Poverty in America

Thank you for your very insightful comments on Wal-Mart. Your words are all very thought provoking.

I wanted to give you a second chance to sit with some of Tom Stone’s photographs. There are a few new ones on his webpage (some are incredibly disturbing) that we did not see in the show up in Feldman-Horn.

What did you think about our discussion in class? Did the photographs confirm or change your views?

I’m going to post his statement again, even though it is on his web page. What did you think of it? Did something resonate with you, upset you?

And lastly which photograph(s) moved you most or disturbed you most? I’d love to have some dialogue about poverty in America.

http://www.tomstonegallery.com/about/

To my thinking, the original human trauma is our separation. We are too close not to need each other; and too far to trust each other. We rely on dubious senses and clever devices to interact; but we are alone in our thoughts. Lonely, insecure and uncertain; we pair, we group, we associate. We try to belong and we seek to exclude. We form bonds by geography, religion, economy and otherwise. But it is all precarious. We come together and we drive apart.
And we climb our ladder. We step away from those who don’t belong and help those who do. We are connected rung by rung – though less and less – as we push and pull. But some do not climb; and below, the earth is littered with them. They fit too poorly. They stand apart. They stand without.
And what of them; these ones who don’t belong or who are excluded; who don’t fit or don’t try? Is there nothing they value? Is there nothing of them we value? I count it as a measure of our ignorance, the depth of poverty in the world. It’s a glaring marker to how far we have not come. Yet it has also driven our advance; on less fortunate backs and against less fortunate fate.
But is there really no connection there? Does such fate – whether choice or circumstance – speak nothing of us? Tell me we do more than advance in place; with so many left behind. Or promise me we can do better. Say we can reflect ourselves; us and them... That we can see the ways we overlap and distinguish the ways we grow apart. And pledge that we can learn; to fit all of our misshapes; to reward value beyond charity and beyond the marketplace; to be better to each other; to be better ourselves. And promise me it could be a better world. Or tell me we are at our best.