It is the suffocating nature of the poverty, its
relentlessness, the damage it causes to everyone in its path, that is so
overwhelming. It has to be much more than coincidence that homeless and
hopeless share all but one letter.
Dasani's world is startling. The privacy we take for granted
in our lives is nowhere evident for this young girl. It is a life of
survival where the most that can be said at the end of each day is that
she is still there. It is no way for anyone to have to exist.
How can we not, viewing the reality of what our decisions engender,
watch with dismay the reductions in the SNAP program and in unemployment
assistance, the diminished resources for the educational system, and
the understanding that the possibilities for the underclass, if not a
better tomorrow, at least a fairer one are almost non-existent?
No one, not Dasani or any of the thousands like her in New
York, and the millions throughout this nation, deserve to be treated by
society with such disrespect. Her story ends today with a tiny miracle, a
new apartment and a momentary reprieve from the worst of the nightmare.
But we are left with the undeniable suspicion that her future holds not
the promise of a little girl rising above her surroundings through her
strength of body and mind, but of despair where her environment
eventually wins and Dasani becomes yet one more victim of impossible
circumstances.
4 comments:
I will ride the subway with new eyes as i see how many Dasani's we really have in our glamorous city. The Time's article was a wake up call. How much resiliency can we expect our Dasani's to muster? This is just wrong!
I believe all of us, myself included, do not treat with the necessary significance, the suffering of those like Dasani. We tend to compartmentalize the poor, pushing their problems to a corner of our minds that we sometimes look at but never give our undivided attention.
We as a society are guilty when there are so many Dasani's in our midst.
RSN
Another great example of American exceptionalism !! I think that the majority of congress(wo)men would like to turn this nation into a backwater, like their districts, with 1950s style stupidity and ignorance.
Republicans are heartless and cruel. They think anyone can get a job if one tries hard enough. They do not want to feed hungry children who did not ask to be born to incompetent and often cruel parents. In this country no one should be homeless or hungry. No one. Sorely we can do better.
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