August 13,2009
I sorta hope that sounds like the title of the next Stephen King novel. But in truth it isn't scary at all, I met about a dozen very nice kids (13/14yrs) volunteering at the Mustard Seed this afternoon. They are on some kind of church related field trip from Ontario, I'm thinking missionary work in the wild wild west. Actually the young man who co-ordinates the program explained that he is trying to change the commonly held misperceptions about homeless people by allowing the kids to interact with homeless people in a safe comfortable environment. I applaud his efforts, and I think the program has real potential to change the thinking of the next generation. I'm impatient I guess, can't wait for change to filter down through generations. I want to see every one's eyes opened and soon.
The gap between rich and poor grows every year and the numbers of people stacking up on the poor side of that equation grows... soon the scales of power will tip. I am not calling for a revolution (although it is exactly this kind of environment that breeds revolution)... I am calling for an evolution in the way we value people. We need to create communities that include all socio-economic levels. Attitudes toward poverty and the poor in North America are carry-overs from the 1950s,when there were more then enough jobs for anyone who wanted one. A time when families stayed together, more ever after then happily. A time when there was such a thing as employer /employee loyalty. Like everything else if our society wishes to survive it must adapt...we must evolve in our attitude and institutions. When ruling powers refuse to adapt to the needs of the population the result is never good for either side in the long run. Reference is often made to a swinging pendulum sweeping inevitably from one extreme to the other. By proactively creating the change we want we can control the sweep of the pendulum, and optimize the resulting kinetic energy. Simply put, if we make the effort to build a society that has a meaningful place (figuratively as well as geographically) for all our citizens; we can put all our energy into being productive as individuals, communities and nations. Energy that can be put into building a bright new future, not wasted struggling to cling to what are now irrelevant past values which divide us.
Boy this is not where I thought tonight's blog was going...so let me end with a little anecdote. This morning I walked into the library and there was a group of deaf people vigorously signing to each other. So I approached the nearest staff and said in my most perturbed voice "This is a library, could you please tell them to keep it down". LMAO
“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied… but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.”
ReplyDelete~ John Berger