Poverty

The picture contains a young girl living in one of the Food for the Poor housing complexes. The house in the background is one of the basic houses about sixteen feet by twelve feet but they are strongly built and very desirable compared to what other people live in. We would call it camping at best and most Americans would not even stay overnight in what the poor would call luxury. We are so out of touch with reality that we think we have no answers for the poor in our own country or the world. If the average American gave up one dollar a day to a specific proven program to meet the needs of the poor it would more than double the income of all the impoverished people of the whole Caribbean and Central American area. For some it might be the huge sacrifice of two doublemocha frapachinos at Starbucks or something each week. We see the need in a crisis like this in Haiti and then we forget that poverty doesn't end with the crisis. We want what we want when we want it and sacrifice is not part of our name. We brag about the total amount of aid we give away as a country which is the most of any nation while we dismiss the fact that we give the lowest percentage of our gross national product of any western industrialized nation. The only thing I know is that Christ had an overwhelming priority for the poor and we better not dismiss that reality in our lives.