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"Most of my life I spend wishing that I could create a time machine which could whisk me off to the good ole days also known as my childhood. Life was so simple, fun and happy-go-lucky. There are visions of me running through the pastures holding my girlfriend\u2019s hand (although sometimes she had cuties), climbing up the monkey bars and creating mischief. Ah, the memories. I always felt that if I was living in this big wonderland called America, then people like me across the world must have been experiencing the same joys. Now that I\u2019m a little older and barely removed from college, I know much better than that.\n\n\r\n\rLife up to this point has been no wonderland for me. It seems that my entire life has been a string of just getting by. Yet I can\u2019t help but realize that compared to most of the world, I\u2019ve lived in a so called wonderland. It was not until 20 years into my life that I began to realize that life as it is in America is a rarity. After my junior year in college, I had the opportunity to spend a summer in South Africa. While there I got to spend time in a section of Johannesburg called Hillbrow, which had been crowned by some as one of the most dangerous place in the world. I remember being told that if we valued our life we shouldn\u2019t be outside past sunset. The stakes were much higher being I was a tall, white, goofy looking American. We also spent a couple days in townships where whole families would be bunched into these sheet metal shacks with no running water or electricity. I left both of those places much different than when I had arrived. A journal from a day in Hillbrow read as follows: Lord, it\u2019s hard for me to swallow and cope with the reality to me that a kid who hung over me all afternoon, sang \u201Cglory Hallelujah,\u201D played catch with me, told me I was his best friend and took pictures with me, is dying of what South Africans call \u201Cthe virus\u201D and has a growth coming out of his stomach \u2026 I don\u2019t understand it. I wish and long for an answer, but I have none to give.\n \nFor most Americans, we think of poverty as just being an issue in Africa where there is much disease and sometimes even famine. Yet poverty very much exists in our own country. I think I\u2019m speaking for many when I say that I have often found myself turning my head the other way when I see someone homeless walking my way. I go about my business when I see the mother of five getting rejected shelter at the Rescue Mission. Every time I walk by someone who is homeless, I find myself saying under my breath that they wouldn\u2019t be homeless if they tried helping themselves. Yet, if I was in the same position, would I rather have someone tell me to get a job or take me to get something to eat at KFC? And how do I know that that homeless person can\u2019t get a job or a place to live because they\u2019ve been in and out of rehab or face circumstance beyond my understanding?\n \nHow is it that though America can be the wealthiest country in the world, poverty would continue to increase around the world as it is? How is it that though Americans have such money, and poverty still exists in almost every city in America? You may respond to this last question by saying America isn\u2019t really so bad off. On the contrary, a few years ago I spent some time in West Virginia where I saw families living in homes that were missing roofs and walls, and where families had to ration their food at the end of the month because their food stamps had run out. It was like I was in a developing country. Yet we presume that something such as this doesn\u2019t exist and would never exist in America.\n \nDespite the ongoing poverty that exists in the world, we continue to pass the cup to others like it\u2019s a game of hot potato, hoping that we don\u2019t have to be the ones to face the issue of poverty. We\u2019ve put it on the government, expecting them to take care of tackling the issue of poverty. How can we expect the government to tackle poverty when we have a $500 billion and counting budget? Poverty is far from being on our agenda. Many of us have adopted this belief which says if it doesn\u2019t directly affect me, than I don\u2019t care.\n \nAll this is to say that we have to stop looking around for answers to the problem of poverty. If you want know what the problem is, go look in the mirror. The problem is us. We have become enveloped in our pursuit to have more and more. We have to have the newest, best things. We can\u2019t be content with just having a car, shoes, jewelry, homes, etc. We have to have the car that parallel parks itself, a pair of shoes for every different outfit, the ring that blings even in the dark and the penthouse with the Jacuzzi. Yes, I admit that these are some rather extreme examples; however, this is the side we err to. I\u2019m preaching to myself here too. I\u2019m typing from a brand new laptop inside a gated apartment community with three pools. My point is that we have made ourselves the center of the universe. We have put our own comfort at the top of the agenda. We have missed the fact that we can be happy by not just giving to ourselves, but giving ourselves to other\u2019s so that they can experience the happiness we experience.\n \nI don\u2019t exactly know how to help the poor and needy. I have some ideas, but there have only been very short periods in my life when I have tried to help those who need it. I hope that as I\u2019m being provided for, I would provide for others, and I pray that God shows us all how to change the world by first changing our own hearts.\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.relevantmagazine.com/reject-apathy/poverty/features/2594-the-problem-of-poverty>