Occupy Wall Street

I'm not a very political person. There are very few things I wholeheartedly support (like stopping shark finning and whale hunting). Occupy Wall Street is something I can get behind. Poverty is a way of life for to many people. Not just in third world countries, but here in the United States.

People talk about how horrible welfare hand outs are, and why high school dropouts are such failures. What they don't see is the single parent working three jobs to feed their children and pay rent, yet still not making enough. They don't talk about the kid who leaves school at sixteen because they can't afford text books for high school, or doesn't have a roof over their head. Forty percent of the homeless in the United States are families. People who have lost jobs and homes.

Yet somehow there are politicians and CEOs who feel justified in earning five times what the middle class Americans make? Congress and Wall Street will happily give themselves raises, and cut jobs, sending another family to the brink of starvation.

We're some of the lucky ones. I'm a full-time at home mom because we can live on one income. It's tight some days. There are days I whine and complain. I wish I had more, but do you know how lucky I am?

I have a roof over my head, most people don't.

I have food in my cupboards, most people don't.

I have insurance that means I can take my children to the doctor and dentist, most people don't.

I have running water and electricity, most people don't.

There was a time in my life where I lived with the single parent who worked three jobs. We didn't always have running water. We used a plastic container for a tub because ours fell through the floor. We went without electricity some weeks because there was four dollars left after rent, and we could pay bills or buy a loaf of bread. And you know what? My mom earned to much to go on welfare. She kept the car running and a roof over our heads. We were rich.

I look at the politicians and companies that promise social reform, and I can't help but wonder if they have ever gone hungry. Have they ever stayed up at night worrying about how they will take care of their children? Have they ever considered selling drugs, because it's the only job they can get? Have they ever had to grow their own food or starve? Have their children ever gone to a school where lice is rampant and the water gets turned off daily because the area is so impoverished the teachers won't send a kid home before lunch?

You know what? Mine have.

They went to a tiny rural school that hadn't been updated since the 1950s. There were a few hundred students, and eighty percent of them were given free lunches because their families didn't earn enough. During the summer, the school was open to anyone who stopped by with two free meals a day. Summer school was free because the district knew most of those children had no one to take care of them while the parents worked, and the school lunch was sometimes the only meal they had. Lice infestations were common, no one could afford the $15 box of RID. The water was turned off a few hours a day, that money was needed for food and not made up in taxes.

Poverty is a disease. It is a curable disease. There is enough land, food, and money to provide for everyone on this planet, and quite a few more besides. No one needs to go hungry, but they do. Because resources aren't managed well, children starve, they live on the street, they cry themselves to sleep at night. That needs to change. Now.

If you want to learn more about Occupy Wall Street you can follow it on Twitter at #occupywallstreet and you can this article in The Atlantic.