[sturm und drang]

I love the old "everyone can get out and work" argument. We're just a jovial bunch of Horatio Alger-lovin' fools, aren't we?

It's easy for us to sit up in our proverbial ivory towers and proclaim what the poor should and shouldn't be doing. "I've worked hard my whole life," the argument goes, "why shouldn't everyone else? If I can do it, so can they." But I, for one, am willing to admit that everything has been stacked in my favor since birth. I am willing to admit that-- despite my life-long hard work, assiduous study and diligence-- I am a child of privilege. Are you?

a.) I'm white
b.) I have a mother and father
c.) I was read to when I was little
d.) I was encouraged to learn
e.) I was sent to private school
f.) I was able to attend college
g.) I was fed, sheltered and loved

As someone who volunteered for a year at Sequoyah Elementary, DISD-- actually located in some tough projects off Inwood-- I can attest first-hand to the fact that so many children in the US aren't given SHIT. For them, there is no birthright of love, family, education or food. These kids have nothing: no one to take care of them, no one to teach them, encourage them. No one to emulate. They've got crap schools with overworked teachers, classes with almost 40 students, no computers, no sports, no music, no art-- and no expectations. Sure, it's easy to pat myself on the back for what I've achieved or what I've become, but that would be a joke. I have been gifted and extremely lucky just by merit of who I was born to and the panoply of opportunities that entailed.

I believe it is the purpose of the government to attempt to rectify these wrongs. If this means that I pay more taxes so that lower-income schools have comprehensive after-school programs, then I support it. If that means that I work from January through June for the government so the poor can live in subsidized or free housing, then I support it. How can you not be aware of what you've been given? How can you not attempt to equalize the inherent inequalities? How can you not attempt to even the playing field?

You are sorely, sorely ignorant if you think that hard work and a desire to succeed is all it takes to make it off the streets.

Side note: I really can't decide which I love more: the inherent elitism and callousness of the above argument, or the totally gratuitous homophobia which was used to support it. Such a toss up.