Like Rain on Parked Cars, Chapter 23 – Rebuilding from Rubble
Fruits on display at market, Author Dungodung (PD)
“…’You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22: 39).
Often, those of us not raised in dire poverty fail to understand the chaos of that environment.
The electricity is turned off, and homework is not done. The ceiling falls in, literally. The grocery bag rips, the eggs smash, and there is no dinner.
Children sleep in the bathtub as their only defense against drive-by shootings.
An intoxicated neighbor sets the house on fire. An argument over sneakers escalates into a shooting. Police arrest a parent, and the children go into foster care.
There are no safety nets. There are no margins for error. What to the rest of us might be an inconvenience, at worst a minor hardship, can be devastating to the poor. Progress is impossible. A youthful indiscretion may cost a life.
Is there any wonder that long range consequences are imperfectly understood? These children have not been in a position to predict from one hour to the next what may befall them.
Poverty and PTSD
Children in poverty face constant disappointment, and daily discouragement from the adults around them. Promises must be broken again and again.
Some of the criticism may actually be an attempt by adults to protect their children against the bias they are expected to face. Underachievement is perceived as “safer” than success.
Not all such criticism is intended, however, to be benign. Many adults – themselves defeated by poverty – view the potential achievements of others as an indictment, a reflection on their own efforts.
This repeated exposure to unexpected trauma, this constant barrage of negative feedback, results not only in insecurity, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. There is no one to rely on, and no escape.
Poverty and Families
Poverty places enormous stress on families which are already vulnerable. This is not meant to imply that the poor are incapable of feeling.
Parents living in poverty desire the same advantages for their children they see enjoyed by others. This can, itself, lead to bad decisions. What little money there is available may be expended on a large screen TV, computer equipment, or other electronics, while the family struggles to keep food on the table.
Moreover, the problems of parents are passed onto and replicated by their children. A mother, whose own credit has been exhausted, may take out credit cards in the names of her minor children, thereby saddling the children with a marred credit history before they are old enough to read.
The future is sacrificed to the present.
“Inner City” Education
Education, once the way out of poverty, is no longer seen as paving the road to a viable future.
With inner city schools devastated, children are no longer provided the tools necessary to cope with an adult world. Basic math and language skills (vocabulary, grammar, punctuation) are foreign, as is the idea of gradual, steady improvement.
This is a poor start for anyone.
Few Skills
As a result, young people raised in poverty possess few marketable skills. This includes the “soft” skills of regular attendance and punctuality, associated with job readiness.
Without the means of acquiring such skills, inner city youth are condemned to menial jobs, with little chance of advancement. Indeed, genuine opportunities may go unrecognized, since they would require time and patience which the young feel they cannot afford.
Work Ethic Undermined
The work ethic is, also, undermined by the fact young adults see few models of success around them. It is the drug dealer on the street corner who has cash.
Crime and Drugs
Certainly, some are drawn to crime. The streets offer the appeal of “fast money” in contrast to the time and effort required by legitimate employment. Many more individuals fall victim to crime, beaten into senselessness by the tragedy pervading their lives.
Mothers protest against the violence that has robbed them of their children, while daily still more children are gunned down or lost to the downward spiral of drugs. The appeal of partying and drugs lies not only in the excitement they promise, but the temporary relief from reality they provide. Some individuals choose this bleak road.
Others choose to limit their options to public assistance. But children are not born with such limitations on their dreams.
Racial Bias
When race and ethnicity are added to the mix, bias enters the picture. That is a genuine and longstanding obstacle, a blot on our national pride. Regrettably, it is not the only obstacle.
Internal Obstacles
Fear of the unknown – the internalization of the ghetto – is a powerful barrier. It continues to keep people from leaving the familiarity of their neighborhoods, even when other barriers have at long last been reduced or eliminated.
Rage and, its alternative, apathy (or learned helplessness) can be such pervasive legacies of poverty that they interfere both with work and family life.
Often associated with rage is the greatly heightened sensitivity to slights reflective of a fragile ego.
Coupled with this are unrealistic expectations, chimera. These fill the vacuum left when dreams go unfulfilled too long. A boy with no hope of becoming a lawyer (or even a union electrician) longs to become a rap star. A girl with no chance of becoming a physician or artist trades on her sexuality as the only thing she has.
But these are not lepers. They are not unclean. These are our children. We cannot simply write them off as worthless or pretend they do not exist.
What We Need
Rebuilding from rubble is an immense, but not unprecedented, challenge. It has been undertaken after every natural disaster. It was undertaken on a national scale in Germany and Japan after World War II.
A. Family
What we need are policies that protect and strengthen marriage and the family.
B. Housing
What we need is housing rehabilitation, along with neighborhood-based community revitalization.
Project HOME and Habitat for Humanity provide us with two non-governmental models [1][2]. Houston’s Housing First approach to homelessness (with its response system The Way Home) provides a model involving government agencies, non-profits, and community stakeholders [3][4][5].
C. Schools
What we need are better (and safer) schools.
D. Job Training
What we need is public assistance that provides a reasonable standard of living to those truly unable to support themselves. For the rest, we need job training programs across a broad spectrum, linked to viable jobs with the potential for real upward mobility.
