Monica Leslie REL 126 Final Reflection Essay During the religion course Poverty and Justice, we explored

many readings about the social issues and challenges that serve as barriers toward helping those in need be able to escape the cycle of institutional poverty. While arguments were made in some of the publications such as in Ron Sider s Just Generosity and !odd Post s Setting a Goal to End Hunger in the United States explored the "hristian viewpoint that bro#en families were some of the primary causes of persistent poverty from different ends of the belief spectrum, both authors seemed to agree that the deterioration of government programs and the lac# of shared responsibility for today s social programs were also a significant explanation for why poverty continues to exist. $fter reading numerous articles such as the Accra Confession article, Penetrating the Tangle and the article about Economic Justice and Gender, and seeing how much focus was spent on blaming the mar#et economy and greed of the companies that continued to exploit wor#ers with that system, % have found that although the readings initially prompted me with the &uestion of who should be accountable for eradicating poverty and bringing 'ustice, that the debate over who should be responsible and how is perhaps a more significant impediment toward ending poverty than the bad programs themselves. !he articles collectively show that we have become somehow evolved into a culture who blindly continues support the ignorance and ineptitude of those who have the power to fix the problems, but lac# the interest or in some cases #now how to exercise their privilege to do anything about these problems. $n interesting example of this argument can be illustrated in the boo# that we read, !o (ove a (ountain, in which a story was told about the competition between the states of !ennessee and $labama as each state s government tried to outbid each other to bring a (ercedes manufacturing plant into their state to fund 'obs. )nce newspapers revealed that $labama had spent approximately *+, million dollars in incentives and government contracts in order to attract (ercedes to their state, those who had become dependent upon (ercedes in order to feed their families and pay their bills lost the plant and the opportunity for future employers willing to ris# setting up manufacturing facilities within the state. !o ma#e matters worse, the amount of money spent in this unseemly competition also cost the state more money than it would have ta#en had the money simply been used to improve the deteriorating government social programs. %n class we had a spea#er who spo#e about setting up a progressive tax system to ma#e sure that the top -. of earners in the /nited States paid out a higher percentage of their income in taxes than those in the lower income brac#ets, but this example of bad decision ma#ing of government officials and the failed understanding of how poorly implemented social structures contributed to this problem illustrate how corporations are able to evade accountability while governments and those who live in poverty bear the brunt of these #inds of ris#s.

!he articles Economic Justice and Gender and Why Poverty Exists in A alachia supplemented the text !o (ove a (ountain well when they explained the effect that bad government policy and corporate welfare had upon the destruction of communities. Why Poverty Exists in A alachia gave a thorough explanation about the amount of underinvestment in impoverished communities, an issue that wasn t mentioned very in depth in many of the other articles. 0ut during the reading, Raising the 0ar, we were able to see government agency data that showed an empirical and measurable correlation of the impact of choosing to fund corporate incentives as a top down poverty reduction strategy instead of developing the necessary infrastructure that would be needed to significantly reduce poverty. !he Goal to End Poverty article explains why this infrastructure is needed but more importantly notes that the failure to end poverty is a collective failure of responsibility that would re&uire shared accountability if poverty is ever to be seriously ended. !he article notes that because of the structural impediments that #eep impoverished wor#ing people unable to meet their economic demands without a living wage, extra help would be needed to help lift those stuc# in a state of poverty because of the barriers created by government programs. (ost of the articles agree that a living wage is necessary if people are ever going to have a chance to escape the cycle of poverty. $nd both Sider and the $ccra "onfession article agree upon the spiritual foundation that it is 1od s will that people wor# in the best interest of the poor. 0ut the different ways the articles define how the poor are allowed to retain their dignity and the extent of responsibility of civil society and the government to implement and enforce those changes varies. While each article places the burden upon various civil institutions2 the churches, nongovernmental public service organi3ations, the consumer, etc, the 1oal to 4nd Poverty article is the only article that recogni3es that we as voters, who bac# the policies and expenditures of government policy ma#ers have the power to influence decisions with the way that we allocate our votes and more importantly how we spend our dollars. When governments choose to protect corporations over communities, this isn t 'ust a disservice to those who rely upon tax dollars, it is also an in'ustice to the taxpayers. 5or every prisoner that we must finance, for every sic# malnourished child and welfare chec# that we pay to the wor#ing people who can t seem to lift themselves out of poverty, that is 'ust another policy decision that we continue to fund to the corporations and policy ma#ers who ma#e these unwholesome decisions. Ron Sider critici3es that the government is responsible for continuing to fund single unwed minority welfare mothers and that without the intervention of the church and other faith based organi3ations that we will fail to provide a holistic approach toward giving unwed minorities in poverty the incentive and capacity to wor# their way out of poverty 6Sider Part 78. %n his boo#, Sider communicates that many of the poor choices that he believes #eep the poor from being accountable for their own poverty could be addressed through the service of faith based organi3ations, such as the initiative he mentions called the !en Point "oalition, whose mission was to end the 9culture of violence: in blac# and latino communities in the inner city of 0oston. Sider proposes that businesses and civic institutions increase the amount of civic engagement

