"Necessary Lies"

   
     Everyone needs help sometime in their lives, and many of us can provide help either personally or through social services.  But who decides the best way to help and thereby benefit society as a whole?  Even with the best efforts, some people can barely survive.  Even with the best intentions, the type of help offered may not be what others really need.
     The causes of poverty are numerous including being born into a family of meager means, low intelligence, insufficient education, and lack of a family support system.  The results of poverty are also numerous including insufficient housing, nutrition, and medical care.
     Diane Chamberlain's "Necessary Lies" is based on real conditions in rural 1960 North Carolina and reveals how poor families lived and how social workers helped and hindered their situation.  Tenant families on a tobacco farm, dependent on the owner, had to struggle to survive.  Two sisters and their family living and working on the farm needed help.  A social worker assigned to them realized that the family and the agency needed to change.
     For those of us not born into poverty, our understanding of the situation is meager and even prejudicial.  We might feel that if they only tried harder, worked harder, and lived a moral life, they could escape the situation.  Some even feel that the government helps too much and even slows their progress toward independence.  "Necessary Lies" shows how revealing the truth serves us best.