I Found My Heart at Wounded Knee

 I’m sure many of you are sitting there after a long, hard day’s work reading away and are saying to yourselves, “Where the hell did all of this come from?” Yes I admit I am usually known as the planner, who wouldn’t drop my work for anything, even y own god damn birthday party. Recently, much against my personality, I have been trying to become more spontaneous.  I like to think of myself as having guided spontaneity, meaning I like to jump and act on ideas with a well thought out plan or plan details as I go.  However, two years ago on an Alternative Break through the University of Connecticut I was awakened to the effects of rural poverty in our very own country.

Larry Mandell, the president of United Way New York, accounted experiencing poverty on a daily basis.  He stated in relating his experience with American poverty that “[he] get[s] to walk in both worlds.  In a given day [he] might be in a soup kitchen and also in the halls of Fortune 500 companies dealing with the senior executives. [He has] become acutely aware that the lives of those who are well off are not touched at all by contact with the poor. It's not that people don't care or don't want to help. It's that they have very little awareness of poverty.” This is where my story begins, two years ago on a service trip…
  
The bus bumped along the mudded and poorly paved roads of the Pine Ridge Reservation.  I peered out the window letting my eyes wander across the vast, flat landscape.  Looking up at the rising sun, I squinted to avoid the glare bouncing off the dirtied glass pane.  The sky went on forever with nothing to obscure the view of the sacred land we slowly drove on.  In such a wide open space I never would have expected to feel so closed off from the world.  

I was on spring break in the frozen, barren prairie of South Dakota and on my way to a cemetery in which lay victims of a massacre that happened many years ago.  I was leading a group of twelve UConn students on an Alternative Break service-learning experience exploring the culture of the Oglala Lakota Nation and the way that poverty has affected them.  Although I was at first excited about leading this trip, as we got closer to our destination I began to regret ever agreeing to go on this trip in the first place. 

“Almost there now” exclaimed Tom, the director of the organization that my group was working with that week.  He was a well statured man with a long white ponytail that made him look like a rebel out of the 1960s.  His voice droned on as the bus pulled to a halt at the bottom of the steep muddy hill that led up to the Wounded Knee Memorial. 

 

 Cautiously we marched off the bus and formed small huddles in order to defend against the ice cold wind that battered us from above.  The earth beneath me began to quake with the rhythm of the native drum as the images of the massacre flooded my mind.  The Indian Wars of the late 1890s were coming to a close and the last Sioux nation was confronted by the United States Cavalry to disarm them of all weapons.  During the surrender, one native fumbled beneath his cloak causing an onslaught of fire from the soldiers igniting chaos on the hillside of which I stood.  As natives were murdered their bodies were strewn across the surrounding prairie and frozen over by the morning frost.  My stare fell on a child lying on the ground beside me, face contorted in pain, alone.  I began to panic and my desire to help this young child overwhelmed me.  The howling wind brought my attention to my group scaling the hillside and when I turned back the body was gone.    

I tried to take in every inch of the expansive blue sky, spotted white with puffs of clouds that surrounded us.  The expanse before me held so much freedom, if only the natives were able to take flight to escape the berating bullets of the soldier’s gun.  As the group reached the top, our eyes set themselves upon a small, trash-strewn graveyard.  Framed by metal fencing and an archway overhanging the entrance, the cemetery looked like something out of a Hollywood movie set.  Tom turned to the group and started describing the Wounded Knee Site and the history behind the cemetery.  

My mind started to wander as Tom’s voice became a part of the gusts of wind that hit our group with an undeserved wrath.  Standing in front of this cemetery I realized it had been a full three years since I had returned to the gravesite of my grandfather, causing an overwhelming emotion to tear through my body.  My grandfather’s death had been the most difficult time for me during my college career.  Ever since he passed away I have never been able to come to terms with his death or build up enough courage to pay my respects to his gravesite.  

A crisp wind struck my face as Tom’s voice shouted, “I encourage each and every one of you, after paying your respects to the memorial, to separate yourself from the group and reflect on your experience thus far.”    

One by one we entered the enclosure to view the obelisk-like structure.  My turn came to enter. I walked carefully down the single paved walkway that was put in place to prevent observers from stepping on the sacred burial site.  Standing in front of this stone structure, as if controlled by another power, my hand rose up and placed itself on the memorial.  Images of pain and suffering ran through my head like I was fast-forwarding through an old movie.  Pictures of women and children fleeing for their lives, men shot down by rifles, and then my grandfather’s face staring back at me alone and pleading, frozen in a pool of blood on the floor.

My hand shot back as I snapped back to reality.  The people around me must have noticed something had disturbed me, as I made a quick escape out of the metal enclosure.  I started to wonder why that could have happened to me.  Was my conscience really that guilty?

In order to take my mind off of what had just happened, I started picking up pieces of trash that covered the cemetery.  We were there for a service trip after all so I figured this would help ground me back to my original purpose for traveling here over my break.  As I meandered through the cemetery grounds, I read the beautiful poems and sayings that had been written on gravestones by the families and loved ones of the deceased.  Eventually I found myself separated from the pack and off by myself in a corner.  I decided to take Tom’s advice and dig a little deeper with my experience on the reservation.  

