Got Food?

People have very little understanding about the full implications of poverty in this country. They don’t understand there are over 36 million Americans who may or may not have food for the day; more than 13 million American children are food insecure (Children’s Defense Fund). People aren’t aware of the number of adults who forgo a meal to make sure their children can eat. These parents, often derailed as lazy or stupid, are really American heroes that deserve respect and a ladder to help them have the resources to become even better parents.

People don’t understand poverty because it seems so vague and even remote. Not many see the 1.35 million children who are homeless, or their 500,000 families (Institute for Children and Poverty). People have their own preconceived notions of what it means to be poor. There are as many ways to describe poverty as there are people subjected to its daily pitfalls. However, they’re left as the dust and decay of the wealthiest nation to ever exist on the face of Earth, casualties of corporate warfare by the greedy on regular America. With the poverty bug an epidemic while health insurance costs inflate rapidly and costs that burden the middle and working classes significantly more than others, people should be wary. People must innoculate the country from poverty through policy change. Hunger and homelessness cannot be eradicated without direct action by the government. The longer America skirts the issue, the more people will suffer and die because America’s complacency.

Poverty is not a necessary evil; it's a moral dilemma. When ignored, this moral corruption of our most basic ideals allows this country to forsake one of its founding principles: to be created equal. Without a home, a good school, tools for parents to find good jobs and access to health care, America is not the country it proclaims. To be the land of the free and the home of the brave, America must act boldly and act now to bring poverty to a close.