Mauve Momma #9

Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

When Elizabethan Englishmen initially decided who constitued the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor, they meant it in terms of who deserved welfare money. Later it involved who got the "privilege" of laboring in the workhouse system up to nine hours a day, breaking stones or chopping wood for a hunk of bread and a bowl of gruel. No gub'ment cheese or WIC vouchers in those days.

So before trying to draw a line between those living in poverty who have behaved and haven't, we have to ask what exactly people are deserving of.

Because when it's just money, it becomes a lot easier to find reasons to take it away. Two things happen. The first is that we forget that people living in poverty are like us. You notice me saying "people in poverty" instead of "poor people"? It's intentional. I do that for the same reason I don't say "AIDS patients" or "cerebral palsy kids," but instead, "people living with AIDS" or "teenagers with cerebral palsy." It's small, but the person, not their modifier, comes first. When we make "poor people" into an abstract, even benevolently, we make them Those People Way Over There, or worse, Those People Who Are Nothing Like Me. Handouts of money make it easier for us to do this, because we can picture ourselves on high, tossing a few bills down for the lesser classes to gratefully accept. You don't have to touch anyone to give them a check.

The second thing that happens is that we become resentful of those in poverty for taking money that seems like, well, ours. Phrases like "hard-earned," or god forbid, "bootstraps," start popping up, as do disturbing stereotypes about "welfare queen" moms who don't - or won't - stop having babies, or immigrant families who come to America just to get on the fat welfare rolls. Hello, Biases! When we deal only in money, we can very easily start curling our arms around what we have and muttering about how we shouldn't have to give any up. Who wants to be repaid in heaven, like in the gospel quote above, when we can keep it now? I mean...it's sad, but it's not YOUR fault they messed up their education or job. And you're right, I suppose.

But thankfully, we don't only deal in money. Like any good Democrat, I see the problems of the 1996 welfare reform that changed Aid to Families with Dependent Children to Temporary Aid to Needy Families, adding stricter timetables and participant restrictions along the way. A lot of people were unceremoniously kicked off the rolls for technicalities that caused them a lot of heartache. But if there's anything good that came of it, it's this: You CAN'T say that the government gives away a bunch of free money to whoever. You can't tell me people live it up for years on welfare. It's a tiny check, and it goes away fast. Our biases may rise, but they have nowhere to settle.

Because people don't just need money. To say so would be to assume that they all had great jobs and lost them, or accidentally spent everything and are now out on the street. People who live in poverty for large amounts of time are stuck. They don't know how to get out. Maybe they don't know how to dress and act in a business interview, or they don't know how to get financial aid for community college, or they don't know where to find cheap day care for the kids. Or they know, but they can't do it by themselves, and work two jobs and deal with their families too. There is a world of knowledge, cultural knowledge and hidden values, that we take for granted because we are middle class; we eat well and rent DVDs and look up celebrities on Google. A lot of people in poverty can't imagine how to get from where they are to where we are.

But we can imagine it. And this is where we bring in the non-cash efforts we've got to help people get out of poverty. WIC food vouchers and nutrition classes. Subsidized day care. ESL and GED classes. Family counseling. Drug and alcohol abuse treatment. Job training. Local initiatives to give people haircuts and business attire. These things are not soup kitchen handouts. They are real, teach-a-man-to-fish, helping hands. They get people OUT. And the best part is that they have to be done by real people. No dropping checks from our Benevolent Government Throne. You have to touch a woman to cut her hair, show her how to shake hands with an employer, and watch her baby while she works.

I do what I can. I pay my taxes gladly, and I give big bags of clothes away to any charity that calls. I tell people that Mom and I were on WIC when I was a baby, so they know anyone can have a hard time and need government help. And in teaching the last two years, I was trying to give my students somewhere to go besides dead-end busboy jobs- trying to convince them that they needed that high school degree more than they needed $5.25 an hour right now.

I haven't exactly answered the question about the deserving and undeserving poor. I know. That's why I had to rephrase the question into what we think 'the poor' deserve. I don't need to tell you who is undeserving of a welfare check - our imaginations and the government's eligibility rules can come up with ideas of people whose criminal and employment histories disqualify them for financial assistance. And, okay, I can support that. But when it comes to the other initiatives I've mentioned, is there anyone who is really undeserving? If we really want to deplete our ghettos, and barrios, and prisons, we have to extend an opportunity to even the worst elements of them, who we think have blown their chances long ago. For this writer, the question "What do they deserve?" can only be answered with "A chance. And another and another." I could never look in a person's face and tell him he has used up all his chances to be free of poverty. Christian theology tells us that the worst sin is despair. I will never be responsible for hanging that millstone around another's neck.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times."

Really? That many chances?

Yeah, really.