On Poverty in the 21st Century

The co-chairs of the GMC McKenna Center hand a check to the McKenna Center's executive director, Tom Howarth, for $6,000 at the fourth annual Irish celebration on Feb. 27.

Last Monday night, I attended a session at the Father McKenna Center, a homeless shelter connected to Gonzaga College High School, to discuss the Washington area food bank, poverty and other social issues. From what I've been hearing, the face of the working poor is changing. No longer is it only people on the edge of society due to some mental affliction, or drug addition. No, the working poor are now the mothers and fathers of the middle class; and according to statistics, one in four children has no idea where the next meal is coming from. I was indeed saddened to hear of a working mother going to the Washington Capital Area Food bank because she had lost income. She had to pay a house utility bill, and fortunately knew she could get a bag of food from the food bank.

So often, it seems as if the poor is vilified as if it's their fault. We hear many people of means admonishing us to "pull ourselves up by our bootstraps." "The economy cannot afford these social programs." But many of these working poor are well educated, but at 8.50 an hour, how could that really translate into a livable wage? I remember, back in 2002, I had written a story for the Washington Afro American about a homeless guy. I couldn't believe he was making $19 an hour? And he was still homeless? We cannot castigate the homeless, and blame them for the reason they're homeless. It is way more complicated than we can imagine, according to the speakers. Anywhere from a lack of a job to mental issues to psychological issues to economic issues create the homeless population.

As a Gonzaga mother who's a McKenna Center co-chair, I've had to interact with the men who frequent the center. It's amazing to see the young men, not all minority, who are homeless. In any other situation, the men could be employers, employees, inventors, millionaires. And I know for a fact there is one former Gonzaga alum who was a former client of the center. He's now working with the director to help others like him.

I was told at the lecture that the original idea of the American dream is dead for many Americans. The dream stated if you go to college, get your education, get a good job, get married, buy a home, have children, send them to college, your life will embrace the fundamentals of what the dream was about. Yet, yesterday, financial guru Suzie Orman stated that we need to re-evaluate and rethink what this American dream entails. She wants us to stop measuring ourselves by the size of our homes or the bigger cars but to become excited by saving our money. "Not because you have all this money, you'll spend it until you have no more," she said with Matt Lauer on The Today Show. She said if you don't have enough money, then maybe your kid doesn't need to attend an expensive private college; maybe he or she should go to a community college then transfer. The middle class and even upper middle class families are feeling the pinch, as the cost of living keeps rising and incomes stagnate or reduce.

Orman is trying to help us manage our expectations for the original American dream. I wouldn't say the dream is dead. It has just changed. People with a big talents to sell--whether you're the Facebook founder, Snooki or Ted Williams with the big voice (who was homeless)--you have a much better chance of making it bigger than the millions of us who are just regular everyday folk trying to attain our piece of the dream. Notoriety sells, and so does the next big idea. But I've witnessed many regular folk still hold on, and excel. But, I'm seeing more people flounder around, dealing with life paycheck to paycheck, with such fragility that I know for a fact that most of us are just one or two paychecks away from homelessness. And that's a scary reality for too many Americans.