Las Vegas Lights

As you creep into the city

the roaring rumble through the foothills 

of engines and steel on steel

quiets to a rhythmic purr.

In the tinny pre-desert dawn

the brash lights of the strip

still shamelessly shout

seducing the simple.

The dim light of day reveals

the irony of affluence

as block after endless block

of cardboard shanties slips past

your sleep-sore eyes.

This is the other side of the tracks.

A rude awakening as 

riches taunt reality.

 

Living with art deco orange crates

in a weary worn 1920s duplex

a block off Sunset Strip,

scrounging 50 cents for bus fare to work,

dining à la Méxicain on beans and corn,

anything under 30 cents a pound,

there was still dignity and hope. 

But what future waits here?
 

The end of the line.

The listless emerge disheveled, disheartened,

to face another dreary day.

Doubt, discouragement painfully

etch frowns on numberless faces.

To be poor is one thing

—but here—

the smug arrogance of squandered millions

slaps your face with every neon flash.

That’s poverty in America.

Rebecca Stewart

This poem was written after a delightful family train trip with our young sons from Vail Colorado back to our home in Los Angeles, a few decades ago. 
Seeing the stark reality of life among the destitute in one of America's meccas of wealth brought tears to my eyes — and still does. 
I had been 'poor' for a time, so I knew about life in grungy areas of town, and the challenge of living on the razor's edge financially. Life is hard when having spent your last few dollars on rent, you lack the money for bus fare or food.
But the weariness and desperation of the homeless in Vegas was such an ironic and stark contrast to the wasteful luxury of the "Strip."  And things have not changed. The gap between the haves and have-nots still exists. 

This should have been a sign that we need to reconsider our priorities, and make plans to lift up our poor through education and employment, giving them hope and a future. But instead, the situation of the poor has been co-opted by political interests to promote racial bigotry, hatred of those attitudes and actions that create prosperity, and a push for communist values.
Stealing from others to 'help' the poor has never been a good solution. We need to change the equation, and multiply our talents and not divide our nation. We need to do better, by giving people purpose and hope.


Ephesians 4:28

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.