The Poverty Blog Project
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 10/20/2005 - 10:01
(Originally published at Greater Democracy)
How will we fight poverty in America? Senator Edwards is going around the country in his Opportunity Rocks college tour. He is speaking to students about the need to raise people’s awareness of poverty in America so that we can address this problem.
He speaks about how Hurricane Katrina has shown the ugly face of poverty to people who have too long believed that poverty isn’t a problem. He has speaks about the need to keep this in people’s minds, to keep the attention from shifting back to other things.
He spoke about Robert Kennedy’s visit to Appalachia and how that helped get people to focus on poverty. As he spoke about this, I thought about the Freedom Riders. I have been talking about how we need a new generation of Freedom Riders with a new generation of tools.
Some of the idea comes from the eRiders project. eRiders a bunch of geeks that go around and help non-profit groups make better use of their technology. Related to that are ideas like Blogger Corps, a project to get bloggers to help out non-profits.
Another influence is some great blogs around the country that I’ve been reading. The California Hammonds is a powerful website tracking the life of a man and his family who lost their wife in a battle against breast cancer. Candy Girl's Random Babble is the story of a military wife, as she deals with missing her husband as he serves in Iraq, her fears, her hopes and her longings. State of the Heart is the story of a new father undergoing heart surgery with related complications.
These are great blogs that make people think about the state of health care in our country and about the men and women serving our country. Unfortunately, I have yet to find any good blogs about poverty. If you’re struggling to get by, you aren’t all that likely to have great Internet access and a lot of time to blog about your experiences.
Perhaps the closest I’ve found is Gina Coggio. She is a teacher in New Haven that writes wonderfully about her work with her students; students with cerebral palsy, students who are repeating grades, students with ankle bracelets, students whose parents are fighting cancer, students whose parents are in jail.
As I read all of this, I wonder about a poverty blog project. Imagine college students fanning out around the country. Spending their summer helping the poor, writing about their experiences, helping poor people find their voice and giving Americans the reality show they deserve, a reality show that exposes the ugly face of poverty and the loving face of America as it addresses the problems of poverty: The Poverty Blog Project.
With the technology of today, it could have audio clips of people in the struggle, digital pictures, perhaps even a video or two.
Last night, I went to hear Senator Edwards talk. In my blog entry, I touched briefly on this idea, without expanding it as much as I have here. I’ve received email asking about this, so I thought I would expand on my thoughts here.
Can we make The Poverty Blog Project work? Will it generate great American writing like ‘Let us now praise famous men’? Will it turn the American response to poverty from something to be ashamed of to something to be proud of?
Who wants to help and how do we get started?
A friend pointed me to This K
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 10/20/2005 - 17:56.A friend pointed me to This Katrina Blog
I also got an email asking how to make The Poverty Blog project happen.
....
Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 10/30/2005 - 16:15.E-mail me. We can do this.
poverty blog
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 05/23/2006 - 12:46.Good day
We have an recent effort underway, Partners for Prospersous Athens, www.prosperousathens.org. that has a great website, but no blog.
I believe a blog on poverty would be a functional and informational resource on a local level, and would also communicate ideas that work to a wider audience.
I have been writting ideas, letters and articles that could be used in a blog on poverty.
I want to help.
plazzari@mindspring.com
Poverty
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 09/06/2006 - 11:19.-----The Poverty Post -----
The Chicago Six
What are our choices: Death by starvation, death by drowning, death by freezing, death from a lack of medical care or death by fire?
While the United States wages war in Iraq and rebuilds the infrastructure we at home are dieing. Just this weekend six children died in an apartment fire that threatened the lives of not only the nine people that lived in the apartment but all the inhabitants of the building. The cause of the fire was a candle used to light the rooms so nine children could find their way around in the dark. The fire chief was appalled and actually handed out smoke detectors through-out that neighborhood.
What good is a smoke detector if you can’t see to get out of the building?
The real cause of that fire was poverty – that dirty little word that is hushed in the halls of the white house, congress, and our senate. The electricity had been shut off by Con-Ed; not conned, Con-Ed, the power company that turned their backs on the 10 people who were trying to live in that apartment.
We need to remind our congress, our senate and legislators that without heat and electricity food is not refrigerated, food can not be cooked, clothes are not washed or dried and candles may be used to compensate for the lack of lighting. Without gas people freeze. Not just in Iraq, here in the USA.
It’s about time we have legislation to stop utility cut-offs for people that just can’t afford the sky rocketing costs of heat and electricity. Face it- the folks at home were appalled when Iraq was without electricity, but no one cares when the people at home are without it? I can hear you thinking “but the power companies need income too”. Tell your Congressperson or Senator to fund the energy program for the poor so more people don’t get burned alive like the six children in Chicago.
E-mail lists are available here: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/