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WILL POVERTY EVER END?
May 9th, 2004
John T. Crestwell, Jr.

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double;
AND THAT IS LIFE!

A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With the smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;
AND THAT IS LIFE!

These words are from the poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and they remind us of the struggle it is to live, and the toils of life many people face each and every day just to have a little bread and a place to lay their heads at night. And with that in mind, I dedicate this sermon to the Wilcox family and the memory of Dick Wilcox and to my mother, Kathleen Crestwell, and all the mothers in the world who labor to make ends meet so that their children can have a brighter future…

This morning we heard from a few of the many bright people we have here at Davies, answering the question, “Will poverty ever end?”

The consensus, I take, is that in order to end poverty we must define poverty and create an action plan. And so, for the purposes of this sermon, I would like to use the World Banks definition of poverty, which states, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not being able to go to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, and lack of representation and freedom.” –World Bank

So we’re not talking about an intellectual exegesis. We are not talking about logic and biology and IQ’s and class structures, economic thresholds, and all of the academic stuff that essentially tells us, in the words attributed to Jesus, “The poor shall be among you always.” And by the way, I don’t accept that notion. The academic stuff has its place, but right now in America and the world, we don’t need long dissertations on the subject matter, which leads to a “paralysis of analysis”. We need action. We need, as a country, to make it a priority on our “hit” list to end a condition that is inhumane—a condition that plagues a large part of our world. For as we celebrate life in this sanctuary today, there are many headed prematurely to the mortuary, as over 700 million people are still living without their basic needs, based on the World Banks definition. And for me, this is 700-million too many. In America, there are 35 million poor including 14-million children, and that’s far too many folk for me…

The tragic part about all of this is that the majority of these people who are impoverished live in East and Southeast Asia and India and Africa and Brazil, and they live on less than $1 a day. And as much as I would like to say the world is beyond that Black/White dichotomy, unfortunately, if you look at a globe, you will see that this problem is still pretty much Black and White. In America, the poverty rate is 13%. Blacks and Hispanics, two minority groups, have a 26% and 25% poverty rate, respectively. Whites have an 8% poverty rate. Again, the average nationally is 13%…

I remember when I was sixteen years old riding the 32 Metro Bus to WJLA channel 7 where I had a stay-in-school internship. I was fascinated by the dynamics of the bus as I rode from Southeast, on Alabama Avenue, to Northwest to Connecticut Avenue. The bus went from 100% Black to 1% Black and I represented the 1% when I got to my stop on Connecticut Avenue. Even the bus driver changed colors.

When I got on the bus in my neighborhood, I saw rundown schools, dilapidated neighborhoods, trash in too many places, poorly landscaped communities, plenty of carry-outs and fast food joints, almost no sit-down restaurants and plenty of liquor stores. And by the time I got off the bus on Connecticut Avenue in Northwest, I saw people walking their dog, couples walking along the sidewalk—happy; beautifully landscaped lawns, quality businesses and fine dining restaurants, I saw bikers, and people jogging. I loved it but then I realized there weren’t many folk who looked like me. Not much has changed today if you ride the 32 from Alabama to Connecticut Avenue. I know we’ve made progress in America but, to me, the world is still too Black and White.

My thesis statement is that poverty will end when we as human beings want it to end; but particularly, when the First World reaches out sincerely to the Third World, as they are called, and the First World decides to move beyond its neo-colonialists tendencies to control resources, toward creating, first, an ideal America of equality and reciprocity, and then a world of true sisterhood and brotherhood, then poverty will be eliminated. Perhaps we could take the log out of our own eye first! It’s a matter of priorities and perceptions. And those in power, quite simply, have not made enough of an effort to annihilate poverty of mind, like illiteracy, and poverty of body like when people go to bed hungry at night or live in substandard housing.

PRIORITES—What’s important to us and PERCEPTIONS—changing how those in power see the world and others who are not like them.

Japan has the lowest crime rate in the world. I hear women can walk around at night with no problems. Japan’s poverty rate is listed as N/A. The number is so meager it does not register. The literacy rate is 99.9% they have virtually no illiterate people. And I know these are numbers and numbers are relative to the situation in many ways and that Japan’s more progressive women wrestle with their roles in the male-dominated society, but hear me out… There are 125 million people in Japan, they’re doing something right! And what I see here is they have made certain issues a priority in their culture. They’re not busy in everybody else’s business but are building their own country first. Perhaps they are this way because of what happened in the World War, I don’t know, but the fact is the numbers speak for themselves…

The disease small pox haunted the Old World in the 18th century. It killed some 100- million people over time well into the 20th century, and was a serious problem. A cure was eventually found and many people vaccinated themselves but many continued to die or become afflicted by the disease, particularly those in poor countries. In 1966 some 10 to 15-million people died from small pox. But finally, in 1967, the World Health Organization put this at the top of their “hit” list; they made it a priority and decided once and for all to eliminate small pox from the face of the earth. They called it the “World Eradication Program”. By 1977, ten years later, the disease, except for one reported case in Somalia, was gone. Gone because the world came together and decided this epidemic would not end the human species. They set forth a plan and worked the plan and ended the plague. My friends, poverty is a plague. It affects us in ways seen and unseen. And sociologists tell us that many crimes are caused by those who are impoverished. Desperation will cause a person to do inhumane things. How many in our society have been victimized by a desperate person? This plague affects us directly and indirectly. And so we must change perceptions and see poverty as a disease. And as John O. said, we need to have a “war on poverty” and eliminate it from the face of the earth.

You know, I was watching “The Apprentice” the show with Donald Trump firing people. It’s pretty cool when he says, “You’re fired!” There are a lot of people in the government I’d like to fire right now! Well, this one gentleman won the contest and they were showing video of where he could choose to work. One place was what Donald Trump described as the most expensive golf course in the world. As the story goes, the 18th hole had recently fallen into the Pacific Ocean. “The Donald” paid an astronomical $10-million to re-raise the land and rebuild the hole. You know, it’s his money and he can do what he wants, but you cannot help but wonder what if the money were in the right people’s hands who were committed to eradicating illiteracy, what a great country we could create. Or in the right hands of those, full of love and compassion for all creation that were determined to eliminate mis-education in our public schools, what an America we could create. You cannot help but wonder what it would be like if the right people, who wanted to move the world away from the Black and White, the us and them mentality, toward the universal rainbow of mutuality; you know, the right people with the right plan and right priorities; if they had the money, they could go into the ghettos in America and into Africa and India and Brazil and East and Southeast Asia and other places, and say “poverty get thee behind me,” what a world we could create! I know many of you want to say to me “Stop dreaming John” but I just can’t help but wonder what it would be like if we could turn our present reality upside down what a world we could create. We have that power!

I don’t know about you this morning, but I have to ask myself the question:
“Can I see another’s woe, (no matter their ethnicity) and not be in sorrow too? Can I see another’s grief, and not seek for kind relief? Can I see a falling tear and not feel my sorrow’s share? No, no never can it be! Never, never can it be!”

I will never accept the notion that the poor shall always be among you. It is a matter of changing priorities and perceptions. Thank you for your time this morning. Now please stand and sing the hymn 127, “Can I See Another’s Woe?” Amen.

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