that will get more people to vote for proposals li#e extending the 4arned %ncome !ax "redit to double parent families or to wor#ing fathers as a percentage of the child support that they are able to raise. %t is Sider s belief that those who come from positions of spiritual privilege should carry the burden of educating those who come from inferior communities. 0ut as a person who comes from a position of privilege and the other articles li#e the Goal to End Poverty Pu!lication do a better 'ob of ma#ing this distinction, Sider s failure to see poverty as a macro phenomenon that affects many #inds of communities creates additional blinders that are synonymous with some of the paradoxes illustrated within the others. 5or example, the Penetrating the Tangle article, describes how ego filled consumerism creates a mindless mentality of shopping without considering the conse&uences of the complete expenses of our goods. 0ut in an impoverished community, would it ma#e sense to blame a consumer who can only afford to shop at Walmart to feed their family because it is the only affordable resource in town that will accept supplemental nutrition assistance benefits; !his would be e&uivalent to blaming the coal wor#ers in 4ve Weinbaum s boo# !o (ove a (ountain for purchasing cheap coal in their communities when their options for energy purchasing are very limited. Sure you could blame the consumer, but until those with the resources and capital invest in providing a suitable and affordable alternative to the gleanings of resources that we give to the poor, we will always see the short term gains of poverty without ever seeing true 'ustice. <i#ewise, the 1oal to 4nd Poverty publication raises a similar point when criti&uing ideas li#e the one Sider presents that argue that single parent families are the cause of persistent poverty and not the symptom of a greater problem. !he article raises an interesting point that although some groups choose to use the data correlating unwed mothers and the occurrence of poverty to illustrate the belief that biblical immorality and lac# of personal accountability is the causation of single parent poverty, that perhaps the declining wages and poor education of male wor#ers could be the cause of the increase in unwed child births and the collapse of a two parent income. !he evidence from this article s studies and correlations studied in many of the other societal factors that can be lin#ed to poverty could indicate that perhaps the idealism within many of the bullet pointed lists that authors consistently use to present potential solutions to end poverty sound ethical and practice, but may be poorly conceived or implemented without data of the measurable impact of these ideals. Perhaps we have become so hoo#ed on the idea of what we thin# 'ustice and solidarity should loo# li#e that we lose sight of the big picture, which was something that % saw as a big let down in the readings for a class. (ost of the articles presented bulleted lists and examples of programs that made initiatives to try to right wrongs and create more 'ustice for the poor in their communities, but almost all of them had more stories about why the initiatives were 9successful failures: than we saw about what really wor#ed. !he =arlem s "hildren >one was the only organi3ation that could present a measurable difference in how their program increased the capacity of the community to lift themselves out of poverty, but we critici3ed the model for providing monetary incentives for the children to do well even though the monetary incentives

wor#ed and ensured that those students would not have to worry about not being able to afford a living wage. % am not advocating any prosperity or incentive based ideology that says that we should bribe people to do the right thing, but we all seemed to share a consensus with the readings and organi3ations who were able to illustrate a collective measureable success, such as in the video we watched with the women who helped their communities with the cooperative, to find 'obs and to educate their community about =%?. So this leaves me with the &uestion if we all seem to agree that 'ustice is ethically necessary and a shared responsibility, how do we share that responsibility when we can t even seem to agree upon what 'ustice should loo# li#e; $nd is it these conversations, and finger pointing that #eep us from being able to decide upon something measurable that is going to really benefit the poor. %t s very easy to ma#e 'udgments from a position of privilege, but without the input of those who live in poverty, we get a very one sided picture of what 'ustice loo#s li#e to those in need. We didn t get to hear many of the voices of the oppressed in those articles @@aside from the " #omen article and the videos in which the people who lived and experienced those communities chose to create programs within their own communities to boost their loved ones out of poverty, and they admitted that meeting those needs on the scale that is needed could be a daunting tas#. !he director of the =arlem "hildren s >one was able to assess the needs of the community by being actively engaged within it and by setting up a holistic range of programs that focused upon capacity building to help lift people out of poverty. !he women who tried to convince the men in her community to see the importance in educating their daughters admitted that this was a tremendous challenge because she was trying to push for changes that went against the cultural norms. !he same applied to the community organi3ing efforts of the people in !ennessee who tried to push for tougher legislation after being exploited and abandoned by the coal companies. Without a cross cultural understanding of how poverty and the tas# of eradicating affects both sides it becomes easy to become =oo#ed into the cycle of cynicism about the people who live on the other side of the trac#s. (ost of the articles shared this theme as the wor#ers shifted blame to the companies 6!o (ove a (ountain8. Some companies abandoned the government to evade taxes because they felt as if they could no longer afford to foot the corporate welfare bill and instead want to focus upon global competition 6/fford "hase article8. 1overnments shift the blame to each other for not stepping up and playing their role in being responsible stewards 6!he 1irl in the "afA8. Some governments blame the taxpayers for not contributing to the 1DP so that they can raise enough tax revenue to spend on trade @@which they believe will eventually tric#le down to the poor 6!o (ove a (ountain8. So these governments give incentives to corporations that are willing to help provide services that voters won t push them to provide in order to #eep bring 'obs to help alleviate the burden they carry of not being able to care for the poor. !hose who do pay the bigger share of taxes but aren t eligible to get low wage low s#illed 'obs because of the incentives blame the poor and the government in their publications and propaganda that s#ews faulty empirical data by attempting to 'ustify the data with biblical interpretations of what they

