Here is an article yesterday in the Lincoln Journal Star about the release of a report on the high poverty level in that city. The article begins dramatically:
Poverty can hide in Lincoln.
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It does not show itself in the form of extensive slums or hordes of homeless people begging on the street.
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Here, it mostly hides inside chilly homes and in the form of late payments, and it’s masked by a variety of community solutions.
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How poverty affects Lincoln, and how each person could help, isn’t an issue that begs for an answer here.
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But Lincoln Action Program is looking for one anyway, and it is challenging the public to help.______
On Thursday, LAP rolled out its part in a nationwide campaign titled “Rooting Out Poverty.”
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With it, agency leaders hope to raise awareness of need in Lincoln, where they said more than 33,000 people live below the federal poverty line.
The article goes on to lament that 53% of those are on Food Stamps (funny that is just about the same percentage nationally of refugees on Food Stamps).
As you read further down, one wonders what the mystery is all about. This city has a large immigrant/refugee population that keeps groups like the Lincoln Action Project (with its 20 programs) in business.
It (LAP) helps people like Nabil Shokai, a Sudanese refugee who came to Lincoln in 2005 and took career training at LAP. Today, he is an Americorps volunteer, getting work experience while helping other refugees with paperwork and resettlement.
So, Mr. Shokai is paid by the Federal government (Americorps is a federal program) to help more refugees resettle in Lincoln. Earth to Lincoln! You will never get out of your cycle of poverty when you keep importing it!