My childhood was full of fictional books about kids like me trying to get by: THE BOXCAR CHILDREN dived into dumpsters to furnish their house, while Dicey tried to scrape together $100 to take care of her siblings in Cynthia Voigt's HOMECOMING. I thought these kids were cool in their resourcefulness, but I never really thought about the implications of homelessness -- it was just a game to me.
I don't know what it was like to grown up in poverty and I'll never truly understand what that is like. But I can seek out books that will expose me to those lives like Adrian Nicole Leblanc's RANDOM FAMILY and David Simon's THE CORNER. The latter book so moved me I started volunteering around the corner after I finished reading it. But even if reading a book doesn't spur you to do something about poverty in your backyard or in a faraway country, the onus is on you to expose yourself intellectually to the problems of others -- whether it's reading about microfinancing as a means of empowerment or a few plucky orphans with chipped plates.
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This post was part of Blog Action Day, an online initiative to get bloggers to focus on one issue for a day. To read more entries, visit BlogActionDay.org.
Some of my picks:
It Doesn't Have To Be About The Money [Escape From Cubicle Nation]
My Poverty-Fighting Superheroes [Wise Bread]
Donate Your Piracy Savings To Reduce Poverty [TorrentFreak]
How To Make Yourself Happier During The Economic Crisis [Gretchen Rubin/ HuffPo]
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