The problem is that a significant number of Americans are living in poverty or near poverty, and millions of men, women, and children are suffering. See The Positives:
This is a land of unlimited opportunity, with great resources, enormous wealth, and wonderful individual rights and political freedoms.
List The Negatives:
Many state governments are on the verge of bankruptcy because they can't afford to pay for increasingly expensive social welfare programs. The federal government apparently gave up on the "War on Poverty" a long time ago.
Now, our nation has reached the frustrating and desperate point of tying to solve the welfare problem by eliminating direct relief programs for adults, reducing food stamp programs, and almost eliminating Aid to Dependent Children benefits (ADC). Our government is angry, worried, and scared.
Share Feelings:
We need to form study groups to talk about the poverty problem, and honestly share all of our feelings about it. We definitely are angry that poverty won't go away just because we cut programs or try to ignore the problem. We are sad that young mothers who are only children themselves are having more children. We are afraid that families on welfare stay on welfare.
We are guilty that racism, substance abuse, poor education, poor health care, lack of adequate job opportunities, limited affordable housing, and unstable family life, all perpetuate the cycle of poverty in the richest nation in the world, America.
We are probably afraid that our inner cities will turn into armed camps, and that crime will spread to middle class neighborhoods. We are afraid we can't even afford to meet our own daily financial needs when most Americans are working, let alone focus on the needs of people or families who aren't working. We are worried about our own safety, health, prosperity, and happiness.
Let Go:
Can we let go of our negative feelings towards the people on welfare, the working poor, the homeless, and the hopeless? Can we stop projecting our inadequacies, frustrations, or judgments on those who are less fortunate, and who usually suffer from multiple problems and addictions?
It is time and long overdue to accept the fact that racism, poor education, and lack of decent job opportunities for the unskilled-to mention just a few of the causes of poverty, won't go away by themselves.
Forgiveness:
We can begin to make progress again in reducing the poverty level in this county if we face our social mistakes honestly and openly. Can we forgive ourselves and nearsightedness for moving some of our largest corporations with desperately needed jobs outside of America? What about allowing organized crime to turn drug abuse into a billion dollar industry that saps the motivation from our nation's disadvantaged?
What about failing to link welfare to counseling, educational services, training, and on the job mentoring opportunities? The list goes on and on, but one thing we must correct now is institutional racism; where men earn more than women; where white men and women earn more than black men and women, who earn more than brown men; where everybody earns or has more than our Native Americans.
No wonder so many of the poor turn to sex, drugs, and even crime to hide their own pain and suffering. It's time to start forgiving our social denial systems, and stop blaming the poor. Where there is no hope, there is no motivation to make positive choices. We can and we must restore hope for our poor, suffering social brothers and sisters who get sucked into the cycle of poverty.
Gratitude:
Let us be grateful there are some social programs that have a good track record of bringing some people out of the ranks of the poor: i.e., Job Corps, Head Start, Vocational Rehabilitation, Transitional Living, Half-Way Homes, Oxford Homes, Homeless Shelters and Food Kitchens, to mention just a few. Let us be grateful we still have the opportunity to learn from our social, economic, cultural, and political mistakes.
But, let's not wait too long any more. Our many political leaders, corporations, and interest groups must look beyond the profit motive to the emotional gift of human compassion. On this internal and bright, spiritual horizon rests the potential of our social survival.
Hope:
Are you ready to choose the positive for our country as well as for your own growth and development? If necessary we can take steps to create a new political party, or at the very least, push for a new level of consciousness and commitment to humanize social welfare programs.
For example, it's okay for able-bodied welfare recipients to work in exchange for assistance; it's not okay to neglect funding resources that provide retraining and educational opportunities for the poor who can become dependent on dead-end "Work-Fare" jobs like street sweeping and building cleaning.
Of course, the greatest objection to trying a new approach in social welfare is the question of how are we going to pay for it? If one can consider the poor and disadvantaged as human resources, with feelings just like you or I-rather than fiscal liabilities, a new ray of hope for funding welfare programs is possible. This would mean redesigning our welfare system to emphasize human strengths rather than weaknesses.
