Poverty is your responsibility, as well as mine

Once we see it that way, we will start to solve it.

I have heard thousands of people debate what we ought to do about poverty. I have heard tens of thousands express their heartfelt sympathies toward those in it.

None of that matters. Rather, make time to learn about low-income communities near you and to act on what you learn - because that will matter.

I think often of how frequently the word urgent is used. It makes me hesitate to use it in a blog post. Then I think about the children who will be murdered today, tomorrow, and next week - almost always children living in poverty. I know that if they were my children, I would not hesitate to use the word, and neither would you.

The connection between poverty and these homicides is not equivocal; the only question is how much longer each of us is going to act like there is nothing we can do to interrupt it - or to finally solve the educational and other issues that are so deeply impacted by the lack of economic stability in communities near you. Because the truth about all of them is that they are on each of us to solve.

I used to think an important first step in this was to believe that we can end poverty. But with each passing day, the less I think it matters what you believe. It only matters what you do and whether or not you are willing to get informed and then get involved.

That doesn’t mean volunteering or donating your clothes or food. It means finding out what will actually solve the problems that your neighbors face - and then building those solutions.

Nobody else is to blame for the poverty we see around us: not an elected official with whom you disagree, a wealthy person who you think has too much, or a person in poverty who you think does too little to change their situation.

It’s on you – and it’s on me. When we take responsibility for the communities in which we live and work – ensuring opportunities replace obstacles – poverty will fade. It will have no choice otherwise. And that is cause for great optimism.

Mark Bergel, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Executive Director
mark@sharedhumanityproject.org