part of my curriculum this year. So many teachable moments.
I see poverty every day in the faces of some of my students. Some of them who only get food to eat because they get free lunch. I see it in their ill-fitting clothes. I see it in the expression around their eyes. Sometimes it's hard to tell who's suffering from poverty because so many of us live beyond our means.
The past few holiday seasons, I've chosen the oldest kids I could find from the Angel Tree Project (that's anonymously gifting a child in need who wouldn't otherwise get presents through a community action organization) and one of them turned out to be a student at my school. I only knew because I recognized the clothing I bought.
Students in the organization I advise usually do some great activities throughout the year--we partner with the Battered Womens Project to put together kits for teens and younger kids who are displaced from their homes. We've organized food drives. One year we organized a clothing drive and donated everything to the only homeless youth shelter in the state. That made a big impact.
Think globally, act locally.
Every day I visit the Hunger Site and the related sites for my daily dose of charity clicks.
1 comment:
I love what you do in taking part in the Angel Tree Project and other charitable activities. I seem to think the worst of American society, in general -- I mean I don't think we, collectively, do enough. I think too many people are too self-centered to care about doing things for others. Sure they'll say they care but rarely act.
As an EMT walking into the homes of people from all walks of life, I see poverty (and abuse) that way and it really affects me and makes me wish times a million that we'd all step it up more than we do! It's nice to read about people who DO act :)
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