Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 3, 1992 TAG: 9201030387
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BETSY BIESENBACH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GOOD NEIGHBORS FUND
I DIDN'T know what to say. Here was a woman calmly telling me that next month she would be facing a hard choice. Either she could pay her rent or she could buy the medicine that keeps her alive. "I guess I'll pay the rent," she said. "I guess I'm going to die."Before I began writing stories for this year's Good Neighbors Fund campaign, I wondered what it would be like to meet people who have nothing in a land of plenty. Twenty interviews and weeks later, I'm only a little closer to figuring out why people are poor. But I know better now what the rest of us can do about it.
Most of the time, I was overwhelmed - both by the great need I saw and by the tremendous amount of giving that already goes on. I was stunned when I thought about people who have two houses, several cars, boats, expensive vacations, clothes and food - when there are others who have nothing, not even a roof over their heads at night.
Some people who have comfortable lives point to what they have and say they are well off because they've earned it, they've worked for it. Certainly, they have.
But I met people who have worked so hard their bodies are used and broken, and still they have nothing to show for it.
Two things, I've noticed, have a big influence on poverty: poor education and poor health. Alone, either one can make life hard. Together, they are a double whammy.
Part of the point of the Good Neighbors Fund is that it provides help without a lot of red tape. The mother who opens her refrigerator door one day and finds nothing to give to her children can go that day for a bag of groceries or a hot meal, rather than waiting in line for food stamps.
People such as the woman mentioned earlier, who can't qualify for government medical programs but who are too poor to afford their own coverage, can get their medicine paid for, at least for a while. The money this woman got for medicine was for one time only. There are not enough resources to provide for her on an ongoing basis. Where will her medicine come from next month?
My editor assured me that someone, somewhere, would provide for her. She wouldn't be allowed to die. But who is that someone? I know it's not me. Although I have good intentions, I rarely get around to following up on them.
But there are others who bring food and clothes to the pantries and closets, or give their time to answer telephones or serve food. And they give to the Good Neighbors Fund. There are more of those people than I ever would have imagined.
There is never enough, but even a little helps a lot. Five dollars will buy school supplies. Ten dollars will buy enough food for a meal or two. Fifteen dollars will buy a shirt. Twenty dollars will pay a water bill. Twenty-five dollars added to three more twenty-five-dollar contributions will pay someone's rent.
What I will remember most from this experience is how wrong is the stereotypical image of the poor. With very few exceptions, the people I met who don't work would give anything to have jobs, to have their health and to be on their feet again. The working poor just want to earn enough to support themselves and their families. They want homes, cars, everything the rest of us want. Those dreams often slip out of their reach, but the marvelous thing is that most of them keep trying.
In writing these stories, I learned something from everyone I met. I was amazed at the ability of human beings to cope, to live day by day, and to hold onto the hope that better times would come. It's helped me to be grateful for what I have.
Jesus said that the poor will always be with us. Maybe we will never be able to rid the world of poverty. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
Betsy Biesenbach of Roanoke prepared recent stories about the Good Neighbors Fund for the Roanoke Times & World-News.