Thursday 20 February 2014

World Day for Social Justice: Facing the Reality of Poverty Among Us



Today, February 20, 2014, is World Day for Social Justice – a day on which the United Nations calls on all countries to consider actions to fight poverty and inequality. It sounds like a day of grand ideas, lofty goals, global revolution. Which it is. But it is also a day to think of the smallest child, living possibly right next door or down the street, who does not have enough to eat for breakfast. 

To think of that child’s parents who may be immigrants struggling to find work or who may be living with a chronic illness or disability. Or maybe this child has only one parent, a mother running from an abusive spouse or irresponsible ex-spouse or mourning the unexpected loss of her spouse. 

Maybe this child has an older sibling who is dealing with drug addiction or mental illness. Or just the stark reality that the current economic climate isn’t hiring his/her age group. 

Maybe this child has a grandparent who is bedridden and lonely or unable to afford proper care. 

Maybe there was a time that this family was fine – financially secure, healthy, happy. Maybe not. Maybe they’ve been brought low by the recession or by illness or by death. Maybe they were reckless and unlucky. Maybe they were just unlucky. 

Either way, this family, this young adult, this mother, this father, this grandparent, this child – they are now to be counted among the poor of our planet. They have joined a fast-growing group. Too fast-growing. A group that includes members from every continent, every country, every ethnic group, religion, race. 

And this child lives in your neighbourhood.

Everyone wants to end poverty but to do so, we need to recognize poverty in all its forms. We need to recognize it in the faces of people who live on the other side of the planet and look and act nothing like us. And we need to recognize it when it is right in front of our faces and looks exactly like we do.

We don’t always want to acknowledge that there are poor people in our community. Most people like to think of the Toronto Jewish community as affluent and successful. And we are. But that is not the whole picture.

There are people in the Toronto Jewish community who do not have food in their cupboards. Who do not know how they will pay their rent. Who live in fear every day. Fear that they will never find work. Fear that they will become homeless. Fear that someone will take their children away. Fear that they will die cold and alone. And forgotten.

Some of these people are Holocaust survivors. Some of these people are refugees. Some of these people are abuse victims. Some of these people are four years old.

Today is World Day for Social Justice. The world is a big place and social justice is an imposing concept. So, don’t let the name fool you. Start small. Think of your neighbour.

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