So much effort has gone into this cause over the years with little progress.
It was President Johnson who was going to start programs that would lift the poor out of poverty. In recent years, aid has been far more visible with communities, schools and churches developing programs to help the poor.
Many of us still alive today were raised during the big Depression and knew real poverty without support groups or government services to help. Somehow, our parents managed, and we survived. No one gave us a free breakfast or lunch at school. No one bought us a backpack or purchased shoes for us. We had what we had and made do.
Unless you can instill a desire in the hearts and minds of the poor to work toward improving their situation, then it continues into the next generation. Part of the difference is that our parents knew a better life and had hope for a better future when many of the current poor have never experienced a better way.
Our parents had developed good work habits and mothers took their responsibility of raising children very seriously. Our mothers did not work outside of the home but cooked, sewed, canned, did the laundry (often by hand in the bathtub) grew a garden and concerned themselves with the well-being of the family. They cooked oatmeal for our breakfast, made us a sandwich for lunch and learned to feed the family on a pot of soup made with a ham bone and veggies from the garden and homemade bread. Many families also raised rabbits for food. All of these ventures require work. The children learned that life is made up of work and had to pitch in and help.
We never can get back the 'good old days' but just thinking about what made them good can help us now to make changes that will build unity in the family and a desire to keep high standards of living. It was this goal of restoring the past good life, that made that generation so strong and helped their children get past the poor years and to build a better future for themselves and their children.
Darlene Bennett
Salt Lake City