In South Dakota, especially in Pine Ridge, I realized how removed I was from my normal everyday comforts.  Transported here by the vision of helping a 

community, I found more and more each day that I was the one who was being helped.  Each of the Oglala Lakota people I had met this week ignited a new passion within me.  The stories that they told and their way of life made me reflect on how I had lived my own.  Most importantly, the people of the Pine Ridge Reservation led me to realize I had let the memories of my grandfather, which I held so dear to my heart, slip away.

Grabbing on to the chain-link fence that had captured me and the other students in this historical land mark, I looked out over the horizon.  This was the first time I had built up enough courage to talk to my grandfather’s spirit, which I felt around me at that very moment.  The release was unfathomable.  As if he himself had come down and touched my shoulders, I suddenly felt that I had somehow reconnected with him and forgave myself for the guilt I felt over his death.  The wind whipped through my hair and froze the single tear that was slowly slipping down my cheek.

Sometimes, we must travel away from our everyday lives to realize what is truly important to us.  The interactions with new people, the partaking in new experiences, the desire to learn, are all things that can allow each individual to understand his full potential.

As I turned to start heading down back to the bus, my eyes found one last grave stone that read the following message, “For This Is A Journey We All Must Take And Each Must Go Alone”. For each person his life is left in their hands and it is up to them to travel a journey of self discovery.  The wind picked up, leading me to the never ending horizon where one day my own sun would set.    

A Peak into Poverty

Poverty.  How does one define poverty?

How much do you really know and understand about what poverty is? The root causes, the symptoms, actions to take, or education to pursue are all areas that even in my mind are not completely clear.  I would like you to take 5 min of your time to complete an activity that I myself completed when I decided to take on this project. 

I would like you to first take out a piece of paper and your lucky pencil.  Shut off any and all distractions including your 80’s Rock Tunes and reality TV shows.  And at the top of your page I would like you to write the word POVERTY. Seems simple enough right? Now in 5 min, I want you to define what poverty is, to list the causes of poverty, and then I want you to list the characteristics of poverty.  Now don’t go add a tab and find the Google definition and research everything to look smart, this is for you, to see how you understand poverty in its simplest form. 

READY…GO! (Cue Jeopardy Music Here)

I encourage you to share with everyone some of your answers to the questions I asked you to think about above.  You can do that by adding a comment to this post or going to the Facebook group and posting it under the discussion board!

When using the Merriam-Webster, ‘picture-perfect’ definition of poverty we get:

POVERTY ~ the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poverty


Basically this definition looks at poverty from a solely economical view point.  Now I am sure that we have all been at this stage at some point in our lives.  The United States is driven by its economy and as American citizens, we drive ourselves along that never-ending highway right into retirement or the poor house, which ever comes first.  Now I could bore you all by going into a cost-benefit analysis of why money is good and why it’s bad but instead I would like to deconstruct the above definition I have presented you with.

Like many of you, I would guess we had similar definitions as the one above when completing the exercise.  Most people look at poverty from a monetary perspective because that’s the easiest way to measure it.  However, I ask you to reflect on the definition above and your own based off my following observations.

The Unusual Use of the Word Usual
The use of the word USUAL in the definition brings me to my first concern about who exactly is the one defining USUAL.  So, we go on the internet, turn the pages of a book, searching for that specific answer and realize that USUAL is defined by our government.  They set what is known as a POVERTY LINE.  This is an average number collected by surveying through the Census Bureau of the pretax annual income of a single individual.  Presently, awaiting the results from the recent 2010 Census, the United States Government defines the poverty line for an individual citizen below the age of 65 as $11,201.00.  So the usual amount of money for a US citizen to live on is slightly higher than that total.  Now I believe that the definition would make more sense if the usual amount of money was defined by a range as opposed to a single averaged value.  Unfortunately the Census does not supply this information so we are left to believe that if our yearly bank accounts are wavering somewhere around this number, we are at risk for being impoverished members of society. 

Socially Acceptable Money?
Now that we understand what exactly usual amounts of money are defined as, let us look at the next option the definition gives us.  Someone who lacks a socially acceptable amount of money or possessions is considered to be poverty stricken.  Now when we define socially acceptable certain basic life necessities come to mind.  Access to a food source, shelter, safe water, access to healthcare and education, and perhaps even an Ipod are all items that one may considerable socially acceptable.  Now in the grander scheme money is necessary for all of these services or entities so, someone who is able to afford a home, food, healthcare, and bottled water is doing relatively ok.  It’s the people that are not able to afford such basic needs that are truly stuck at or below the poverty line. 

