Poverty has become society’s public enemy No. 1

EDITOR’S NOTE: First in a series on poverty in Albany and Dougherty County.

Poverty has become, in some ways, the go-to culprit in American society. For every ill — joblessness, racial and religious intolerance, corruption, gender issues, crime, crumbling infrastructure, devaluation of the the family unit — at least a portion, usually the lion’s share, of the blame is laid at the feet of poverty.

Not that there isn’t justification.

Still reeling from a devastating recession that took root in 2008 and hit not just Southwest Georgia or the Southeast or the United States, but the entire world, the ranks of the impoverished grew to alarming levels — levels not seen in some parts of this country since Depression-era America. Recovery has come, but it’s been slow. And it’s in no way complete.

The numbers are staggering: 43.1 million Americans living below some government-established poverty level; 1.8 million Georgians — 18.3 percent of the population — and more than 29,000 in Albany, slightly more than 39 percent of the city’s population of 74,843. That’s 39 percent of the population in a city that is still recognized as the hub in a region of the state that was once the fifth-most impoverished in America.

It’s like Ward I Albany City Commissioner Jon Howard — whose east Albany district, despite a recent infusion of development money, is still beset with the trappings of poverty: blight, joblessness, homelessness, prostitution, crime — told his colleagues at a recent meeting of that body: “There are, I’d say, 20,000 people living in east Albany, and 42 percent of them live below the poverty line. That’s a systemic problem.”

Over the next few days, The Albany Herald’s news staff will attempt to explain elements of the poverty issue as it pertains to Albany and Dougherty County. Some of the thoughts expressed — indeed, some of the statistics cited — are the same things that have been proclaimed by local politicians and city/county leaders for several decades. Some, though, hint that maybe poverty persists because the approaches utilized by local, state, national and even international leaders are the same formulas that have not worked in the past and are not likely to, somehow magically, become effective because a new group of leaders sets them in motion.

The people in this series are real. They’re real lawmakers, educators, philanthropists, law enforcement officials, doctors and policymakers. And they’re real people for whom poverty has at one time been, and for some continues to be, a way of life. In the case of some among the latter group, names have been omitted or changed to protect their identity in exchange for telling their stories.

All the government studies in the world, all the data collected by social scientists who seek those quantifiable formulas that reduce poverty to a set of numbers, come up lacking. They fall short because they don’t have the human factor, the real lives of people for whom hunger, inadequate heating and cooling, substandard housing, fear, hopelessness, humiliation and despair are not just words to say … they’re the byproducts of existence.

It is appropriate to start this series with one of the most compelling stories that many of us will ever hear. What started as a few questions about a past spent in a world filled with horrors that most of us would never touch even in our dreams turned into a riveting narrative that is as sad as it is brave.

It’s a story of heroism, though, knowing that its teller made it out the other side:

These are just rambling thoughts that I don’t know will be particularly helpful to you. I took my assignment very seriously and, as I lay in bed, I thought hard about what stories I could tell you that could help your readers better understand poverty. About an hour in, it occurred to me that there was no magic collection of anecdotes that would make anyone (who hasn’t had the experience) understand. Poverty is not a problem that can be fixed with money because it’s not a problem caused solely by lack of money (proof of which is the welfare system … seriously, when is the last time you saw someone use it for its intended purpose, “a hand up?”).

There are many people who grow up with little money, but the family structure is intact and they are able to overcome the lack of financial means. Then there are people like my two sisters and me. This is where overcoming poverty becomes a little more tricky. Not only is there a lack of money, there’s no support system like grandparents or other responsible adults (and you’re told from very young that you don’t tell what goes on in the house); there’s zero nurturing, and because of lack of food and other resources, the bonds that would normally be built between siblings are never grown because there is an “every man for himself” mentality. On top of having alcoholic/neglectful parents, we witnessed extreme domestic violence on a regular basis, and two of the three of us were sexually assaulted as children.

Most days we went to school sleep-deprived and hungry, unable to pay attention to what should have been our main focus, an education. Being poor carries such a stigma with it, and you learn very young that where you live and what you’re wearing is not good enough, therefore, you are not good enough. And there’s nobody there to tell you that “it’s what’s on the inside that counts” and “money doesn’t make the man” and all the other cliches. You’re indoctrinated as a child that poor is bad and rich is good. The process of tearing a child (who will later become an impoverished adult) down, begins early. You hear that Santa brings good girls and boys lots of toys and naughty children get nothing … then you wake up Christmas morning (year after year) and there’s nothing under the tree … most years not even a tree to put something under … and the message that that child receives is damaging and painful. And through many years of those subconscious messages, you develop a lack of self-worth and you learn to use coping mechanisms … humor, alienation, sex, whatever best serves you … and when that no longer works … you try something different to quiet the voices from your childhood. For the three of us, it was food, drugs and alcohol.

Some have an inherent wherewithal to achieve some measure of success and some don’t. The three of us … a drug addict, a functioning alcoholic and me. I think poverty is so difficult to understand and solve because if you surveyed a million impoverished people, there would be a million reasons they’re in their current state. I do understand that everyone has the choice to “do better” … but not everyone has the gumption.

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Mary Braswell contributed research for the articles that will appear in this series.