Who are these makers and where do they come from...and who exactly are the takers?
The Makers: I see Mitt Romney, and even the President. Men who have personal wealth. What was it in their lives that catapulted them to the riches they enjoy? For Romney, it was a birth right. He was born into a rich family, enjoying all the benefits that money affords. He has stated this himself when he holds up money and declares because I have "this" I can afford to send my kids to private school. Well good for him and good for them. It's easy to be successful when you are surrounded by it. When that is all you know. When life is happy, full of green lawns, families, good education, and money. How could someone like that fail? How do you not find some measure of success? What are the statistics of people who are born into enormous wealth and piss it all away only to become poverty stricken, homeless, hopeless? I ask, is everyone born into wealth ambitious, industrious, driven?
In the middle: I think of my family. We are modestly middle class. My husband and I each the first in our families to attend college. We weren't rich, but we had homes, food, and supportive families our whole lives. Our children have an acre of green lawn, gardens, a trampoline, and a safe neighborhood they call home. Neither of my kids has ever worried if the next meal will be today, tomorrow or maybe not at all. Our fridge is full of organic milk, vegetables, fruit. Our pantry is stocked. Their minds are free to play, learn, and grow. They will in all likelihood not end up in poverty. They have a fighting chance of being happy, content. One of them could create great wealth for him or her self. Their future is about possibility.
The Takers: I spent a few hours the other morning in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I knew things were bad, but I was genuinely shocked. Building after building boarded up. Homeless walking the streets with their belongings slung over a shoulder in a trash bag. I saw very little green...it was littered, grungy, and depressing. The colors that people wore were drab, their walk slouched, their eyes tired. I felt decay around me. I thought about the children: looking out their little broken windows in the morning. What do they see; what is their life like? Their only warm meal may come from the soup kitchen. Their families are 50% unemployed, and those who work barely make enough to survive. Their brains are not being fed with good nourishment, good food, and safety. People are murdered on the streets of this neighborhood. They may have lost a brother, cousin, uncle... Their minds are not free to play, learn and grow...they are in survival mode. Some of them will, through a level of resiliency, move beyond their circumstance. Someone may come into their lives and give them opportunity. But how many of them will continue the pattern of poverty? How many of them, when given the chance to be educated, fed, safe and secure wouldn't grab it?
As I drove away from Allison Hill and toward the capital, the people on the streets started carrying briefcases and designer purses. The restaurants were filled with patrons who never miss a meal...and probably not a snack or two throughout the day. I don't begrudge them their circumstance. I just wonder, how many of them, if born into poverty would have been able to pull themselves out of it?? How many would have survived the hunger, the poor education, the violence? Are these people so much more driven and capable than those who work hard just to survive. Are the people on one side lazy and the other ambitious?
I've only just begun to ponder these tough questions. I don't have the answers. I don't really have solutions. But I do know that the two political parties in this great nation view those on Allison Hill very differently.
Merrium Webster defines entitlement as : belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges. When I think of entitled, who do I picture in my mind's eye? Do I picture a 5 year old black boy with no warm winter coat standing in line at the soup kitchen. The kid who didn't have preschool, and may not have kindergarten. Is he the embodiment of entitled?? Does he believe he deserves certain privileges like food shelter, clothing, safety? Or do I picture the wealthy, the Romney's of the world with their car elevators, expensive educations, and race horses? Do they feel entitled to certain privleges like food, shelter, clothing, safety? The answer to this question defines the outcome of this election. The answer to this question determines the society we are all a part of. I know entitled when I see it. I know I didn't see entitlement the other day in Allison Hill. I didn't see it on the faces of the destitute, the faces of the children, the faces of the homeless.
4:37 PM PT: I think some may be confused by my title...I was using these terms in a facetious manner...not literally. Perhaps more to my real point, I should have used the haves and the have nots....but that doesn't quite fit either. There is such a stark, painful reality between the super rich and the poverty stricken. I don't necessarily think everyone with tons of money is a scourge on humanity.....but they have an "easier" path in life. Oh sure, they work hard, but it isn't the same as surviving a childhood in the ghetto. My greatest hope is that we choose to be a society that helps those who need it...whether they "deserve" it or not. Thank you to those of you who understood that.