a big question...

A friends blog recently asked the question:

If you had to solve one of these problems, which would you choose--terrorism or poverty?


I think that both are problems worth solving. There are all kinds of terrorism: domestic, international, religious, and political. It's awful. It kills people and it controls people lives, it dominates political environments and embitters whole countries. It's been the cornerstone of American foreign policy since 9/11/2001.


But I don't walk down the street everyday and see terrorism.

(Does that make something more dire...the fact that I actually see it and experience it...I don't know...to me YES it freaking does...but perhaps if I lived in Israel/Palestine I would want to vanquish terrorism over poverty...or maybe in a country like that or Afghanistan or Chechnya I would SEE that both are kindred cousins of each other that both need to be equally vanquished...alas I am not enlightened enough to not let my culture and life experiences shape my opinion on these issues...if YOU are please blog about it or write a book about it, I'd love to know your secret.)


However everywhere I walk, drive, or look in Kansas City, there is poverty. I see much more poverty in the world than terrorism. There is a whole section of the world called the "Developing World" (formerly known as the Third World) because it is developing economic means that will help it and its people rise out of poverty.

People have a basic need for survival. If they are too poor to provide themselves with the means to simply live: having food and shelter...they will resort to whatever means it takes to provide for those needs... a lot of times that is in violent ways. This can be displayed in several ways:

-Theft --> People will still money for food and shelter or just food so that they can feed themselves and provide for their loved ones if that be the case...

- Vandalism --> Possibly an extension of Theft, just another violent outcry against a system that a person may feel is robbing them of a quality of life...

- Assassination --> If people blame a certain figure for robbing of them of their lifestyle or quality of life they may seek the life of that person, like a grand scale "Eye for an Eye"...like John Wilkes Booth vs. Abraham Lincoln.

- Terrorism/War (Civil or Multi-National) --> If governments, nations, or ethnicity are viewed as to blame for your life being robbed of basic human needs then you may engage in this most drastic display of anguish.


I worked in a pharmacy for over two years, April 2001 to May 2003, with a Palestinian pharmacist named Musab Jaber. He told me an interesting story about the situation in Palestine, a personal experience that just opened my eyes a lot (this doesn't necessarily reflect on poverty, but is tied to the "taking away of human dignity" that accompanies being in an impoverished situation...which I think you could argue defines the Palestinians who don't have a country to call their own...which is at the crux of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: they just want a fucking nation...)


"When I was 12 years old my dad and I got stopped at a checkpoint. My dad didn't have his papers and this young, probably 19 year old Israeli soldier was harassing him, spitting on him, cussing at him, and I saw this with my eyes. Children see this all the time in Palestine (he never called it Israel like us good Christian Americans...yee-fuckin-haw), and this is why they become suicide bombers. If this is how you are treated, if this is the life you have to look forward to, why would you want to live? You might as well die."


That story blew my mind. I totally bought into the stories you read, hear, and see in our news. I never thought of the human side of it. How it would eat at the very fibers of your human being to be denied a home to call your own because of your religion/ethnicity.

(Supposedly there is no link between poverty and terrorism. Rich, educated men become terrorists. Well let's think of it as negative philanthropy or dark charity. Poor people are not creating organizations like the United Way or UNICEF or the Red Cross. Concerned people with power and money who saw a concern or a need setup these organizations and charities to help address the concerns. So imagine you're a rich man and you see Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine in the news all the time. You become concerned about these issues. You see a country as the great demon that is crippling your bretheren and keeping them from enjoying rights that are suppose to be inalienable to all men: LIFE, LIBERTY, and THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. So you decide to throw money at the issue. You help buy black market weapons, pay for training, build bombs, plot the destruction of this obstacle to your SURVIVAL. That is what Hezbollah and Al Quaeda are...dark charities...twisted philanthropic organizations like the Red Cross and the United Way. "You're in good hands with Hezbollah." is their commercial on Al Jazeera. You can't mess with peoples basic need to survive and not reap.)

This is why people reverted to vandalism in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They felt ignored by their government: Federal, State, and Municipal. So they took for themselves. Yes, they took in excess, but probably with the vision that what they stole could be sold for money which would bring more security in the coming uncertain times...not because they had a "jones" for violence or hated white people and Wal-Mart...because they wanted to survive.


This is why Iraq is so FUBAR. Perhaps some of them did truly appreciate being liberated from Saddam Hussein. I mean obviously the families of his victims did, but they do not want to be told what the aftermath will look like by a country that is trying to set up an economic "friend" and then leave. (If you doubt me, please study your history for the facts. Cuba before Castro...1980s American activity in several Latin American countries...we've done it before...history always repeats itself...) We should pull out as quickly as possible. I know Obama, you can't just do that, but I wish you could...If it falls to pieces, well just put it on a long list of America's "Oopses".

If you back a man into a corner, you'll see the wonder of creation drain out and the Darwinian monster take over.

If we want to see a decrease in violence we should help insure that people's basic needs are met. On a global scale. We: you and I, cities, states, nations, global partnerships. If any party of the "we" belongs to the HAVES they must stoop down low and look at life through the eyes of the HAVE NOTS and see their viewpoint. Taste of their suffering and pain and then rise up against it and bring them out of it with us.

Poverty is very powerful.

It makes powerful messages in movies (most teacher movies that Hollywood pumps out cover impoverished school districts that make KCK look like Blue Valley).
It makes for the most meaningful songs of the masses: socially conscious rap songs like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's The Message; The Game's My Life; numerous songs by Tupac - one being Changes; Puff Daddy's Mo Money, Mo Problems; numerous songs by BTNH - such as Crossroads. Hip-hop artists don't have a monopoly on singing about the plight of the common man: numerous country musicians capitalize on the "down-n-out" fate of poverty stricken whites (so much so that it is a comedic tool used to comment on the genre); some singers have made careers on writing for blue collar Americans: Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and the greatest of all Johnny Cash.
Look in any of the Arts and you can see that they all comment on poverty and its affect on human life.

We (the aforementioned "WE") should celebrate these voices speaking on behalf of poverty. No matter how cliche they may seem. They may offer our only glimpse into the world of poverty.

We must learn to empathize with rather than pity the impoverished. We must feel and show mercy and compassion and open up our pocketbooks, savings, homes, lives and hearts to the poor. We must as much as possible suffer through what they are suffering, experience their experience and then we would no longer tolerate the existence of this societal disease called poverty.

And then we may actually have some true peace.

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. -Aristotle

Poverty is the openmouthed relentless hell which yawns beneath civilized society. And it is hell enough. -Henry George

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need. -Bible

amen. hallelujah...