How far removed from poverty are we?

When was the last time you…

• Didn’t have a hat, coat or gloves to wear on a cold winter day?
• Worried about your electric being shut off before your next paycheck?
• Sent your child to school in the same clothes as the day before, without changing him or washing even his face?
• Stole something and sold it so you could buy food?
• Relied solely on walking, public transportation, or the chance kindness of others in order to get to and from work every day?
• Went to the Emergency Room (instead of the doctor) because you don’t have insurance, and yet couldn’t pay the bill?
• Were evicted?
• Didn’t have a phone number or mailing address where someone could reach you? (Which is usually essential for getting hired at a job.)
• Dug through a dumpster behind the local grocery store?
• Slept in your car… by necessity, not by choice?
• Got a paycheck-advance loan?
• Couldn’t afford Christmas presents for your family?

If you’re like me, your answer to every one was probably “never.” But how would any number of those things be different if you…

• Grew up without a father, or mother, or both?
• Were illiterate?
• Couldn’t speak the dominant language of the culture in which you live?
• Had a spouse that left you?
• Became disabled?
• Had a child who was disabled?
• Never finished high school?
• Became a single parent as a teenager?
• Didn’t have any surviving family members?
• Were the victim of abuse or neglect?
• Were the victim of fraud or theft?
• Had severe depression, or some other psychological disorder?
• Had a substance-abuse addiction?
• Were the object of racial discrimination?

Perhaps one of these factors, or a combination of two or more, would be enough to change your life to a life of poverty, like the poverty many around us face. Or perhaps you have experienced one or some of these things, and have been or are now in some degree of poverty. Is it hard to see how those in poverty arrived there? Is it difficult to understand why they often stay there… or, are kept there?
Or does it seem like the above factors are so simple, they could easily be remedied? What would it take to rescue an orphan from poverty? Who would befriend a single parent and help him carry the burden of poverty? Why would you learn a language not your own to bridge the gap to someone else’s poverty?

When will we put a stop to inequality in the workplace so that everyone in poverty has a fair chance at getting out? How can access to education be supplied to those whose poverty is a lack of the basic tools of reading and writing? Is there hope for a depressed, schizophrenic, or addicted person to rise out of a poverty of mind?

Can we imagine an end to all kinds of poverty?

I think, not without a closer look…
a step inside… a willingness
to share in others’ poverty,
to walk with them
until we leave it all behind.

Everyday Tragedies of War

(Above: Third-generation-refugees growing up in Deheisha Refugee Camp near Bethlehem, West Bank.)
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It is sad to me that, anymore, when we speak of war it's mostly in political and economic terms. Most of us have no better frame of reference for truly understanding the impact war has on this world. While I don't want to forget the real lives, including the lives of many people I met while visiting the West Bank last year, that are affected by war, I do want to point out some of the glaring injustices that have been brought to my attention, particularly regarding the U.S.'s involvement in (basically) subsidizing Israel's illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
From a great report by The Only Democracy?:

In terms of how Israel chose to fund the ongoing Occupation, with much help from the U.S., we learn that "there were still other routes the government could have taken, such as increasing the capital gains tax; raising income tax for the upper income brackets – or at least not reducing it; imposing a war loan; cutting the salaries of senior government officials, local government officials, and high-ranking military officers; cutting the ‘fat’ in the military budget; or reducing government benefits to well-to-do sectors of the population, among them residents of the Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories. The option chosen was to make cuts whose main effect was to lower the standard of living of Israel’s middle and lower classes.” (emphasis mine)

This reminds me of the words sung by Derek Webb: "When justice is bought and sold just like weapons of war/The ones who always pay are the poorest of the poor."

Not only does the United States continue to give incredible amounts of "aid" to Israel ($3 billion in 2009), but "75 percent of the funds are earmarked for purchases from US industry. Consequently, it’s no wonder that the aid agreement between the U.S. and Israel has for some years now been changing the ratio of military to civilian aid, increasing the former while incrementally canceling the latter. As journalist Moti Bassok wrote in 2007,'Each year throughout the present agreement civilian aid was reduced by $120 million, while military aid grew $60 million. As of next year, annual U.S. aid will [… be] all military,' forming an integrated enabling component of Israel’s continuing and destructive militarization. It would seem that the economic and political elites of both the US and Israel have vested interests in continuing Israel’s militarization, occupation and choice of warfare." (emphases mine)

It would seem that both the U.S. and Israel have the same problem. It would seem that both countries are continuing to decrease social spending while increasing military spending. It would seem that citizens of both countries are living under and buying into "the official, as well as media, focus on national fear and ‘national security’."

I'm so glad that the way things seem to be isn't the way they have to always be.
I have hope that there are people who imagine that things can be different ...whether Israeli citizens refusing to serve in the IDF, or U.S. citizens refusing to pay income taxes in protest to funding wars; whether Christians putting themselves "in the way" of violent conflicts or pledging allegiance to Something higher than the nation-state... and I want to live my life with such imagination, so that together we can experience and share something that is different.