by the numbers: poverty in the states

The economic results of the 2005 American Community Survey were released this past Tuesday. This is a yearly survey done by the US Census which provides all sorts of numbers on America's ever changing population. The section of the ACS released this Tuesday includes measurements of poverty, income, and health insurance coverage on a national, state, and city basis.

The short story is that the national poverty level is the same, median household income by race are still the same, the national median household income has gone up by 1%, there are some significant increases in the number of Americans with health insurance, and men still earn more than women (no surprise there).

I think this is right, but correct me if I'm wrong... The US Census traditionally calculates the poverty line to be the household income at which the individual(s) is obviously poor and is adjusted yearly for inflation (among other variables) and calculated along a gradient by the # of dependents in one house. Everyone at or below the poverty line is officially "poor". The national measurements of poverty are also highly debated.

I don't make it a habit of stalking the US Census site or newsroom. I live in Cleveland, OH, which has snagged the 2005 titles of #1 poorest big city and #1 lowest median household income of any major city. We have the nation's highest poverty rate with nearly 1 out of 3 residents (32.4%) living below the poverty line and nearly half of the city's children living in poverty. The general reaction I've gotten from fellow Clevelanders has been mild distress but "no surprise". The media, of course, is really upset.

The temptation for me is to write Cleveland off as a dead and dying city, which is what it literally looks like. (My sister goes to school in the city and I swear everyone on her campus looks depressed everytime I visit.) While I've lived most of my life in the Cleveland metroplitan area, I've never really felt a tight connection to the city, or any city for that matter. I know that God does ask us to settle and care for the communities we live in, to seek the peace of our cities. I know that God's heart is for the city. This brings up a number of uncomfortable questions for me that I need to begin to pray through, about a city I've spent most of my life trying to get away from. When I think about where I've been this summer, it is a little startling to realize that I really don't need to go too far from home to find the poor.

. . . . . . . . . . .

On an unrelated note: If you haven't heard, in the upcoming new Survivor season, CBS has decided to divide its tribes by ethnic lines: a black team, an asian team, a white team, and a latino team. Part of me wants to watch and analyze, but part of me is still fairly horrified with CBS, doubtful that America is ready for this kind of content, and doesn't want anything to do with it.

Because I can't help myself...

Subvert the Empire Wallpaper...

Hola Amigos,

I've been struggling for words or imagary to describe how I've been feeling since getting back home. It's as though I've been going through the motions of life, even as I visit family and friends. I've been avoiding important tasks, especially preparation for school, while simultaneously spending time doing inconsequential things like playing hockey on the PS2. However, I think that today I've figured it out.

I told the staff that my thoughts about them and the team as a whole reminded me of Peter's reaction to the Transfiguration (Matt 17). Not that I think any of you are Moses or Elijah, per se ;) - but that there was an overwhelming reality of God's presence within our team in Mexico City. I speak of God's presence in the 1 John 4 way - God is love - especially v. 12-13 - "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." It is God's love, the Spirit's presence that allows us fallen creatures to rise above sin, malice, greed, jealousy, bitterness, etc. and to truly love one another as God loves us. This is the presence of God I saw within our team this summer - not that we were perfect, but I can truly say that of all the teams/groups of which I have been a part, ours was a place where I had seen God's presence more than any other.

Back to Peter ... and so as Peter realizes he is in the presence of God he wants to stay on the mountain, to build houses for Elijah, Moses, and Jesus ... to stay in that place indefinitely ... and who wouldn't? I feel/felt the same way about my experience in DF, I knew that this experience of God's presence was unique and I believe I wanted to stay there, spiritually. However, Peter must go down the mountain as Jesus has more things planned - for himself and for Peter. However, I did not go down the mountain, I did not want to move on to the next things God has planned for me, I did not want to give up the specific experience of God from DF ... but of course I was no longer in DF with the team ... the mountain had moved from beneath me. So I find/found myself in a place of "inbetween", of nowhere - the way I was experiencing God in DF was removed, and I did not go down the mountain to follow a new experience of God. So I became left in limbo, with no mountain beneath my feet nor one to climb down in order to move on.

However, this afternoon the mountain reappeared in the form of the blog posts here. The openness and vulnerability of your sharing recreated that place of community of the summer, the place where God's Spirit dwelt. The mountain reappeared long enough for me to figure out my predicament and then make my way back down ... to the new things God has planned. Yet I will not forget what happened up there, like Peter would never forget what he learned about Jesus and God at the top of that mountain.

gracias a ustedes

gracias a Dios

Nick

I started to pack some today in preparation for Chapter Focus and the coming school year; about 10 minutes in it got tough and I had to sit down and take my quiet time to refocus and realize what had happened. I’m taking another big step away from the trek, and I’m worried that the people, the places, and the experience will be lost to me. I really felt like this was another step in walking away from my experience on the trek. The combined emotions of missing all of the people and places and realizing how much I have to do in the next few weeks made me want to break down and cry. I know that I have gotten a lot out of the trek, but I worry that there is still more that I will lose if I don’t hang on to the experience; but another part of me knows better. That is the part that tells me that God will give me all of the time and recollection that I need to fully debrief. It’s still hard though. I was in an intense experience that was amazing, and now I’m going back to the grind of school. It may be true that my motivations have changed and my plans for the future have changed; in fact I will go into even more intense experiences when I return to urban slums 5 years (or so) down the road. But for right now, this summer was really life changing for me, and part of my subconscious says to me that walking away is the death of it to me. I know that this is not the truth and during my quiet time God really got me excited about things again, but it’s still going to be tough at times. ‘Cause in a way I am walking away, but I need to trust that God will keep that experience with me as I move on to other things for Him.

