The Philosophy of Bryant Myer

Poverty, people are born into it. People can sink into its grasp, or people can escape. But it’s a hard journey. As for Kevin Powells mother growing up in the south she never saw money, for “at the age of eight in a field picking someone else’s cotton”. (p. 86) Being in poverty is based out financial needs, being poor is one thing. Poverty is just below that, for you barley have enough to get by and sometimes you are places in a setting that could risk health or safety.

In the introductory chapters, she draws upon her own experiences overseas and comments on the mistakes she has made and how they can be prevented through best practice. Next, Butrin outlines methods for assessing communities through identifying the resources individuals possess, the needs of the community, and strategies for meeting those needs through meaningful partnerships with the local people. She asserts that our view of poverty directly relates to how we act in compassion and if we view it only as material deficit than our work will never truly alleviate poverty. The church should play a large role in this entire process because proclamation of the Gospel is a vital component of holistic ministry. Only God can bring true transformations to communities and people. If the message of salvation is absent from efforts towards justice than we have barely scratched the service and are responding to the external as opposed to addressing the root causes. The text concludes with decisive commentary on applying the principles of best practice to all

Growing up poor in the Bronx and living with my mother and two siblings, I could relate to the “poverty” part of the reading On the Meaning of Plumbing and Poverty by Melanie Scheller. Scheller grew up in poverty with her mother and her siblings in rural North Carolina in the 1960s. They lived off the land in less than stellar conditions and at times in dilapidated housing which was all that her mother was able to afford.

Bringing awareness to poverty is important, and this essay has done a fine job in doing so. Not only does it touch on poverty but also on passing judgment on individuals when we really don’t know what they could be going through. When Scheller describes how the children at school react to others who don’t have much, it causes me to think about how blessed the majority of the population in America really is and also provokes the question, what can we do to help those in need of what we like to call “basic necessities”?

12 – When considering an approach in understanding and teaching the student of poverty both Ruby Payne and Eric Jensen provide insightful strategies and resources. I found both author’s works to be very compatible. Having read very little on teaching and understanding those living in the lap of poverty both books are defiantly thought provoking, while building a good foundation.

To some, being poor is embarrassing and shameful, but to a select group of people; being poor is something they’re grateful to be. They embrace it and use it to their advantage to achieve better lives

Ruby Payne spoke about poverty in A Framework for Understanding Poverty in a way that is helpful for my church to further understand the issue of poverty in our community. The attributes of this book will help my church to better serve and address issues regarding poverty throughout our church and throughout our community. Some of the key points that resided with my thoughts were that “poverty occurs in all races and in all countries.” (Payne, 10) As much as I believe this is common sense, common sense is not so common to everyone. There are so many stereotypes of what poverty looks like. The idea of who poverty affects has been a misleading depiction that predominantly focuses on specific racial or geographical sectors. It is

Nelson Mandela once said, “Poverty is not natural it 's man-made.” This quote states that a person can overcome poverty if one has the desire to live a better life. In a novel called Poor People written by William T. Vollmann, the author travels around different countries and places to learn about poor people and to get a global perspective view. While interviewing different kinds of people, Vollmann would ask them one question: why are you poor? Looking at people 's answers Vollmann noticed that some of the people gave quite interesting answers. Vollmann went through a lot of situations where he just couldn 't imagine what life would be if he was ever to live like that. Another novel that has a similar poverty situation is called Let The Water Hold Me Down, written by Michael Spurgeon. Hank, the main character of the novel, experiences a tragic moment in his life. Losing his wife and daughter while drowning, this tragedy left him feeling like it’s all due to his miscarrying about them. His life becomes full of sorrow, and the only way out it was to go to Mexico to his friend’s place and restart his life over. In a new country of Mexico, this story takes place. Even though he had money, a house, and friends’ support, he still experienced lots of pressure trying to survive in Mexico. Poverty has different meanings in everyone 's lives but by reading these two novels, there are three similarities that can be made about people living in poverty.

