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Monday, January 22, 2007

Jim Quinn: Poverty Is A Choice

1/22/2007 03:47:00 AM 2 comments


The length is about 6 and a half minutes.

This is Jim Quinn spreading Wisdom to the listeners of his Radio Show, Quinn & Rose, which is on XM165 from 6am to 9am weekdays. Their website is called The War Room.

Their terrestrial affiliates are in the Northeast, spreading to Kentucky and Ohio, where they have recently been put on a former Air America station. If only he could be on 880 in Asheville as well.

2 comments :

Luke 6:20: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."

But aside from all that Jesusy Bible pap - are you aware that 30 million Americans who work full-time jobs still can't get over the poverty line? That mental illness, addiction, and physical disability limit one's choices significantly?

Life is made of choices, I understand, but I am capable of choosing only that which I can imagine, and I am likely to choose only that which seems achievable. If my imagination is underdeveloped, my family never taught me any skills, my life has been a series of instabilities punctuated by traumas, then the chances that I will escape the poverty trap are next to zero.

When I think of poverty programs that are helpful and that move us toward a more perfect union, I think of nutrition programs, early-childhood medical care, and skill building programs, and a robust public education.

I could go on and on.

Some people do make an assload of bad choices. We all wish they'd made different choices. So let's focus on helping kids see choices besides the ones made by their numbnut parents.

That is because they keep moving the poverty lineup.

Now people can be below the poverty line, and have more than one vehicle, can even have a new vehicle, and children in college.

In some places in Ohio, if your house does not have central air and aa attached two car garage, it is considered blighted.

And our public schools are no longer educating people in the basics of math, science, history, or any number of areas.

Few college-age students can name more than ten elements, ten senators, or ten great works of literature.

Most public schools no longer teach children to excel, they teach them to be quiet, walk in a straight line, and to share. I've been shocked to see that as I have returned to schools to teach fire prevention.

And a lot of these parents are on the public dole.A friend of mine made a bet with me one time, that nearly 9 out of every ten stories about child abuse, child neglect, or drug use in a home where there are children reported in the news involve someone (Mom, Dad, Children) being the recipient of public funds.

The research involved making phone calls, digging, and friends in social services...and forever changed my view of the role of government. It seems that the more you give people, the less they are able to do for themselves.

I'll leave you with another biblical principal, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."

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