9thin#: 1od wants. $nd the primary argument and soundest ethical argument gets overloo#ed, along with Jesus s only commandment 6Sider chapter *, (atthew -BC-B8. 9!hough shall love thy neighbor as thyself.: !hese pieces shared a lot of anger, a lot of criticism, cynicism and a lot of despair. 0ut how many models did we see of people actually ta#ing the time to exercise these ideals; % saw a lot of moral superiority and a lot of pleading. 0ut in between that gap % saw very little patience, very little #indness and very few solutions. We saw a lot of ideals that spo#e of love but very little action. $nd many of the actions that we did see either positive or negative were done out of desperation, frustration, anger or greed. When we began the class with the first reading $uilding a $etter World, % was loo#ing forward to really exploring what those principles meant that we heard echoes of in Ron Sider s boo# that tal#ed about the right to dignity and shared responsibility for even the poorest man. 0ut as % poured through the rest of the texts really wor#ing to apply the open minded principles outlined in the section of the $uilding a $etter World article that % believed would give me hope. 0ut each effort to explore deeper than the readings, to chec# the faulty data, 6i.e. the end of Sider chapter * that alleges that only *,. of the people who live in poverty do not wor#, which is completely contrary to the /.S. "ensus data8, to explore why there should be validity to some of the discouraging allegations of why some of the authors believed the ethical challenges with poverty existed, did nothing but confuse me. %n the Pursuit of =appiness % found it interesting how Will Smith, no matter what he went through, even though he had every odd that he could wor#ing against him he continued to be persistent and you never really saw him blame anything on the system. =e 'ust continued to act accountable for himself with what appeared to be an understanding that we are all a part of the system. $ failure to restore the dignity of another human being of one part is a failure on all our part whether it s through direct action that causes harm or through our silence. 0ut how do you blame a person who feels powerless to feel as if they can help their situation; =ow do you hold another person accountable if a person already feels powerless; % have seen religion do some wonderful things to inspire and encourage people to live up to their highest good. When % attended synagogue in $tlanta we were taught that the mit3vah of hospitality was more important than even study or prayer. %t was because we came from a position of privilege and the belief stood that by ushering in a guest into your home, no matter what their bac#ground you were honoring their highest good, or the divinity within. <i#ewise % felt that same awa#ening toward honoring the divinity of 1od when visiting with friends in their $shram at home. % wor#ed as a counselor trained in oppression and liberation theory and have been blessed to have been shown #indness and hospitality from others when % was homeless and needed a place to liveD and % have always wor#ed hard to give bac#. 0ut % did not get that out of this experience. % went through the motions, % did the extra research and % tried to #eep an open mind and % m not sure what % missed here.

% want to be fair. 0ut when you don t grow up in poverty and you ta#e it on for whatever your reasons are, you re left with a lot of &uestions. % too# this class hoping that the answers would 'ust sort of reveal themselves, but % feel as if this experience was 'ust another dar# lesson for me about what not to do. % never expected to grow so frustrated and full of apathy about this system that % m a part of, because for me internali3ing apathy is e&uivalent to giving up on myself. %t s probably a failure on my part of my own expectations about what % thought % would be getting out of the course. $fter a while it 'ust felt more sensible to give up than having to feel angry and resentful about feeling powerless to contribute all the time. %f Sider s welfare moms felt that, and % #now plenty of wor#ing women and men who do, then it gives me a further understanding of why he and some of the other writers can t seem to see that. %t also raises a &uestion for me how the hec# am % supposed to encourage others in this situation to trust that the situation will improve or not to ta#e the disillusionment so seriously when they have so much more on the line than % do. =ow do we teach accountability to people who are too blind to see how they are a part of the problem; !hat s been the one &uestion % ve been struggling with in this course for most of the semester. % ve really only been applying my thin#ing of it toward what % could be doing wrong, but % ve found that it s only added to my frustration. $nd % reali3e that all of the pieces are trying in their own way to loo# at a social problem li#e poverty and deconstruct it from their own perspective. 0ut often you don t understand how to get yourself unhoo#ed from all of the idealism until you learn to see how you perceive the way that the other guy thin#s. So % suppose this experience has given me &uite a bit more to thin# about.