Shipler says multiple times in the book that poverty is not only a material issue, it is also a mental one. A person living in poverty describes poverty as “helplessness,” this helplessness defines their sense of identity. Once a person reaches the poverty level, many feel as if they can never improve and thus they feel as they have become poverty. This identity crisis is only worsened when the government strips the identity of individuals for the sake of statistics. The government can not fix the problem if they do not know all of the facts. The government has a responsibility to protect its people, and as such, government workers need to act with a sense of humanity instead of annoyance. One lady who relied on money from the government to feed her family was denied the money when a paper was sent in late. The woman mailed the letter the next day but was denied the money, when she confronted the worker the reason she had not received her money was because the worker did not check the mail. When the government realizes that these are people and not statistics they will be compelled to be more helpful. “Working at the edge of poverty means working on the coldest side of corporate America.” Most assume that when a person is poor, they do not work hard and so people treat them much worse than any other person. If those in poverty are treated fairly, then their sense of self will be improved and the poverty cycle will be broken. Those in poverty are a key part of the national economy, as they work in the jobs that many refuse to. They work in the factories that produce items to sell, which boost the economy. The personal financial choices that a person makes is also discussed in The Working Poor: Invisible in America. Each choice a person makes could be detrimental to their future. Investing in certain job

Poverty is a terrible condition, which as unfortunate as it is, many people across the globe suffer from. Poverty can present itself in many ways and in many different circumstances, which is shown in the following stories. In ' Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt, young Frank is burdened with the responsibiliity of providing for his family. Similarly, in 'The Street' by Ann Petry, Lutie, a single black mother, is struggling to find shelter for her family. In both 'Angela's Ashes' and 'The Street,' a key member of each family is desperately trying to support their loved ones and meet their basic human needs. In both passages, the author uses specific characters, events, and settings to demonstrate the theme that one needs perseverance to overcome poverty.

Poverty has many negative effects on many people. In this paper I will be focusing on how poverty effects a person’s faith. Will this person’s life values and meanings become more centered on wealth, power, and materialism? I will view how this is sometimes the case in popular culture, sociological studies, and even my own life.

Poor people is a collection of interviews with first-hand sources of those in poverty mixed with the authors, William T. Vollmann's, inner struggle and thought-process of what poverty is. Vollmann's position on poverty is stated early on in the book "For me, poverty is not mere deprivation; for people may possess fewer things than I and be Richer; Poverty is wretchedness."(Vollmann 36). Poverty to Vollman is wretchedness meaning " a condition of extreme affliction or distress, especially as outwardly apparent" (Wretched). He continues with, "It must then be an economic state. It, therefore, remains somewhat immeasurable ... I can best conceive of poverty as a series of perceptual categories." (Vollmann 36). These perceptual categories are the five categories in the book, self-definitions, phenomena, choices, hope, and placeholders.

Poverty, a major concern throughout the world and in particular for the Catholic Church is defined as A state or condition in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials to enjoy a minimum standard of life and well-being that's considered acceptable in society (Poverty definition 2015). For the Catholic Church poverty is a complex idea as poverty can affect many of the Catholic Social Justice Teachings. The foundation of both Catholic Social Teachings and the Catholic Church work in all areas of impoverishment is the belief in human dignity and all humans being individuals and sacred human beings. To expand on the idea of all individuals being sacred human beings both the Bible and the Church states that all people

This review is formulated with scholarly sources and references based off of poverty in America. This disclosure is approached with a value free sociological approach, and it will give insight on the social causes of poverty and the effects it has on America. Poverty is a very controversial topic. Many will assume that people living in poverty are lazy, made bad life decisions, or that they are solely the reason for their predicament however, people living in poverty would argue that their are deeper issues for it. Poverty will be deeply explained and researched from both perspectives

Many describe poverty as an economic deprivation, or lack of income. However, this alone does not incorporate the different social, cultural and political aspects of this unfortunate reality. Poverty is not only a deprivation of economic or material resources but a violation of human dignity. The general scarcity, lack, or the state of one without a specific amount of material possessions or money. It is a versatile concept that may be defined as either absolute or relative. Time and again, poverty is a call to action, for the poor and the wealthy alike, it is a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence, and a voice in what happens in their communities.