another Blog Action Day post (by my 15 year-old mentee)

My definition of Poverty.

By Iris Grace

So, today is Blog Action Day and this year’s topic, is poverty. Poverty is quite a broad topic, and honestly, I could go anywhere.

Wikipedia defines poverty as deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

But if you ask me, which cyberspaceingly, you are, that’s just a technical way to look at it. Poverty is everywhere, it comes in all forms, sizes and shapes.

Yes, in third world countries there are people with no food, water, housing, clothing or education. Yes, this is true poverty. Yes, this is horrible.

(A great organization to check out is One)

But, look around you, look at the US. Still within wikipedias definition of ‘poverty’ we are right there hand in hand with a lot of other places.

Now this is in ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to belittle true poverty, but to add a touch of humor, lets take it a step farther. Poverty, deprivation of common necessities that determine quality of life, in my book, knowledge is a common necessity, ability to educate oneself about current issues is a common necessity. Couldn’t we even go so far to say that someone could be in poverty if they don’t possess adequate skills needed to perform the job they’ve been given? Someone could be considered ‘in poverty’ if they are needed to and then unable to function in a leadership role that protects billions of people, couldn’t they?

So, by my standards, couldn’t we say that Sarah Palin, herself, is deeply in poverty?