The Day After: Further Reflections on Poverty and Blog Action Day
I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who joined us (and thousands of others) in our day-long discussion of poverty for Blog Action Day, and to urge you to take a moment to meditate on some of the responses posted by stellar advocates in the legal aid community who have taken seriously the idea that technology has the power to transform the lives of our clients, whether by providing staff with the tools that they need to be effective advocates or developing and implementing innovative technology to increase access to justice.
The responses that we received were inspiring: Claudia Johnson reminds us that "[p]overty can happen to anyone for any reason, sometimes by willful or accidental random acts," and urges us to "find solutions that lift all of us based on love and wisdom" and "use every tool at our disposal to banish it." Molly French shares her experience living for a week on a food stamp budget and wonders what it would be like if she had no one to fall back on during hard times to help her through. Tony White challenges us to keep things real and challenge ourselves on a daily basis, to think globally and act from our hearts. And Madhu Lakshmanan provides eloquent insight based on her experience growing up in poverty in India, and challenges us to "step out of that numerical aggregated cocoon and talk to real people and their problems." Finally, Liz Keith shares the story of the story of the Grameen Bank, a microcredit program that started in Bangladesh in 1970s, as an example of a simple, grass-roots innovation that overturned conventional wisdom.
A couple of other reflections on poverty from the perspective of legal aid and public interest advocates include an insightful post on the Shriver Center's Blog, Step Forward, by the Center's president, John Bouman. Another excellent post was written by Robin Wheeler on her SC Access to Justice Blog. I hope that, in addition to reading the responses on Technola, you'll also take some time to read these contributions to the dialog. While poverty can't be eradicated in a day, the fact that so many took a few minutes to read, write and reflect on poverty is a real accomplishment, and yet another step towards understanding the dynamics of poverty and potential solutions to this complex challenge. - M
