The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights begins,
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world… All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”
I care about poverty because the cruelest thing we can do to a fellow human being is to strip them of their dignity.
All too often we blame poor people for their poverty. We imply that poverty is a choice with statements like “if they would just pull up their socks and get a job they wouldn’t have to be poor.” “If they just respected themselves” we say, “they wouldn’t have a problem.” Most everyone seems to have a story about seeing someone “abuse” food stamps by purchasing potato chips or soda. If the poor are responsible for their condition, then it’s O.K. for us to tut-tut about their values and move on to more important things, like cutting the estate tax. Now we can justify cutting programs because the poor don’t deserve our help—and besides, because of the tax cuts, we can’t afford these social programs anyway. On the other end of the spectrum, I have not heard a single call to cut subsidies to big business in the wake of the criminal behavior of Ken Lay and others like him. What about the undeserving rich?
Here is the problem, as I see it. The negative judgments we heap on poor people strip away their dignity. We create an “us and them” environment so we don’t have to worry about becoming poor ourselves. After all, poverty only happens to lesser human beings.
So we tell poor people that they have too many children, but restrict access to affordable birth control (as though sex is a privilege for those with money). We tell moms to get jobs, then cut their day care subsidies, making it hard for them to afford to stay employed. We tell low-income citizens to move out of public housing, and then refuse to raise the minimum wage above $5.15 an hour so they can afford a safe and affordable place to live.
In 1962, when Michael Harrington wrote The Other America and helped spark the “War on Poverty,” the causes and effects of poverty were on everyone’s political agenda. And, subsequently, we saw substantial decreases in the number of people living below the poverty line. Of course, not all the experiments tried during this period succeeded, but some did. Head Start and Medicare are just two of the programs that worked then, and continue to help people today. But things changed dramatically around the time that President Reagan coined the phrase “welfare queen,” and made it politically correct to blame the poor. Government anti-poverty efforts deflated like balloons. Now, like politics and religion, we just don’t talk about poverty in polite society.
When you have a chance, download a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s one of the most inspirational documents ever written. Then ask yourself, are we living up to its principles? Do we recognize and respect the inherent dignity of all members of the human family? When we have poverty in the midst of great wealth, what does that say about our society? What does it say about our commitment to freedom, justice and peace? What does this say about our respect for our fellow human beings? Let me leave you with a quote from John F. Kennedy: “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”
Connie Jorgensen is the director of development and public relations at MACAA (Monticello Area Community Action Agency).