(500 word limit)
Option 3: If you could change one thing about your community, what would it be and why?
What's shocking isn't that poverty exists. It's that there is so much of it and it was always closer to me than I had imagined. Recent articles in the Arizona Daily Star showed a poverty map of Pima County with an average of 30 percent of kids living in poverty. However, this was just an average. Over sixty percent of kids live in poverty in Southern Tucson and about twenty percent of the community is unemployed. What was even more shocking was that the area I live in, Catalina Foothills, considered the rich or affluent part of the city, had nearly ten percent of children living in poverty. How can there be so much hunger and hardship among all this affluence and abundance?
I remember when I first moved to Tucson about six years ago. As my family and I drove around Tucson, I realized that there was a severe yet unique class division in Tucson in that there was the rich upper class up in the "foothills" area then there was the poor with their run-down pueblo-styled houses, fenced windows, and gates full of graffiti. There did not really seem to be a middle class. I know poverty exists everywhere but I don't ever remember seeing it as blankly as I did in Tucson. Coming from an urban city like Los Angeles, I remember feeling pity for the people living in these communities. However, it seemed like the Tucson community has become immune to the obvious existence of poverty because it's just everywhere and we see it all the time. It has become part of the scenery that we no longer notice as odd and just kind of glance over like it's a natural existence.
Arizona Daily Star actually ran a whole week's worth of articles on poverty. However, people's reactions and comments to these articles are even more appalling than the poverty statistics itself. General opinions of the public was that poverty was due to their own laziness, lack of marketable skills, wanting to live off the government, looking for freebies, etc. The community's stereotypical and judgmental comments showed that we as public have not progressed any in our narrow minds which explains why we have yet to provide an effective solution to overcoming poverty. This is a social, economic, and political issue that we all must get involved in instead of being immune to it like we are today. My biggest frustration is how I can make an impact on such a huge issue. Just thinking about it makes me feel overwhelmed and exhausted before I can even begin to figure out what part I can play in this crisis.
Seeing these articles gave me a wake-up call to help these children. Even as I eat my dinner, I wonder about my neighbors and if the child living next to me is eating his dinner, or if he's skipping it because his parents can't afford the meal. I begin to wonder who else is starving tonight. Therefore I decided that rather than avoiding the eyes of those holding up the sign at various intersections asking for help, I want to really look at the sign and look at the person.
Option 3: If you could change one thing about your community, what would it be and why?
What's shocking isn't that poverty exists. It's that there is so much of it and it was always closer to me than I had imagined. Recent articles in the Arizona Daily Star showed a poverty map of Pima County with an average of 30 percent of kids living in poverty. However, this was just an average. Over sixty percent of kids live in poverty in Southern Tucson and about twenty percent of the community is unemployed. What was even more shocking was that the area I live in, Catalina Foothills, considered the rich or affluent part of the city, had nearly ten percent of children living in poverty. How can there be so much hunger and hardship among all this affluence and abundance?
I remember when I first moved to Tucson about six years ago. As my family and I drove around Tucson, I realized that there was a severe yet unique class division in Tucson in that there was the rich upper class up in the "foothills" area then there was the poor with their run-down pueblo-styled houses, fenced windows, and gates full of graffiti. There did not really seem to be a middle class. I know poverty exists everywhere but I don't ever remember seeing it as blankly as I did in Tucson. Coming from an urban city like Los Angeles, I remember feeling pity for the people living in these communities. However, it seemed like the Tucson community has become immune to the obvious existence of poverty because it's just everywhere and we see it all the time. It has become part of the scenery that we no longer notice as odd and just kind of glance over like it's a natural existence.
Arizona Daily Star actually ran a whole week's worth of articles on poverty. However, people's reactions and comments to these articles are even more appalling than the poverty statistics itself. General opinions of the public was that poverty was due to their own laziness, lack of marketable skills, wanting to live off the government, looking for freebies, etc. The community's stereotypical and judgmental comments showed that we as public have not progressed any in our narrow minds which explains why we have yet to provide an effective solution to overcoming poverty. This is a social, economic, and political issue that we all must get involved in instead of being immune to it like we are today. My biggest frustration is how I can make an impact on such a huge issue. Just thinking about it makes me feel overwhelmed and exhausted before I can even begin to figure out what part I can play in this crisis.
Seeing these articles gave me a wake-up call to help these children. Even as I eat my dinner, I wonder about my neighbors and if the child living next to me is eating his dinner, or if he's skipping it because his parents can't afford the meal. I begin to wonder who else is starving tonight. Therefore I decided that rather than avoiding the eyes of those holding up the sign at various intersections asking for help, I want to really look at the sign and look at the person.
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