Grant Abbott, a Faces of Poverty participant, posed the question we’re talking about now: are people equally free?

“I would like to say something about why talking about poverty is so difficult in this country. I believe it is difficult because it gets at the heart of the American myth of a free society in which hard-working individuals can lift themselves up and out of poverty. Poverty raises very difficult questions for this myth. Are people equally free? What is the impact of racism on people’s ability to work themselves out of poverty? Does the wealth gap between the rich and the bottom half of the population create such an unfair advantage that government needs to address it?…” – Grant Abbott, Interim Executive Director, Episcopal Community Services of Minnesota

Login Now or Register

The hard conversations are the ones worth having

There are some things we’d rather not talk about. Politics, race and religion are almost always off-limits. Approaching any one of these hotbed issues, even with the best of intentions, is a risky proposition. With a failing economy and eroding confidence in our government, is poverty yet another conversation we’d just as soon avoid? 

As the online facilitator of United Way’s Faces of Poverty conversations, I continually ask myself  if it’s possible to really engage the community in an unflinching look at poverty that elicits candor rather than apathy. Eager for fresh perspectives and ideas, having a dialogue of substance, particularly in a digital space, is a challenging proposition. But I remain convinced that it’s a vital conversation for our community and country.

Dubbed the ”poverty tour,” radio and television talk show host, Tavis Smiley, and Cornel West, professor of African American studies at Princeton University, took their anti-poverty message on the road to 18 American cities while promoting their book, The Rich and the Rest of Us. At the heart of their message is a plea for America to start talking about the plight of the poor.

Read the rest of this entry →