Poverty a 'death sentence'? Not in America!

January is National Poverty in America Awareness Month.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported:

• The official U.S. poverty rate in 2021 was 11.6%, with 37.9 million people in poverty. Neither the rate nor the number in poverty was significantly different from 2020.
• Official poverty rates decreased for people under the age of 18 and increased for people 65 years and older, but were not statistically different for 18- to 64-year-olds
• The majority of the demographic groups discussed in this report did not experience significant changes in their poverty rates between 2020 and 2021.

Karl Marx blamed capitalism and the wealthy for poverty. He said, "The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs."

Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., sitting in a seat he has held since 2007, said in 2016 when he was running for president that America's poverty-stricken population face conditions similar to those in "distressed cities in Nigeria, India, China, and South Africa" and other struggling areas around the world.

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Sanders went on to say, "Fifteen neighborhoods in Baltimore have lower life expectancies than North Korea. Two have a higher infant mortality rate than the West Bank in Palestine. ... Baltimore teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 face poorer health conditions and a worse economic outlook than those in distressed cities in Nigeria, India, China and South Africa."

Sanders concluded, "Poverty in Baltimore, and around this country, is a death sentence." (He echoed the same thing about poverty in the U.S. in 2019)

I couldn't disagree more.

One ginormous fact Sanders overlooks is that America offers more roads and opportunities to get out of poverty than any other country on the planet. To liken America to the other countries he cited is simply to ignore American exceptionalism and completely disregard the very American dream our founders established.

The fact that anyone lives in America is the single reason poverty is never a death sentence. At worst, in light of the American dream, which is still "open for business," poverty is an obstacle on the path to a better life and road to freedom and success.

Sanders' pessimism leads his younger audience to believe that only government can save them, something former President Barack Obama has repeatedly said as well. It leaves them feeling further entitled to subsidy and without hope of making personal contributions to climb out of their life holes. That's misleading, wrong and un-American!

Such negative influence and misleading messages upon younger generations is what prompted the 2-minute viral video with over 46 million views by Texas millennial journalist Alexis Boomer, who fought back and said about her generation: "Everything that used to be frowned upon is now celebrated. Nothing has value in our generation because we take advantage of everything."

She concluded her 2-minute case by saying, "I do know that we were raised better. Thank you from this millennial for putting up with those … who do not see wrong in their actions. I hope we start pulling our pants up and actually [begin] contributing to the society we love … so that we can make a difference in the future."

I know about this social climb because my family lived it and fought our way out of abject poverty.

My mother lived through the Great Depression. Her family of 11 children pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and moved to wherever there was work at the time. And in rural Oklahoma, that wasn't easy to find.

Mom wrote in her autobiography, "Acts of Kindness: My Story":

Back in the 1930s, any work was good work. We picked cotton, picked up cans, scrap metal, whatever it took to get by. The message from yesteryear is: Don't be too proud to do whatever it takes to meet the financial needs of your family.

There's no shame in a hard day's work, whatever it may be. It seems today that people would go on unemployment before they would work in a field picking anything. That would not have been the case when I was growing up.

When Herbert Hoover was president, we were having the worst of times. We were very excited about President Roosevelt, who did help us. But those of us with a strong work ethic received the government's help for just a short while, but only until we could get back on our feet. I wish people would do that today. Instead, they depend upon the government, and the government in turn enables them.

My father was a womanizer and violent alcoholic. He repeatedly abandoned my mother, two brothers and me. My mom was essentially a single mother raising three boys. If anyone could have had any reason to give up, it was her. But she didn't and neither did we. We grew up in abject poverty in rural Oklahoma, but God and America gave us the way out.

A few years ago, I retold my story to 3,000 students at the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas.

I shared that, because I didn't have a father image in my life, I grew up very shy and introverted. I was too shy to participate in sports, so I grew up non-athletic and very timid.

After high school, I joined the U.S. Air Force. While stationed in Korea, I had my first exposure to the martial arts. That started my teaching and fighting career climb.

When I returned to the states and was stationed at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California, I started teaching others. That led to me eventually opening up multiple martial arts schools in Southern California, and my students competed around the country.

From there, I used my martial arts to start an acting career, which eventually led to over 20 major motion pictures. During my film career, I traveled much – all over the country and world – to make the movies and promote them.

In the beginning, it was a huge struggle to break into the movie business because there were over 16,000 unemployed actors in Hollywood in those days. But by God's grace and a lot of hard work and perseverance, I did it.

As most know, I went on from there to film over 200 episodes of "Walker, Texas Ranger" and then started our nonprofit KickStartKids.org that builds character through karate in middle schools across Texas.

Our family is proof of what Benjamin Franklin wrote for the London Chronicle on Nov. 29, 1766: "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. – I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

Poverty a "death sentence" in America? Not for mom, my brothers, me or for hundreds of millions of other Americans who refuse to let it be. And I hope you're one, too!

It's also one more reason why socialism is the wrong message and remedy for our country and its future, whether it's packaged in Bernie Sanders' straightforward language or Obama, Clinton and Biden's covert strategies.

Ronald Reagan was right when he said, "I believe the best social program is a job."

(For those climbing out of tough financial times, I highly recommend reading Dave Ramsey's two amazing articles: "Having Faith During a Financial Crisis"and "7 Baby Steps to a better financial future.")

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