I spent seven years of my professional life working in the welfare system at the Department of Social Services in Michigan. I challenge you to walk into any welfare office in this county and experience how you will be treated.
You learn very quickly from the dirty, smelly room you wait almost endlessly in, that you are a failure and that you have hit the bottom of the barrel. The attitudes of most of the workers are just as bad, because they are frantically over-worked and placed under extreme pressure by a State system that never provides the necessary resources to defeat the cycle of poverty.
Frankly, the system was never designed to rehabilitate the poor. The majority of the poor are single,
uneducated mothers. Where are the day care centers to teach these mother parenting skills? Where are the counseling programs to deal with substance abuse issues, low self-esteem, and despair?
Where are the job training programs that will prepare these mothers for a life other than subsistence living? You answer, why the Medicaid Program is paying for these service, right?
But, social service and health care providers are refusing to accept Medicaid patients all across our country, because it doesn't adequately compensate for the cost of these services. And now our political leaders debate the necessity of cutting Medicaid services, because government can't afford to pay for these services either.
Most importantly, don't forget that millions of Americans who are working, can't qualify for Medicaid; they also can't afford to pay for their counseling or rehabilitation services either.
So, it is time to react with our heart rather than with our intellect. Why don't we consider investing in the potential of human resources, rather than punishing the victims? This is a way to enlist the power of hope to facilitate change for the poor.
How different our welfare system could be if people needing help would walk into an environment similar to a doctor's office-an environment designed to communicate warmth, caring, and hope. Then instead of a "means test" to verify "eligibility", which implies all welfare recipients are liars and cheats, welfare grants could be considered loans rather than hand-outs.
Recipients might be expected to pay the States back or work for a period of time in public service. The States would have to agree to create a meaningful system of retraining, education, counseling, and public works where the goal is to move the poor back into the main stream of productive living.
Since the majority of the poor are single mothers, this would mean the States would also have to create a viable, safe, and nurturing day care system. Endless possibilities present themselves when we consider making investments rather than expenditures; i.e., low income housing built by people on assistance, but run by the State.
How about peer counseling groups supervised by professionals but staffed by para-professionals from the ranks of the poor? And of course re-cycling projects run by the State could be staffed largely by people on assistance seeking job training experiences.
One thing all of us could do is volunteer to teach people on assistance or the working poor, System 49. We could empower them to help themselves. Once they learn how to focus, release, and replace negative feelings, they will want more training and social treatment programs.
If this seems too overwhelming, or beyond one's limit of involvement, at least some of us could encourage the local welfare boards to start self-help groups, which will teach System 49 principles. The least that can happen right now is for some social workers who are employed within the welfare system to try out some of these ideas.
We can stand together in the name of healthy emotions: peace, forgiveness, gratitude, hope, and love. We can work on our Love-Light inside, and help reach the potential of our forgotten Americans who have much to contribute to helping our county prosper and heal.
Our goal might be to work towards the amelioration of human suffering in this great country of ours. Such a vision could restore compassion and hope for our nations disadvantaged, rather than continue the present, sole preoccupation with wealth and power.
Let us begin a nationwide search and a worldwide one if necessary, for social service treatment and rehabilitation programs that work. We can invest our tax dollars in human resources without shame, and resist the process of bureaucratization.
Social change won't happen just because we elect new leaders or have different programs. Significant reform won't happen until we first face our own negative side that harbors all of those stressful and painful feelings. That's the dark secret.
Our emotions are the doorway to personal healing, recovery, and social reform. So, let's begin to use this knowledge to resolve the serious social challenges that are facing all nations worldwide in the new era of the electronic age.
You have seen how System 49 can be used as a framework for social change. It is time now to do something different to help the millions of men, women, and children living in a total state of despair not just in America but in the rest of the world. We must find a way to reach out and get involved.
When we give a loving hand to others in need, our own healing and recovery will be strengthened and enhanced. This is my contribution to understanding the secret of the "Law of Attraction."
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