I understand the cycle of poverty. I understand being only one paycheck from the breadline. In 1990 I lived in London while going to school and hoping to marry my now ex-fiancé. When we split up I stayed to try to hold things together, but I ran out of money. I slept on park benches for several weeks because I had no money and couldn't find work there, and was too proud (stupid) to admit defeat and come home. I know that sinking feeling you get when things are going badly and you have to call a friend to see if they have room on a couch, and the shame you feel when you've outstayed your welcome.

Until 1997, the most money I made in any year was about $14,000. I shared an apartment with a friend and spent about 16 hours a day at my tech company a few doors down the street on Duke Street in Lancaster. Before I started the company, I floated from one low-wage job to the next, none of them paying any benefits. Among other things, I was a waiter, a cook, a pizza delivery guy, a piano player, a musician, and a proofreader.

I'm also the kind of person who doesn't pay close attention to the seemingly minor details in life, like parking tickets, bills, notices, etc. (It helps to actually open the mail, I hear). So I'd get parking tickets and forget to pay them. Then I'd get the notices in the mail that a $10 ticket was now $25, and then it became $50, etc. Then I'd miss a car insurance payment because I was out of money, and in all likelihood I'd forget to send in my registration renewal.

One winter I showed up for a gig on an icy night in downtown Lancaster because I needed the fifty bucks to keep afloat, and parked my 1983 heap (held together with duct tape, of course) on the sidewalk to unload so cars on the street wouldn't slide into it. As I'm setting up a police officer walks in the door and asks if it's my car. I can sense what's about to happen and I walk outside into the ice storm with him. They run a check on the plate, and hey, it's not registered. And it turns out the insurance was cancelled. And then there are the 5 tickets or so that I hadn't paid, which had now ballooned into about $500 of fines and late fees. They slapped the cuffs on me and put me in a cell at the station two blocks away. I was spiraling down. For my one phone call, I rang up my roommate (and good friend!) who bailed me out 2 hours later with a $200 check. I had no money for insurance, registration, the fines, nothing. I was broke. I only had health insurance because my dad covered me (he was a great guy). I pulled myself out of that somehow, through a combination of work, luck, and the support of my family. I was lucky--my Dad was a doc (obstetrician), and while he wasn't rich he had some to spare for his hapless son.

Most people don't have a supportive parent with extra cash to spare, because these days even our parents are suffering the harsh economic times. The USDA is making it harder and harder for people to get Food Stamps, and food banks are running out of supplies faster and faster. The working poor can't afford to feed their families, and often work more than one job to make ends meet. This is not the America I envision, this is an America we should have moved far beyond by now.

A child in America should never have to go hungry. A child should not have to suffer illnesses without treatment, and should not have to live in shelters. Child poverty is a blemish on our great country and it is time we stand up for the poor, and especially poor children, and work to eliminate hunger across America. We have the resources; we simply lack the collective will. You may not see the poverty, but it's there. Call your local food banks and your local hunger programs. Don't just ask how they are doing--ask how you can help. When I worked with the United Way of New York to build a new software system to assist in determining people's eligibility for Food Stamps, I met a lot of great people who work hard every day but can't make ends meet. Sadly, the government requires you to lose almost everything before you qualify for Food Stamps. So some people go hungry instead of losing their homes.

This is economic and social injustice. I know we can do better. I envision an America where no child goes hungry, no child suffers illness without treatment, no child sleeps in a shelter, and no child enters first grade without first knowing how to read. I know we can do this if we join together and fight for it. It's a noble cause and it's the right thing to do. Let's help break the cycle of poverty and make America the fantastic place we all know it can be.