The "WAR ON POVERTY" has been fought & was lost years ago. Most don't even remember fighting it. It came with a roar & a riot & went with a hand out & a wimper and it was a long time ago.

Warning: Long story

Sit down child & let me tell you how I lived through those wars. Yes, those wars there were others to, ya know. There was one on crime & another on drugs. There were a few, one on child illeracy & another against infant mortality. Anyway there were a lot of wars back then even ones about education, some times I still think that I see a spark of those days every once an' awhile but I just don't pay attention to that any more just an old man reflecting on his youth.
Well where do I start, I guess it would've been sometime back in the 50's. The big war was over and I was just born, there was a new feeling that nothing was impossible, evil had been beaten & all was well with the world. Folks started having lots of kids, every one who wanted to work could, those that came home from the wars were looked after & looked up to & cared for too and when you got old the companies you worked for & the governemt that taxed you took care of you, you even had a chance of making it big time through business or politics and other ways too. Even those who didn't know much could do very well for themselves, it was a dream time. But not all did well, there were still pockets that got left behind, sort of left overs that were hidden from the light & joy. They were always there but they somehow survived & with all the handouts, the social programs & the other Sallys, churches & well to do, do gooders, they got by. Sure they didn't get the good jobs, some didn't even get jobs, maybe they weren't able to do them & sure they didn't get the education either but in the end they didn't die on the streets, they were looked after. Yes those were good times for the most part. I guess it was around the 60's, I was still just a boy but now I was in my teens & it seemd that the world was changing. Folks that had less were asking for more, an' getting it too. They wanted to be able to have a chance to feel as if they were equal to all the other folks that were doing well. They wanted to be treated better than servants or slaves or wanted to educated. Well if men can become schooled why can't we women do it too? Yes the world was going though alot of changes back then, mostly for the good too. But it was looking like there was a cost to it & a toll was to be taken too. It was an all about us, no a me kind of thing mind you but about us. Yup, about us we were the us'es. We were poor & uneducated but so was everyone around us. We didn't know that some folks lived differently, we didn't know that those big houses that we'd see on the TV belonged to real people & how they talked, very fancy & they seemed pretty smart an rich an powerful too. Yup, there were things we were learning about that we had never known about before. We were seeing things like live war and things like how the other side lived, and how the blacks in those other projects across the street lived. Funny they were living just like us and we never knew it. Funny what we leant back then. A lot of people were caring about each other, yes the people were seeing things they never saw before, almost like waking from a slow dream. That's when it started happening, they were beginning to see how some got more & how more got less & it was a bit confusing & a bit unnerving at the same time. The feelings that got to running around about this was off the charts too. Everybody started yelling & hoarding, gabbing & pulling for the things they never had but saw that they now wanted & thought that they should have too. And others thought that they should have & were entitled to itra too, after all they had it and didn't even have to work hard for it either, it was like it was gifts from their parents of from their parents society. Well, that's when it all started falling to shit, maybe some time around the 70's the programs & churches, the armies of Sally's & the social government programs they all started to fight back, in a knee jerk kind of way. Making things harder on the folks that they always helped in the past & started looking at the fund like they belonged to themselves or belonged elsewhere. Yup, they were redirecting, not only the money, funds & resources but they way they thought too. Gone was the helping hand & the eye on the down & outer. About the same time the available money's were starting to run low. The big backers of these programs started finding other uses for their funds & other reasons for the redirecting. So that's when the not so lucky started feeling the crunch. They were always uesd to being & getting by without before but now they had had a taste of what it was like not to go without for so long, they had tasted a good time for once in their lives, what it was like to taste the food off a better & bigger plate. Yes child, they had had a taste of education, knowledge & a taste of freedom & equality, of the pride of a staedy job, or at least they thought they saw what it was like. Before you know it parts of cities were burning up all over the nation, groups of radicals were marching all over the place, some yelled louder than others & others worked quitely & on the sly but they all saw what it was they were fighting about & for even if some of them didn't know quite what it was they knew it was right for them. Any way the fighting continued at home & sometimes over seas too. Government officials & politicians were all asking folks what was the reasoning behind all the fighting but most really knew the answer, the world was changing. Anyway, as the fights got fiercer the costs grew higher. Sure some battles were won & some were lost but mostly the money, the opportunities, choices, means, funds & the brains started to fade. And there were more people coming into the wars all the time too, some being born into them & some coming from other places where things were even worst. The more they fought the less there was to fight about. Less food, less freedom, less jobs. Some even cared less & others even knew less, it was like one step forward three steps back some times even six or seven steps back. So it was a time where folks became divided. Many were just having a hard time getting bye, some asked why the hell are they fighting & some even said what a nerve they had to go an fight & some could no long afford to fight and then some were just plain beaten so bad & so often taht they just fell where they stood & some just had to move on. They were starting to realize that they were back at the beginning but this time they knew that they had lost, they knew that all was for not & they knew what they were being left out of. They knew they were had. They knew that they had lost the wars. Sure some still had some fight left in them & sure some still wanted to help them but in the big scheme of things they lost. Actually they lost so bad and had fought so hard that there were attempts to make sure it never happened again. Those get ahead programs disappeared almost completely & it seemed like it was overnight too but it really took a little time. Those educational places of higher learning closed a lot of their doors, some forever, some are just beginning to open them again. The job markets started to dwindle, some of it even went overseas, some just started paying less in the form of money and benifits and no longer would they promise to keep you or care for you, even if you were getting older & better at your job. And the government they really let us know too, they really started taxing us and all for nothing too all the while giving most of it back to their friends that helped them during the war times, yes they made out very well, still do. Meanwhile the left over lost got to gamble more, that got legalized, funny, they're even draining the losers of that account and making a killing at it too & the drugs that started pouring in during the wars, well the folks that started on that road sure payed the way for a lot of others and they got less & less help as time pasted too and they were making a killing at this too. Funny how those folks made at killing every time there was dying to be done. Actually alot of the hospitals that used to help turned alot of folks that fought these wars away, some even closed & kicked many out on the streets. They even built more prisons, not just for the people that fought these wars but for those that got turned away from the hospitals & social programs & for a lot of the strugglers too, even made it into a big money making business, yup they sure figured it out, they came down to hard on us if you ask me. So there you go kid, most don't even know the story, some didn't even know there was a war going on & some didn't give a shit too, others, some others were making a bundle off of these wars & are still doing very well by keeping the legacy going today. So I want you to remember this, all of this & someday maybe you'll be able to tell it like it really was & how it was forgotten about and how they suffered like hell and still do. Ya know sometimes I almost get to thinking when I look at you & some others that I can see a little spark of those days in your eyes & it almost gets me to beliving that those battles may one day come again, of course with out all the suffering too, maybe a few are learning that it didn't have to be that way. Someday take a driveby where your old man grew up you'll still see loads of those lost ones (don't you ever go calling them losers either, they've earned their battle scars) sitting on the stoops & stairs tossing some dice or playing at cards with a bottle by their side or a needle stuck in their arm. Don't you ever go disgracing them, their dying so that some can go on living, I know it ain't right but it still is how it is. It's bedtime now, let's turn out the lights & go to sleep. Don't forget to pray, maybe you can pray for them, they earned your prayers an' pray that that you'll never become one of them & promise me that you'll go to college one day so that you never have to go hungry like my sister an brother & I did when I was your age. My brother, oh you never met my brother, he died during those wars but that's another story son. I'll tell you about how brave my brother was another night.

Barry