"she's to busy saving the world"

as i sit here and paint my nails yellow
listening to music
chatting on msn
creeping facebook,
i ponder about the world.
today i sat in a community booth in one of gothams malls
trying to collect money for the organization i work for
and raise awareness about what we do.
its kind of a run down mall
dirty
and has a crappy layout
no expensive-fancy-pancy stores
its halls are filled with working class people, often the working poor.
i even saw some clients that i know are homeless
we also spoke to some people who need our help and can give no money to us.
several times i heard "i need you more than you need me" or "right now isn't a good time - i may see you at work one day"
the fundraiser we were doing involves participants donating $2 and giving their solution to poverty.
many said it was such a hard questions and i agree.
how do we fix such a wide spread problem?
how do we solve something that ignores race, religion, sex and location?
how do we solve something most ignore?
how do we solve something that has so many different dimensions, has case by case differences and has affected millions of people?
its difficult to even wrap ones head around the complexities of poverty.
as a sociologist and historian, i know and understand why poverty exists in capitalism and how it developed overtime.
but the solution is much more complex.
i have a few ideas and so did most people i talked to today.

1. first, and quite obviously, get rid of capitalism. demolish corporate capitalism and move into communism - and not just some idea of labeled-red-scare - everything un-american-communism but actual karl marxs and frederich engles communism. that is, pockets of communities, equality of all, equal access to everything etc. to bad this would never happen. not only do you have those in power not letting this happen, telling us this can't happen because they build our desire for the american dream and to buy useless shit, humans are competitive - ie. mr darwin.
   
   
2. as a historian, i know that revolutionary change doesn't happen over night and i also know that it doesn't happen because of one person. instead, movements happen with clear leaders, organizers and groups but also with the support of masses of people ie. the french revolution, the american revolution, the russian revolution, the womens movement, african american movement etc etc etc. these revolutions, although different in purpose, place and time, essentially started with an idea for change and led to the masses (whether specific groups or not) pursuing the idea along side the leaders, leading to mass changes. why do i speak of this? well, couldn't demolishing poverty and helping the poor become a revolution? these changes occurred because a small group had an idea and their ideas were spread throughout society. the masses became educated on issues, while some already had the knowledge, but found courage in numbers and took action. my solution? education. educate society on the issues. stop ignoring poverty and rid of stigmatization. yes some will become educated and still not act. others will act. if enough people want change, the government will have to act. no government wants an unhappy populous to vote them out.
   
   
3. last but not least, nor any less of a solution is better government spending. out of the three, this is, i think, the less drastic idea since it works with the system in place and isn't revolutionary. instead i think its a government refocusing on whats important and who is important. at the same time though, for a country like the states, this would be a drastic change but it would be for the betterment of their nation and world at large. so the idea - spend more money on social programs and assistance and stop spending money on useless war. social programs would include health care, education, housing, assistance and job creation. there are several reasons why people become impoverished, including family break up and loss of jobs. the government though should be helping people get out of essentially coaxing as the poor. if money was spent better and not on useless wars that bring money into the capitalist big wigs then those at the bottom would have a better chance of getting out of their predicament.

well, those are my ideas.
whether you agree with them or not is up to you
think about your idea. what would you do?
at least this job is making me think.
i am glad that i can go home everyday knowing i am fighting something and helping someone.
its an awesome feeling!

the title of this post is actually a very important quote in my life.
its from one of my most favourite teachers in high school.
since i was very busy being a social activist in grade 12 especially
once a teacher asked me why i hadn't come by her office for something
and another teacher of mine in the room said "she's to busy saving the world"
and ever since then, its stuck with me.
something i want to live up to, want to describe my life and actually do.
it was a pretty defining moment for me.
so if i don't write on here, talk to you much, im to busy saving the world.

i am glad to see that in the summer, i can still think.

- ray charles
ps. at the mall, one of the security guards was so cute. DAMN BOY hahaha