Carl Sandburg and the Working Man of Chicago

“The gears of poverty, ignorance, hopelessness and low self-esteem interact to create a kind of perpetual failure machine that grinds down dreams from generation to generation. We all bear the cost of keeping it running. Illiteracy is its linchpin” (Carl Sagan). Poverty is a very tragic occurrence in our world. It is a special case in America because there are so many wealthy families here that it is hard to imagine the numerous amounts of people living in poverty. A huge problem however, is that only a small fraction of the citizens of America are wealthy. The much larger side is all the hopeless and hard working people faced with poverty. This must be recognized in order for poverty to end or at least diminish. To many people, however, these facts remain unseen. It is almost as if the wealthy are blinded by their own money to see the suffering of the poor. Or maybe it is because many do not wish to look at these facts because they are so happy with their lives, and they s...