Cornel West And Smiley: Argument To The Impoverished

Affluent to the Impoverished

Introduction "Can we still claim the status of 'the greatest ' when one out of two Americans is living in poverty or near the poverty line?”
According to Cornel West and Tavis Smiley- “Poverty in America has been given a new face; the poor are no longer disheveled vagrants who push carts down the streets.”
The two men took a poverty tour in order to gain a real perspective on the poor, one where they could absorb the up close and personal lifestyles and backgrounds of the impoverished. Many of their encounters with impoverished peoples backed their beliefs. They argue that poverty is not married to one race, though the popular stigma seems to associate poverty with particular races and ethnicities.
The rich can provide the poor with the means of food and shelter which in itself will provide happiness because the poor are instantly able to focus on something greater than just their physical survival needs. Take for example a homeless man who doesn 't know when his next meal is going to come from, and compare him to a man living in a shelter being provided with food daily. It is easy to see the happier of the two would generally be the second person. Not only is the food and shelter providing some physical happiness, the second man is given the opportunity to find intellectual or mental happiness, while the man living on the street first has to fulfill his physical survival needs before pursuing any greater
Fox asks if we want to be “cowardly and complacent or courageous and compassionate? What kind of country do we really want to be? Cold-hearted and calloused or caring and considerate?” (136). I do not think that many people would dispute that they want to be anything but courageous and compassionate. These are two fantastic traits that most people desire to have. The average human is willing to help out those in need, because they are compassionate, not because they are forced. As discussed in The Tragedy of American Compassion by Marvin Olasky, even the early Americans, in the 1600’s showed compassion by emphasizing hospitality to those suffering destitution because of disaster. While at times the compassion was considered fatigued in the United States, there were attempts to strengthen the American compassion against the storms to come; they stressed education of the charity-giving public. While, back in the 1600’s they did not donate money to different charities to help the poor, they donated what they could, which was a roof over their head and a place to sleep and maybe a meal or two. The wellbeing of our country has always been the utmost concern for many people, and helping those in need is a way to make the country