Poverty Soon Forgotten

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Poverty: Soon Forgotten Poverty: Soon Forgotten Courtney Sansom University of Phoenix Poverty: Soon Forgotten One of the larger concerns in our country today is that of poverty. Poverty is probably one of the biggest issues most of us do not think about very often. Most of us do not think about it since it does not affect us. We typically try to push things not directly related to us to the back of our minds. However, in 2005 poverty was brought screaming back to the fore front of our minds after the devastation wrought in New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina. Hours upon hours of footage were televised nationally showing just how impoverished the areas surrounding the city of New Orleans were. So often we are consumed with the welfare of others we forget there is still work to be done at home. In his essay, Reminders of Poverty, Soon Forgotten, Alexander Keyssar delves into poverty and how Americans have reacted to it. In his essay he argues, even in the face of various disasters that have befallen some of the poorest citizens, no efforts to combat poverty have been successful. The author uses logos, pathos, and ethos to get his point across. Logos is basic logic and reason an author uses to convey their point. Mr. Keyssar does so by pointing out, over the years there have been multiple attempts at solving the issue of poverty, the biggest of which was “The New Deal.” This allowed poverty to be viewed as a “collective responsibility” as opposed to being an individual issue (Keyssar, 2005). This enabled Americans to realize poverty was a very real problem for a good portion of the population of the US. It stands to reason, if poverty was a huge issue at the time of the passing of “The New Deal,” which was to help defeat poverty at the time of passing in the 1930’s, why was it so prevalent in 2005 when Katrina hit New Orleans. The author even
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