video from Channel 8<\/a> again has only inflamed me more. It is for one simple reason \u2013 poverty does not breed and is not synonymous with a lack of integrity. People who steal may or may not be poor. They are, however, thieves. All thieves are not poor and all poor people are not thieves.<\/p>\nHow do I know? Well for one thing, I have been in their shoes. When I was pregnant with my son I had no health insurance. I was a college student, worked part-time making minimum wage and struggled to make ends meet. Once a month, I spent countless hours waiting to see whichever doctor was working the free clinic. I survived with my WIC voucher and the food my boyfriend and I bought on his parent\u2019s gas card at the convenience store attached to the gas station. The only reason I didn\u2019t have food stamps was because they wouldn\u2019t give them to me. Back then, if you had a piece of car you fell outside the income eligibility for food stamps. (BTW, that\u2019s when I realized that government assistance was a racket to keep you perpetually locked in poverty. The rules made no sense and offered no incentive to make improvements to your life. But that\u2019s another blog\u2026)<\/p>\n
I see people struggling and I see myself 25 years ago. \u00a0$5 in my pocket, a backpack on my back and a baby on my hip doing the best I could with what I had. What they call \u201cdesperate\u201d I just called life. But you know what? I didn\u2019t become a thief. Neither do thousands \u2013 no millions \u2013 of other people who struggle every day all around the world to feed their families.<\/p>\n
When I look in the face of someone down on his or her luck, I am keenly aware but for the grace of God there go I. In truth, it could be any one of us. Has the recession not taught us that one bad decision can erase 30, 40 even 50 years of success in the blink of an eye? If you don\u2019t believe me, just spend some time with cancer patients. They\u2019ll tell you how prolonged medical care can wipe out a family\u2019s entire savings in a matter of months \u2013 with or without health insurance.<\/p>\n
It is unconscionable to me that anyone trying to teach students about the plight of the poor would introduce the concept of stealing. What, pray tell, is the lesson in that? Listen, I am not an idiot. I do understand that desperation causes some people to make bad decisions. And I suppose there are statistics that abound that tell you the majority of people in prison come from impoverished backgrounds. I am not arguing those facts. However, I am convinced that there are a lot more people living in poverty who are good, upstanding, hard-working people than there are who are thieves.<\/p>\n
I understand that most of our children have lived a very privileged life. I joke with my son all the time that I have no doubt he will be a success. When he asks why I tell him because you have no coping skills for poverty. And, I\u2019m only half kidding. In trying to make up for all we didn\u2019t have when we were young we have in some respects over indulged our children. I\u2019m not criticizing. I\u2019m in the boat with you. So, I understand our need to balance out their exposure. But let\u2019s not do that by correlating theft and poverty. My parents taught me that all people deserve respect, regardless of their income or ethnicity. If we teach our children to look at poor people as possible thieves, how do we expect them to treat those who are less fortunate than ourselves?<\/p>\n
Instead, let\u2019s teach our children about compassion, and service. Teach them that to whom much is given much is required. Teach them about respect and open-mindedness. Above all, teach them about love.<\/p>\n
Get out of the simulator and go out into the streets. Volunteer as a family. Stop treating those in need like lepers! You don\u2019t need pretend poor people. Go to the homeless shelter and talk to some folks. Once you hear their story, you\u2019ll be surprised to find you have a lot in common. Same hopes and dreams for their kids. Same ambitions for them as you have for you. Same gratitude for the blessings God has given them, despite the circumstances.<\/p>\n
We can all make a difference if we stop being spectators or students and just start serving. Cheryl always quotes Mother Theresa \u2013 If you can\u2019t feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Be the example you want your kids to emulate. Just feed one\u2026<\/p>\n
Loving on Me as I Love You!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week a local school district conducted a \u201cpoverty simulation\u201d to make students more sensitive to the plight of the poor. As a part of the experience students were allowed to steal to make ends meet. When a friend of mine, Cheryl Jackson (Founder of Minnie’s Food Pantry), expressed outrage over the characterization of poor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":12460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"switch_like_status":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[204998050,114917237],"tags":[273,922,401,5411,204997786,204997597,124,1135500,122792808,44096762,3741,9379,30351],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/istock_000013010407medium-1.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eAxC-5U","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12462,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions\/12462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lovingonme.com\/2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/istock_000013010407medium.jpg?w=300\" "\\"Homeless")
Last week a local school district conducted a \u201cpoverty simulation\u201d to make students more sensitive to the plight of the poor. As a part of the experience students were allowed to steal to make ends meet. When a friend of mine, Cheryl Jackson (Founder of Minnie’s Food Pantry), expressed outrage over the characterization of poor people as thieves the organizers of the event said the simulation was based on real life events and that sometimes you have to go to extremes to make ends meet. And what were those real life events you might ask? Being a single parent, recently unemployed and grandparents raising grandkids.<\/p>\n