Blog Action Day: Poverty

The other day, I came across this website, http://www.blogactionday.org/, and I saw their idea of having everyone raise awareness about poverty by dedicating a blog post to it all on the same day. I thought that was really interesting. As said by Evey Hammond in V for Vendetta, "an idea can still change the world."

I didn't register this blog with that website because I didn't feel like I needed to sign up if I wanted to do something right. There were countless other blogs that signed up and registered and projected to reach over 11 million readers. One blog might make a difference, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather have somebody reading this post because they were really interested in the topic and not just seeing the lasted entry on the RSS feed from the main site.

For the past 2 years, I have gone down to New Orleans to volunteer and help with the rebuilding for my Spring Break trip. Each trip has taught me valuable lessons about life and showed me a different side of life that I wasn't used to. This side of life was the life of poverty, homelessness and hopelessness. It was humbling walking through destroyed homes and abandoned apartments. A walk through "Tent City" underneath the interstate overpass is enough to humble anyone.


Don't just walk through though. Take time to talk to the "tenants." Hear their stories, see what their lives are like. Find out who they are and why they are like that. Society may reject them, but many wish that their lives weren't like that.


After talking with several people and even playing a game of Spades with a man who was a chef before Katrina, I realized a major difference between the desperate homeless and the situational homeless. There may be tons of people who, at first glance, look like their situation is the worst and they can't get enough things together to make a positive difference in their lives. Yet, when you take a closer look, you slowly begin to realize that they are milking the system for all it is worth, and they are actually better off homeless than they were when they weren't. As a homeless man in New Orleans, they can get three free meals a day without working. They have people who are genuinly trying to remedy the situaion providing them with everything they need and they make no progress towards having a normal life.

Don't get me wrong. Not all those who are homeless are like this. There are plenty who have no alternative and have to live on the streets off of the charity of others, but not because they receive better treatment than when they weren't homeless.

Maybe reading this has cast new light on an unfamiliar subject for you. My only suggestion to you, the reader, is do you own research, come to your own conclusions and go out and see it for yourself. It will change your life.