Earthquake in Mexico -- No Harm Done?
Link-A-Roo-Ski

Here also are some links (sent by Elizabeth in our families' up-date e-mails) about the elections:

BBC (British)
Link-A-Roo-Ski
Link-A-Roo-Ski
Link-A-Roo-Ski

Canadian
Link-A-Roo-Ski

French
Link-A-Roo-Ski

Forbes.com
Link-A-Roo-Ski

Washington Post
Link-A-Roo-Ski

An article from a famous Mexican author who attended the first of
several political rallys supporting the 'defeated' candidate.
Link-A-Roo-Ski

[edit- now don't that look better?]

This is me humbling myself in love for all of you: Sharing this goofy fencing picture of me from the "Gopher Gore Tournament 2006."

Anyways. Yes, Re-Entry. Having my fair share of confusing and ~awkward~ moments but generally my latest anti-huge-company and pro-free-stuff convictions have been graciously accepted by my parents.

I made the mistake of telling my Dad about the skit during debrief (with socially aware Panda Gigante)... and he was like... I was actually going to take you to dinner and a movie tomorrow. But not to worry, I adroitly maneuvered myself out of that mess and had a good time swapping summer stories over soup and shakes the next day.

My re-entry weirdness has been marked by several Latino-run-ins that have straight-up bewildered me. For example eating in a fairly authentic Mexican restaurant, shopping at an all-Spanish CD stand (can't beat D.F. bootleg prices, can you?) I'm always inclined to speak Spanish and then wonder if that's really appropriate or could possibly be offensive.

Then there have been the Globo-Corp-Big-Money-Moments like shopping in a craft store that put me in bed with sticker shock.

Generally, I've been isolated from my spiritual compadres since my return -- with the exception of e-mail and phone. However, God is good, I've been doing a lot of meaningful 'processing' and received a lot of grace from folks dealing with my new passions and from God in dealing with some aspects of every day life that haven't changed (the all-white suburban church, the well-intentioned suggestions to go shopping, and the prospects of my trip to Spain.)

All in all it's going very well and I thank God for you guys and your willingness to keep communicating. I'm really enjoying your stories and look forward to más!

Mucho amor,
Candice

I don't mean to make it a habit of sending out electronic essays past midnight, but I do a lot of writing at night. I am back on my beloved campus, the Ohio State University! Only for a few days of meetings.. but it has been very good to see friends. I know that my debriefing would not be going this well if I didn't have so many friends who are genuinely interested in hearing the 20-90 minute version of my summer. I'm starting to see that God has really blessed me these past few years with relationships..

I told one of my staff today that I was an INFP and she laughed at me.

My mother looked at me funny last week when I asked her if it was okay that she had left her car to air out in the driveway all day - with all the car doors hanging wide open.

My prayers are still getting answered now that I'm back in the States. I don't know why that surprises me like it does. I think its really cool..

I packed more for my 4 day trek down to Columbus than I did for an entire summer in Mexico and that slightly disturbs me. Granted I was taking my laptop with me..

I had to explain to a friend today why I didn't want to go with her to get coffee at Starbucks -a suspected oppressive multinational corporation-, only to discover that we share a passion for social justice and a desire to work with the poor. I'm still working out what this means for me.. Mostly re-reading my Trek reading assignments, processing with friends, and thinking about what orgs I can invest in next year that will help me to explore more of God's response to urban poverty in columbus.

I always forget that my mother's dream career was to be a social worker and that my parents know poverty. So talking about the Trek wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. Being home this past week wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, with friends calling and emailing me all over the place. I'm not sure how this remainder of the summer will work. I'm going to be in and out of columbus/cleveland more than I originally thought I would and I don't know how to feel about that. I need to think about this more.

I'm asking all my close friends to give me their opinion on what vocation they would picture me in... So far, my social working best friend thinks I should be a social worker and my staff worker thinks I should be a staff worker.. hmm..

I had McDonald's softserve and Chipotle today.

I miss Mexico and the team..


and can it be.wmv (thought about this song a good bit during the Trek but never could remember all the lyrics...)

Well I guess I might as well start us off. My debriefing has been pretty good. Back on Wednesday August 9, I got a chance to take a retreat into the woods to take sometime to get back to being ready for the coming school year. There was definitely some reconciling I had to do between my faith from before the trek and my faith from the trek to make it a healthy transition. Now that my faith has been made back into one faith again I’m pretty much ready for moving on to the coming year, but also keeping in touch with my trekking buddies and using them as a support network to help me with any times that the debriefing suddenly comes back and hits me like a ton of bricks. I love my trekking team.

This is going to be a great year. I look forward to hearing from the rest of my team.