E. Involvement
What we need is genuine involvement by those who have benefited from this country’s vast wealth and resources. What we need is a commitment to salvage our cities – not just their gleaming towers, but the people who inhabit their darkest corners.
What we need, above all, is Christian involvement [6]. We who know Christ know His love for the poor. We alone have the power to convey it.
These are our children, our brothers and sisters. We toss them aside at our peril, diminishing our own humanity, in the process. Or we rescue one life at a time, as He did for us.
…
Ours is a nation that has been richly blessed. Walk into any supermarket. The variety of apples alone is staggering. Fujis, Romes, MacIntoshes, Granny Smiths, Cortlands, Sonyas, Royal Galas, and Golden Delicious – they line up, row upon row.
Next come the pears – Boscs, Comices, Forelles, Bartletts, and Anjous.
Fresh peaches and tree ripened plums vie with imported apricots and navel oranges the size of softballs, for our attention. Persian cucumbers rest next to bell and jalapeno peppers. Tomatoes range in size from beefsteak to cherry and Compari.
Can we not manage to share this abundance? Can we not manage to see our own differences as assets?
May God give us generous hearts. May we all, black or white, MacIntosh or Rome, red, yellow or brown, find a way to live together in peace.
—
[1] Project HOME, https://www.projecthome.org/.
[2] Habitat for Humanity, https://www.habitat.org/.
[3] Houston State of Health, “Housing First”, https://www.houstonstateofhealth.com/promisepractice/index/view?pid=3933.
[4] Cato Institute, “In Houston, Housing Affordability Helps Reduce Homelessness” by Vanessa Calder and Jordan Gygi, 2/15/23, https://www.cato.org/blog/houstons-affordability-helps-reduce-homelessness.
[5] The Way Home, https://www.thewayhomehouston.org/.
[6] Family Radio, “Should I Not Love That Great City?” by Timothy Keller, 9/5/24, https://www.familyradio.org/teaching/should-i-not-love-that-great-city/.
Copyright © 2010 – Present Anna Waldherr. All rights reserved.
Originally posted 11/23/14, 12/14/14, and 3/8/15
as Abundance, Not Lepers, and Chaos
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
A Lawyer's Prayers 
This article so resonates with me Anna, and with our ‘township’ circumstances in South Africa. Thanks for the guidelines as to what we as believers can do in our small corner. Bless you. Deaf and blind American author and activist Helen Keller (1880-1963), “I will not refuse to do the something that I can do!”
I cannot tell you how much that means to me, Erroll. I thank you from my heart.
To every generation is born one who has been given a voice with which to cry out in defense of the poor and downtrodden among us. I dare say, Anna, that God has given you that voice for such a time as this.
Never has one nation been given so much, yet at the same time had so many of its citizens teetering on the edge of ruin due to the issues you raise in this post. May the Lord use this as a means to penetrate the hearts of those who otherwise would remain indifferent to the plight of the poor.
That is a great compliment, Ron, one I hardly deserve. The poor have been a burden on my heart since I was a girl. But I have a limited audience. The need is enormous.
While your audience may be relatively small now, never discount what our Lord can do with us!!
Jesus said the poor we will always have with us, but we fail to please him when we ignore them to follow our own pleasures. Your call to action, may it resound in many ears, and many hearts, Anna. Whatever we can do, we must do as Christ has called us to do: “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.’”
One thing that struck me as I was reading too, Anna, is the lack of generational wealth passed along (as well as healthy values) to serve as a foundation in economic security. As you say, there is no security net. One mistake and all is lost in economic opportunity and mobility. Living for the moment is all you have. I pray that Christian men and women will go to these dark places in our cities preaching hope in Christ whose power is able to provide what the world cannot. May God’s word be proclaimed in these street corners where drug dealers stand! May Jesus’s Name be glorified as the Holy Spirit opens old and young hearts to receive by faith the gift of new life, abundant life in Him! This is the only true hope that unites us all and helps us help each other.
So right, Dora. We may not be able to abolish poverty. There will always be inequities. But as Christians we have an obligation to stand beside our brothers and sisters, to share their pain or at least acknowledge it. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6: 2). Even the ministry of presence can be powerful.
“Even the ministry of presence …..” A kindness we often overlook thinking it unimportant. May we be more generous with our time and gifts and ourselves by God’s grace.
I wholeheartedly agree, Nancy.
Very well said but what I would like to see is protection against abusive family members for care givers.
I have been one for over ten years and suffered six nervous break downs, three suicide attempts, received no pay for the care giving or taking care of the property 9 she gave the money on a regular basis to her eldest son who gambled it away and her grand daughter who got drunk on it while nobody helped in the work )
Then she had a temper tantrum and threw me out and I have been living in a tent for three months. Even the police agreed I did nothing wrong but it was her property so I had to leave penniless.
I know fourteen other care givers that all go through the same thing
One good adult child does all the work and gets nothing but abuse for thanks while the rest of the family does nothing but gets everything is the norm for care givers
That is truly tragic. For much of the injustice in this world there is no remedy. Against the backdrop of eternity, however, God will render justice. I am certain of that. Scripture tells us that the last will be first, and the first last (Matt. 19: 30).