When we think of the poor, we think of the drunk person living under a bridge, or the person with a mental illness wandering the streets talking to themselves, or the impoverished child from another country on our television. There are people experiencing poverty who are like this, of course, and we should care about them as fellow human beings. The truth is that they are not the majority of people experiencing poverty.
The faces of the majority are in my office on a weekly basis. They are the people who are working at Dunkin’ Donuts but can’t pay the electrical bill because their car broke down. They are the single mother who was in middle management and got a pay cut, and now can’t keep up with her rental payments. They are the person who breaks their arm on the job and can’t work. They are the people who come to the Friendly Kitchen in their Walmart uniform.
Our congregation is involved with Family Promise, a program for families experiencing homelessness. We see that the two biggest road blocks to getting out of homelessness are good paying jobs and affordable housing. I could tell hundreds of stories of people who are experiencing poverty in our community. They are the faces of the “poor.”
They are the major reason I am supporting the poor people’s campaign. They are the people who have been left behind by an economy for and by the rich. They are the ones who feel anger that they are “doing the right thing” and still not making it.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, 63 percent of people experiencing poverty work one or more jobs. Six million people working part time jobs wish they could work full time. Our view of what makes someone poor has to change if we are going to change. It is not just drugs, alcohol and mental illness. It is not because someone is lazy. It is because we have devalued work. One of the most important things we can give the world is our labor, and we have undervalued people’s work. We have made it harder for people to support themselves and their families while they work.
I am not a politician so I will not offer any policy positions. I am hoping that we can see who really are the poor amongst us. I am hoping we can see that it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a better way for us to move forward together. A way that values work, a way that values people over profit, a way that lifts all boats.
I hope that you will think of joining in the poor people’s campaign. If you are one of those people angry that you can’t get ahead, one of those people who are concerned about the health of our community, a business owner concerned for your employees, a person of moral consciousness who thinks there is a better way to treat each other. I hope we can have an honest discussion about poverty in our community. One that does not demonize those experiencing its debilitating effects. One that helps us see in each person value and worth, and one that leads to changes that help us all.
(The Rev. Jonathan Hopkins lives in Concord.)