Blog #9

18 percent of our nation’s children live in poverty. That equates to over 13,000,000 children, a jaw dropping number. Poverty is a very sad situation and when children are involved it makes things that much more sad. No child should live in poverty however the numbers don’t lie and sadly millions of children do live in poverty today. The videos and reading show that many hard working mothers are out there trying to make a living and trying to provide for their families. Sadly sometimes the work isn’t there. What do we do in these types of situations? Government programming is one answer. There are government programs that provide food for one’s children, sometimes in the form of food stamps or a credit card like tool that allows someone to purchase food. There are also programs that parents can enroll in that provide for food at school. These programs pay anywhere from fractions of the total lunch costs to the whole lunch. These programs work and provide meals when needed, but what happens when the children get home? How is a struggling parent to provide for their child when they are motivated and ready to work but the work isn’t there? At times the work a parent may be able to do is not enough to pay all the necessary bills of survival. How can we fix this? I don’t think there is any sure fire way to fix this problem. However, I do believe doing nothing will make things worse. We need to secure jobs on our home front, and keep them in America. Millions of jobs have been lost to oversee corporation relocation and hundreds if not thousands more will follow in the months and years to come. We need legislation passed that keeps our businesses here. This will save jobs in America and hopefully help in the recovery of our nation. This may work slowly but in the end everyone will be better off. Our citizens will make the money that they deserve, and their children will be better off. It can be a contagious effect if we just act on our feelings. Will we?