The recent letters regarding feeding children and educating them begin an important dialogue. Poverty resonates throughout our society and judgmental solutions cannot stuff the effects of poverty into simplistic solutions. Too many good people have lost work that gives them a sense of value as well as nourishing food. Our welfare system has solidified into a self-perpetuating entity of government employees and recipients, too often becoming generations of passive status quo. People who need a temporary lift are denied. And our debt continues to spiral out of control. No simple solution fits all.
In response, our ethical systems more and more narrowly define persons who deserve our help. Infants, disabled, critically injured and the elderly are being redefined as non-persons and the best solution is to let them die. Now it seems the poor are also viewed as lacking the essential qualities of personhood. Jesus said, the poor you have with you always. Each of us needs to question, learn and evaluate our response to this issue.
The Everett Library owns the book, “The Road Out” by Deborah Hicks. The subtitle is “A Teacher’s Odyssey in Poor America.” It is an illuminating read, non-judgmental and offers important information for this conversation.
Maxine Brink
Everett
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