With 34 million people living in poverty and the increasing number due to the Covid-19 pandemic, you would think the political candidates of the 2020 Presidental Election, the press, social media, and anyone with an audience wouldve made this an issue worth mentioning.

American needs to increase its social welfare programs. The quality of living for the poor will never change until our Congress vote on issues to expand Social Security Insurance benefits, Women, infants, and children (WIC), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Also, fair and equitable housing, the diversion of Foreign Aid funding to fix our impoverished communities, and dealing with the real reasons crime and mental health affects those living in poverty.

I grew up in poverty. I am the 2nd child of a one-parent household. We saw very little of our mother because she went to school in the daytime and worked at night to make a better life for us. I know first-hand the toll poverty has on a persons emotional wellbeing. I am a survivor of a system created to keep the wealthy at the top while the poor struggle to achieve a better life. My way of escaping poverty was joining the Armed Forces, the United States Army. Not everyone was fortunate to leave the toxic environment of poverty, even with college degrees. If you think impoverished communities are an eyesore, think about the people living there. I know many of them, and they didnt ask to be neglected by the highest leadership level in the United States.