One in Fifteen

Hope is a thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
~Emily Dickinson

You can't survive without hope. You wither and dry up or become brittle and unable to stand upright. But what happens when hope is pummeled over and over?.

Today I read that one in fifteen people in the United States are the poorest of the poor. How long does hope stay perched in their souls? Does hope erode when there isn't any time in the day left for dreaming of the future?

For too many people the future spreads out on a parched landscape. Isn't that what the Occupy movement is saying?

While we're figuring out the next tech gadget, the sleeker car, the better return on investments many people in this country see hope ground down to dust.

Too many closed doors. How do we live with that statistic...one out of fifteen?

About 20.5 million Americans, or 6.7 percent of the US population, make up the poorest poor, defined as those at 50 percent or less of the official poverty level. Those living in deep poverty represent nearly half of the 46.2 million people scraping by below the poverty level. In 2010, the poorest poor meant an income of $ 5,570 for an individual and $11,157 for a family of four.

That 6.7 percent share is the highest in the 35 years that the Census Bureau has maintained such records..."
~ Boston Globe November 4, 2011

The Occupy movement holds up a mirror.