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Invisible Child

Poverty, Survival & Hope in An American City
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Apr 29, 2022PimaLib_NormS rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Those of us fortunate enough not to have experienced poverty should be required to read “Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, & Hope in an American City” by Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times investigative reporter Andrea Elliott. This extraordinary book is the result of spending eight years immersed in the lives of an extremely poor and troubled family of ten in New York. The obstacles this family faced in an effort to stay together were truly appalling. The parents created some of those obstacles, and an unfeeling, incompetent bureaucracy created others. And then, sometimes things just happened for no apparent reason. A family such as this desperately needs help, but it seems as if no one knows what to do. If poverty were an easy problem to solve, we would have solved it by now. Can we at least agree that there is too much poverty in this country? The richest, most powerful nation on Earth should not have children going to bed hungry. Certainly, many poor people have made bad choices. Some chase drugs rather than parenting their children. Some prefer to game the system rather than find gainful employment. Some keep having children even though they cannot care for the children they already have. Some have physical and/or mental health issues. Some wind up getting incarcerated. There are those above the poverty line who believe the poor do not do enough to help themselves. No one wants to see their tax dollars wasted. No one wants to feel victimized by cheaters. But, when we do not help the poor, it is the most vulnerable and the least able to help themselves who suffer most – the children. It is terribly optimistic to expect them to grow into responsible, productive adults after having lived through the multiple childhood traumas caused by poverty. Sure, some people make it out of unimaginably dire conditions to become successful in life. What about the ones that, for whatever reason, are unable to do so? Should they be written off and forgotten? It is very difficult for those who have no boots, to pick themselves up by their bootstraps. By writing “Invisible Child”, Andrea Elliott has given her readers the gift of understanding how poverty affects a family trying to stay together. Struggling just to survive is the reality for many poor folks in America. The fact that we have any hungry people in this bountiful country is shameful.