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Poverty? Do you know the meaning of this word. I am sure you think you do. However is it possible to understand the meaning of poverty if you have never endured it. Poverty is different for many people. Everyone has a different definition of the word, everyone looks at those who endure it in a different light.
To many those who endure poverty are lazy, stupid, or insane. This is not the case. The homeless are all homeless for different reasons. Many are suffering due to the Deinstitutionalization Movement that occurred in the early 1970 's. Geraldo Rivera, a budding journalist at the time, took cameras into the mental hospitals across the country. What he found there was horrible.
There were naked men an women bound to walls with chains and ropes. There were windows broken out and no heat for the winter months. These institutions were places where people who were thought to have mental problems and disabilities were sent to recover. After Rivera exposed these places many were closed. However what we did not think about was what would happen to the unfortunate men and women who had been in these places for so long. With no where to go and no one to ask for help they became homeless.
This is one reason that many people became homeless. Others include payouts, layoffs, and deaths. We should not have a pre-judged view of these people. Do you think that these people want to be homeless.
Poverty does not affect just the homeless however. Another group that is effected would be those who live in the ghettos of the inner cities such as New York and Boston. In these places the families, the entire area is very poor. According to a 2003 study done by Boston University Americans are living in Poverty if they make less than $ 19, 333. 00 a year. In these Ghettos many children resort to gang violence and drugs to take care of themselves.
How can they change it? Many cannot. Experts say that all they have to do is work hard and look for money to get scholarships so that they can move away from the poverty. How can they do this when they do not go to school past the age of 12 because they have to take care of themselves and many times there families. Poverty is a cruel thing. It can rear it s head at any time.
Look at the great depression for example. No one thought in September of 1929 that the next month they would loose everything. No one thinks that they will become homeless. No one asks to be born in the ghetto. It happens though. In our society many put to much emphasis on what they have.
They judge those who have less. We cannot change the way we are raised. Many homeless people cannot help the fact that they are homeless. We as a people should stop thinking about what we do and do not have and should take another look at what those around us are going through. Poverty has many different definitions and I am going to add another to the list. Poverty- a circumstance or circumstances that are difficult for one to handle, an underprivileged existence.
That is how I view poverty. It is a cruel being that is growing larger every day. Sometimes nothing can be done about it. Then again sometimes the fortunate can help. Sometimes there is light at the end of the tunnel. There is always hope.
Hope is not enough though. I believe that there should be more relief effort for those who endure poverty in our country. We as a nation need to look at this growing epidemic and ask why isn't anything being done.
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Research essay sample on Endure Poverty Homeless People
