Take a drive through any metropolitan area of America and it won’t be long before you see firsthand that poverty and homelessness are not unique to third world countries. In the Midwest community in which I live, “Will Work For Food” signs are standard reading at major intersections.

I was in Seattle on a business trip last year. As I walked the sidewalks of the pier district, surrounded by the quaint shops and beauty of that great city, I was amazed by the number of men and women sleeping on the sidewalks. The scene is duplicated in city after city across this land of opportunity. The truth of the matter is that very few of us really know what it is to experience that difficult situation.

Sure, it’s fairly easy to walk right past a guy holding out a cup with a few coins in it, shake our heads and mutter under our breath that he should get off the street and get a job. It’s not too hard to drive right past that dirty-haired, shaggy-bearded man on the corner holding his sign if we convince ourselves that he is there by choice. In reality, I’m sure a great many of our homeless and poverty-laden citizens are perfectly content to live on the street and beg. In fact, I have heard that some of them make a pretty good living at it. But there are also many Americans who call the street their home, or whose names are on the welfare rolls, who hate it and want desperately to get out of their situation—they just are not sure how.

Consider the single mother whose jerk of a husband woke up one morning and realized his selfish little ego needed to be filled more than the bellies of his family. So he took off with his little honey on the side and left his wife to fend for herself. For years she stayed home to take care of their precious children so he could go out to play at his job and pursue his dreams. Now she is left with mouths to feed and no practical means to earn the money to do it.

Then there is the guy who has worked a job for years, and through no fault of his own, he’s let go in a downsizing. He is suddenly left with no job and little prospect for one in the near future. He hits the want ads and pounds the pavement day after day but can’t find work. Meanwhile, he has a wife and a couple of kids to house and feed and he is running out of money to do it.

I could go on and on with examples like these of real life in action. The recovering drug addict who truly wants to change and make something of his life. The pregnant teenager who made a bad choice on prom night and finds herself carrying a child with no way to support that child. The divorced tradesman whose factory relocates to a town far away and whose desire to stay close to his children keeps him from moving.

Certainly there are ways and means for the unfortunate in each of these situations to pick themselves up, dust off, start over, and get out of their predicament. For some (the single guy) it would be much easier than for others (the single mom with three kids). However, those of us who grew up in good homes and had parents who supported our education and pushed us to get out there and make it in the world need to be careful not to judge this segment of our population too harshly. If we have never been in the shoes of someone who just got the world pulled out from under them, we need to think twice before throwing out simple solutions to problems that are far from simple. The bottom line is that yes, in this great land of promise, anyone in any situation (excepting, of course, the severely handicapped or disabled who truly are incapable of functioning on their own) who pushes him or herself, and who works hard to pursue the opportunities that are available, can pull him or herself out of any tough situation and make it without having to be permanently dependent on someone else’s money. But so often those who find themselves in these types of consuming situations feel trapped, hopeless, and helpless and simply aren’t sure how to even begin to get back on their feet.

Let me say again that I recognize there are many living in poverty around us who choose to remain in that state for any number of reasons—they are lazy, they’re content to bleed the system, they may be great con artists, they choose to make bad choices. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for this group. Chances are this class of people will likely never change (I refuse to say absolutely never because I believe no one is ever completely beyond hope). My thoughts in the next few blogs aren’t written so much with them in mind. I’ll be tossing around ideas for coming up with a plan for those who truly need a helping hand—a hand that assists them for a time in getting on their feet then gently cuts the strings and nudges them into independence.

Tomorrow we’ll take a look at why the government is a bad candidate for helping the needy—despite the role Barak Obama would like to assign Washington in this problem.