A Mommy Story

Despite the events of the past four months, I still know that no matter how bad we had it during that time, it still wasn’t that bad. We still had our house, we still had food to eat, and we had resources to turn to when we needed them. We have been poor during this time, but we were not living in true poverty. (Yes, our income is beneath the “federal poverty line” but it has only been for a short period.) We also have good educations, making it easier for us to get past any bump in the road. Some never have those chances.

Whatever the reason, there are millions of people on this planet who are living in poverty, wondering each day if they’ll get a single meal, or where they might sleep tonight. Our situation of having no job has been tough, but not nearly as tough as what others live through every single day.

We have recently started cleaning out our closets, shelves, and garage to purge our house of more junk. Some of it was sold in a garage sale a few weeks ago. The rest of it is going to Goodwill, so that others may benefit from it in some way. This period of unemployment has helped me to more clearly see the poverty in this world, and how we all need to do what we can to help.

It sickens me to think that while those making more than $250,000 a year (and the rest of us) in the US are worrying if they’ll have more taxes levied against them with the new president, we have children in this country who are going to bed hungry at night. You know what? Raise my damn taxes. If that money will go to truly help end poverty – providing food, shelter and healthcare for those who need it – I’m all for giving more.

Because let’s face it – those of us who spend any amount of time on the internet are not truly poor. We have leisure time to spend surfing the web, which means we probably have access to food and someplace stable to live. If you were asked to give just $5 to help others, you could probably find it.

So if you ever find yourself feeling thankful for all you have, reward that thankfulness by doing some task, however small it may be, to help others.

To read some inspiring posts about poverty, please visit Blog Action Day.