People mess up. They do bad things sometimes. The unlucky few that get caught, if that bad thing is bad enough, get sent to jail or prison. But a lot of these people that mess up and commit a crime are people just like you and I, and they deserve to be treated that way. There are over 2 million people in lockup right now. 2 million US citizens behind bars who when they are released back into the real world will have to where to go, no one to turn to and no services to lean on. Because we as a country have deemed them “unworthy” of public services such as welfare, food stamps, and even getting a job. They aren’t even given back the basic right to vote or to get a drivers license. They are stripped of their voice and of their ability to survive in society (Jones, Sabrina).

But who are we (the citizens on the outside) to decide who is “worthy” of our help? How can we make that distinction? Most people who end up in prison end up there because they had nowhere else to turn, so they did what they needed to do to survive. So it is not fare to judge someone by the crime they commit. Because not all people who break the law are criminals. I could honestly say that I know more bad people who aren’t locked up than I do who are. So how is it fair to deny people who just were released from lock up the resources they need to get back on their feet? How are they supposed to start again if no one gives them a hand? Because if we don’t give them a hand then they will result to what they know how to do, and most likely that will put them back behind bars.

So lets stop this. Stop the labeling, stop the exiling and stop the judgment. Everyone deserves another chance at life, and we as a government should support that chance, not take it away.

Reference: Prisoners of the War on Drugs   By Sabrina Jones, Ellen Miller-Mack & Lois Ahrens

Help. We all need it at some point in our lives and hopefully we all have received it in some form in our moment of need. But for those in poverty or living on the streets, help is most always needed but can be difficult to come by. In a world where we pride ourselves in helping others, why is it when our own people need help that we have a hard time providing that help? Why has welfare, food stamps, safe housing, or even a shelter become so hard to come by in so many places?

This struggle for help from those in poverty has been a common theme in so many of the books and articles that I have read so far. From the removal of funding for welfare, to the lack of affordable housing available for those living on barely anything it seems as though those in charge of our country, the ones with all money and power, don’t want to provide for those in need. Now this is obviously a vast generalization of our money holders, but after reading so many stories about the lack of help and the lack of funding in so many areas it makes me question the integrity of our people of power.

There is a belief that floats around among those who are not aware of what goes on underneath the surface of those in poverty, that poverty is a self-fixing problem. That if the people got themselves into it then they can get themselves out of it just as easily. But it’s not that simple. Once someone falls into the cycle of poverty it is almost impossible for him or her to get out, and our government is the one who makes it that way. For example, food stamps are the most popular form of aid from the government, but these can only buy food, nothing else. So when kids need clothes, or cars need gas, or rent needs to be paid, food stamps get you nowhere. And there are millions of people out there who food stamps are there only form of income and who will probably never break out of the poverty circle because of this restriction. To break out one needs some form of cash flow, and welfare use to be a provider of such help. So why did the government stop funding such a program? Why did help stop being provided to those in need?

We could go back and look at all of the politics and all of the bills past over the past 50 years and could probably find many reasons why government aid slowly decreased. But in my mind I think there has been a shift in society, a shift in the heart and the care that we have for others. Of course it is not fair to say that everyone has lost their heart, but I feel that a good majority of society feels that they are better than those living on 2 dollars a day and that this self fixing problem of poverty is not their problem. This mind set angers me because it shows me how naive so much of society is to what is happening around them. What about compassion? What happened to helping others? Have all of these virtues died with the changing of our society?

What does it mean to be in a position of power? After watching the documentary in class regarding the homeless population in Santa Monica, I began to change my views on what the word power means. Power was used left and right in this documentary, and used in ways that through my eyes appeared to be abusing it. Something that really struck me in this video was how the police officers used their power over these homeless people, who were causing no harm to others, just because they could. The civilians did the same thing, exerting their power of money and status over the homeless people by reporting them, and saying that they were disturbed by their presence. But these homeless people are essentially just like us. They have citizenship, they have the right to vote and they have the right to exist. The only thing that separates them is money. And because America is a place where money and power go hand and hand, these homeless people, and people living in extreme poverty, are in America essentially powerless.

But these “powerless” people are causing us no harm; so why do citizens feel the need to displace them, ticket them for pointless offenses, and publically embarrass them? I believe that it is a social stigma that is put in place by the “higher” class of people. They seem to believe that poverty is a self-fixing problem, and that it is their problem that they are living on the streets. They believe that it is the fault of the homeless people that they are sleeping on cardboard at night and pushing around shopping carts full of their belongings during the day. This “higher” class believes this because they have never taken the time to understand them, to talk to them. But instead they want to make them disappear, to remove them from the streets, because they are making the streets “dirty.” Throughout that documentary I discovered that the power dynamic has become so strong in our country that it has become a form of discrimination. People treat the poor as though they are the embarrassment in our country, and try to deny them basic human rights.

But say a person of “power” took a minute to talk to the homeless, or even just decided to leave them in peace and stopped exerting their power over those who cannot defend themselves. Could a simple action such as that change the power dynamic? Possibly, but an idea like that is much easier said than done, and change, my friends, is never easy.

Family is a word that means something different to each individual. To some it is those who share your blood, who are family, to others it is those who have played a large and supportive role in their life. If someone is your family, doing whatever it takes to protect and support them usually comes with the title. But how far will you go for your family? Would you rob a super market so your kids could eat? Would you sell drugs so that you could provide a home for your family? Would you do something to save or protect your family and the ones you love even if it meant landing you in a concrete cell?

This thought is not one that you would think your average person would have to consider. But in fact, there is a large population of people, who are under recognized, who face this question everyday. These people are the homeless, the people who live in poverty, who each day struggle to find where their next meal will come from, or where they will sleep each night. There are stories about women who even though they know what they are doing is illegal, steal food so that their kids can eat. There are people out there for whom drugs or prostitution are their only options for their survival or the survival of their family. We place judgments on these people, assuming that their illegal ways are product of them being “bad people.” But if you took the time to stop and ask these people their story, you would discover that many of these “bad people” are doing these things because they are trying to stay afloat and to help the ones they love.

In Kenan Heise’s Book of the Poor a quote by a women named Virginia caught my attention. Speaking in the context of the lack of skill promoting programs that are offered to women who are locked up she said “And without skills how can we get jobs? One alternative is to take what we need. I am not going to sit by and see my babies hungry and do without. If I have to go to jail for that, I’m going to.” This quote was very powerful to me, because it took the meaning of family to a whole new level. We all joke about saying that we would “ kill for the ones we love” but when it came down to it would you really be willing to risk all you have for your family or loved ones? Would you sacrifice your life so that others could live theirs?