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| In 1968, King organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. The campaign's aim was to get Congress to sign a bill allowing economic aid to be given to the poorest communities of the United States. |
In 1968, King organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. The campaign's aim was to get Congress to sign a bill allowing economic aid to be given to the poorest communities of the United States. In 1968 I wasn’t old enough to be poor or become rich, but on my own I was struck by how little I knew about money. The voices in my head about money astounded me and riddled me with fears unrecognizable to me. Many mornings when I was a young husband I awoke with dread and deep gnawing feelings of losing everything and living in abject poverty. It was a daily battle. Despite the comforts of my privileged upbringing I’d picked up a proverb from a story that copulated with the times and the feelings of under served people lumped together in dead in jobs. Assemblies like this created a force in perpetual motion, a dark energy form over generations a simple white candle and a prayer will not diminish.
Financial literacy is not the gift of American public schools. That being said I think all the efforts of ending poverty are pantomime. Very slowly after one agonizing year after another my ignorance of finance realized the wars against poverty were baseless absurd assertions. If financial illiteracy is the staple of public education the strategies needed to arise out of poverty will never well up within the collective and individual genius of poor people. They will always be bound by ignorant maxims, and hear, in their heads, the same stories that dictate behavior around money that keeps them poor and frustrated with their lot.
Millions and millions of dollars were allocated for the war on poverty. Where did that money go? If it didn’t go into education it made someone rich and others remained poor by design... ©Gregory E. Woods
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