The point, of course, is not to immediately redistribute the wealth here, there or anywhere. Let's not get side-tracked.

It may or may not help change my poor neighbor's life and legacy if I sell my house and buy us both trailers that are a nicer than the one they already have.

It certainly won't teach their kids about better nutrition, or make them buy better food so that the kids are healthy, alert, and keep their teeth past their twenties. It won't un-do the legacy of under-education, bad management of resources, and the effects of frustration, confusion and hopelessness.

Of course there is a place for charitable giving, well spent, and accompanied by our personal involvement. We as a nation, in many ways, give generously. But we are also, many of us, very separated from our giving. How often do we write a check, check a box, throw a dollar in a pot, with a vague sense of having helped a hungry or homeless person?

A better idea would be to get in your car, go someplace where you can help person-ally. Hand a hot meal to hungry person, go under the bridges and around the dark corners in your city and find where those vaguely-numbered homeless people live. Instead of just 'donating' that pair of gloves you replaced because they're ugly, find someone who doesn't have any, and hand them over. Cover a cold, sleeping person with a warm blanket. Gives a very different perspective.

Works great to bring your children with you. If you think it's too weird or hard to do this on your own, many organizations are creating opportunities to do just this kind of work, and people are finding it life-changing. As we should.

The point is that we need a two-front offense: personally engaging in easing suffering, AND attacking the ROOT causes of poverty in a nation of wealth and abundant resources.

Dani