People deserve the bare necessities

spoke to said they could provide her with a funeral for $250 and give her son a white coffin to be buried in. She took the offer.

BRITTANYLIBERATORE

ASST NEWSEDITOR

BCL722@CABRINI EDU

A20-year-old woman faces one of the biggest tragedies of her life; her baby dies. The next step for this grief-stricken mother is to plan a funeral for her son, but she has no money, hardly any family and no way to afford giving her son the proper burial he deserves. What is she to do?

Last week in one of my classes, my professor got onto the topic of poverty.She said that when she thinks about the reality ofpoverty this story of the 20year-old woman and her struggle to bury her son serves as a powerful definition of the word. As I listened to the entire story of the baby’sfuneral, I also gained a new sense for the word poverty.

As my professor told the story, she explained how the woman called numerous funeral homes explaining her financial status, or lack there of, trying to find any place that could bury her son at a price she could afford. She found one funeral home where the person she

As the mother walked into the funeral home, to lay her son to rest, she saw something that put anew face on poverty.The white coffin that her baby was being buried in was made out of styrofoam! The last respects were paid to the innocent baby as he lay in a bed of styrofoam. The thought of this makes me feel horrible.

The reality that a person, let alone a baby, cannot have a proper funeral is absurd, frustrating and heart-wrenching to me. I feel that in America there should be some things that are guaranteed to all people. I feel every person legally living in the United States should have the opportunity for medical care when needed, a roof over their head, enough food to feed themselves and their children and a proper funeral.

It boggles my mind to think that right now as I sit here and write this, there are billionaires who won’t be able to spend a quarter of their money in their or their family’slifetime, while at the same time there are millions of people who are starving.

Iunderstand as Americans we have the ability to create our own destiny. Hard work and persistence can change a person’s life and it is very likely that a person who came from a lower income family can become very wealthy. Ithink this opportunity to succeed in life is something that we all should be grateful for. However, there are people who can’t catch a break; some who are always fighting to feed their children, living pay check to pay check and borrowing money to provide themselves with the bare necessities of life.

Ithink starting on our homeland first, there needs to be something done to make sure no one is hungry, living on the streets or is in need of major medical assistance. I feel that no one should have to go days without eating, die from an illness that is treatable or have to sleep in a bed made of cardboard on the street.

We are all human beings. While some people will never have to worry about money,others will always have to work two jobs to pay the bills and put food on the table. Not one person should have to live in poverty.

Next time you want those $100 shoes or that new and improved iPod and your mad because your parents can’tafford it, or you’ve spent your whole paycheck, think about how lucky you are that you will never have to see that styrofoam coffin.