In trying not to sound like a complete cynical college graduate, I would like to challenge the use of the phrase “socially acceptable amounts of money”.  Now who’s to say that our star athletes, some of our mediocre actors, and certain government officials who find their salaries sky-rocketing into the 10s of millions of dollars are not poverty ridden?  By the definition it states that people who “lack” the usual amount of money needed to survive are considered to be living in poverty.  How is a paycheck for 20 million dollars to make an hour and a half film considered socially acceptable?  I believe that we need to move away from an economically dominating definition for poverty and look at it on multiple levels instead.

Root Causes of Poverty
I want you to look back at your list of causes for poverty.  Going back to our definition, most people when looking for the direct causes of poverty consider money to be the largest factor determining an individual’s status.  This often times creates the poor-man’s stereotype that the primary causes of poverty result from the individual characteristics of the poor themselves.  David Hilfiker, a family doctor turned clinic specialist, discusses this notion in a short book entitled Poverty in Urban America: Its Causes and Cures.  http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/seeingpoverty/pamphlet1.shtml 

He challenges that it is not the individual’s characteristics that define the root causes of poverty but instead results from imbedded “social structures that are beyond the individual’s control”. 

It is important when looking at a social issue, such as poverty, that we are able to differentiate between the root cause of the problem and the symptoms that are produced from those causes.  Many times we will confuse a symptom for a direct cause to the problem.  This is what Dr. Hilfiker discusses in his above book, that our society looks poorly on the poor because often times we blame their condition on their own actions.  We blame the poor for being lazy, uneducated, drug addicts, and violent.  Now this is not to say that these above issues are present in the urban poor of America, but it is a very small percentage. 

So where does poverty come from? Certain social structures that are presently in place in the United States continue to result in poverty and cause the symptoms that you and I are more readily familiar with.  The root causes that I am going to present you with result from completing a Root Cause Analysis.  This summer I had the great opportunity to work with a summer program that partnered with Ashoka Youth Venture Programs where I was introduced to this exercise.  It follows the 5 Why’s Model to find the primary causes of a problem rather than solely working on fixing the symptoms.  I encourage you to use this same model to identify for you what the root causes of poverty are in America today and compile your own list. http://www.slideshare.net/CharlesGYF/cat001-root-cause-analysis  

Root Causes of Poverty
Government Policies
Racial Inequality
Segregation/Wealth Disparity
Corruption
Economic Re-Structuring
Lack of Basic Human Rights

My above list is not all encompassing to say the least. However, in the next 30 days, I will be exploring if my list is actually true.  Could it be that the US government is causing poverty within its own borders? Is their still racial inequality in the land of the free?  Isn’t economic restructuring necessary for Third World countries to join the rest of society? I hope to answer these questions along with many others on my travels of the US.

Characteristics or Symptoms of Poverty
The last part that I asked you to do is to create a list of characteristics of poverty.  I want you to consider this list more of a list of symptoms that occur because of the above causes.  Again as I had stated previously, these “symptoms” are generally what each of us would think about when asked what we understood the word poverty to mean.  These may include low-income, job loss, domestic violence, limited access to healthcare and an education, and perhaps housing issues as well. To give you a brief (not all inclusive) list, here are some major symptoms that result from the causes of poverty:

Symptoms of Poverty
Hunger & Homelessness
Decreased Access to Healthcare
 Decreased Access to Education
Increased Violence & Crime
Destruction of the Environment
Non-Sustainable Living

Decreased Access to Affordable Housing
Employment Opportunities & Income Levels

Now on the surface level, it is these symptoms that we “Do-Gooders” try to work on eradicating when we contribute to our own communities.  The food and clothing drives we run so that the homeless person on the street won’t go hungry or cold or the houses we build for those less fortunate are thought as addressing the issue of poverty directly.  Just like when a doctor makes a diagnosis, treatment is mainly focused on improving the symptoms of whatever ailment your body is going through.  It has many positive outcomes such as increasing your daily health, creating hope and a vision for a healthier future, and better yet attacking the bad organisms or juju that is raging through your body and making you sick in the first place.  Without organizations that are addressing the above issues in our communities we would be nowhere right now, and the world may look a little darker than it may seem now. 

However, I pose this question to you.  How many times have you gone to a doctor, been prescribed medicine based off your symptoms but never actually told what was causing those symptoms in the first place? Or better yet, been given medication that actually worsened your condition because the root causes of your symptoms were not addressed?  As individuals, organizations, and human beings we need to be asking the root cause questions on a daily basis.  We are not looking for a quick fix here and a new house there, but rather ensuring that the long-term benefit of each of our actions has been well thought out and ties back to the greater issue, in this case poverty. 

As I embark on my adventure on September 7th, I look forward to working with some of the greatest organizations in the 11 cities I will be landing in.  I plan on talking to agencies working on the larger picture of attacking the root causes of poverty while working for organizations that are doing diligent work to help fix the symptoms in hopes of providing a positive sustainable change in the lives of many US citizens.  As my excitement for the trip heightens I encourage you to reach out to more of your friends and family members to start thinking more constructively about issues happening in your own communities. 

Cheers to discovering the roots of every tree in the country!
Bryan