Blog Action Day – Poverty Affects People in Your Own Back Yard
Poverty is not only in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan...
It's happening right here in our own back yard
America - The Land of the Free, the land with endless opportunities, living the American Dream.....
Growing up in Germany in the 70's with six brothers and one sister, mom was working in a brewery and dad was a heavy equipment operator putting asphalt on the road. We had a roof over our head, food on the table and hand-me-down clothes to wear. Money was always tight with dad working only in spring, summer and fall. I never knew our financial dilemma when I was growing up, my parents never talked about money in front of me and my siblings. Poverty was in our family, I just did not notice.
Today, I took a walk around Lakeland's Munn Park. I noticed a guy sitting on the bench reading a book with a backpack next to him. I asked him if I could sit next to him and off we were talking about life. I asked him where he came from and where he lived. He started talking about living on the streets, being homeless, staying at The Lighthouse Ministry in Lakeland when he can; being an alcoholic and that he lost his only son in a motorcycle accident a few years back only made things worse. Losing his son, he told me, was a real heartbreaker that he has not been able to get over. I commented that losing a child is worse than losing a spouse, but he would have to take that first step to turn his life around. He seemed to me that he has trouble when getting a step ahead something happens, like loss of work, he would fall down again, making it even harder to get up again.
"It is not easy for men to rise whose qualities are thwarted by poverty." By Juvenal (55 AD - 127 AD)
Poverty is happening in your own backyard; even here in this beautiful town Lakeland Florida, all you have to do is look around you. Poverty could be in your own neighborhood, with foreclosures on the rise, folks losing their jobs. More and more people are living one paycheck away from disaster.
Today is Blog Action Day and the theme is "Poverty". Please join me and thousands of others to make a difference in somebody's life by lending a helping hand. By lending a helping hand you may put food on their table, clothes on their back or even have a warm place to sleep.
Written by Petra Norris - CDV TransAtlantic - Lakeland Florida
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