America is the land of opportunity. But there is no guarantee that everyone will succeed.

“Why not do an article on why some people are poor?” A reader asked in an e-mail last week.

The writer quickly supplied the answer: “Because they piss money away on gambling, alcohol or cigarettes – or have multiple babies.”

She’s right, of course – some people do, and we should cover those stories.

Last week, in fact, we ran a story about a 69-year-old man indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly bilking the Social Security system and Housing and Urban Development out of more than $30,000.

‘m all in favor of doing more of those stories.

But the reader was actually complaining about another type of story we do – explaining what life is like for people who are poor.

n February, we embarked on an occasional series about people many now call the “working poor.”

We have profiled three people so far, and we hope to do one more story before the end of the year. ncluding the introduction to the series, those stories will have appeared on five Sunday covers out of the 51 we will do this year. (Christmas this year is a Sunday, and there will be no paper.)

t seemed like an important topic when we embarked on this series in February. After all, one inevery three families in Maine is living in poverty yet have at least one full-time worker.

As the term “working poor” suggests, these Mainers are working, but they are not earning enough to fully support themselves.

A national best-selling book, “Nickel and Dimed,” explored the phenomenon several years ago, and it was selected as a community reading project by the Lewiston Public Library. We cooperated by agreeing to cover the kickoff of that project and write a series of articles about the working poor in our region. Early on, even moderated a panel discussion of local experts.

We have been surprised by the reaction we’ve received following each story. We might have expected people to ask, “What can do to help?” Or, readers might have wondered, “What can be done to help create better-paying jobs?”

The responses have been totally different – to condemn the people who have shared their lives and inability to “make it in America.”

Talking to a newspaper about your own poverty can’t be easy. None of these people sought the attention they received. We approached them.

And it wasn’t like these people were sitting on their hands. They all had jobs.

As ‘ve responded to the complaints, ‘ve noticed one dominant pattern. Usually, the people complaining about the attention given to the poor are the people clinging, sometimes just barely, to the next rung up on the economic ladder.

Most of them have pointed out, like the e-mail writer last week, that they have been poor and have clawed their way out of poverty.

Which is, of course, the promise and dream of America – through your own ingenuity, determination and hard work you can improve your situation, no matter how desperate.

But can everyone do that? Can the young man who lost 20 or 30 points off his Q through fetal alcohol syndrome make it in America, even with a low-level job?

Can the kid who grew up in five foster homes, was abused in two of them and now struggles with depression and low self-esteem stand completely on his own two feet?

And, indeed, can the person who makes a couple of bad choices early on – dropping out of school or getting pregnant as a teenager – always recover from those setbacks?

Of course, the answers to those questions actually frame much of the debate in America today between political parties and philosophies.

offer no answers.

will say, however, that it should be a newspaper’s job to celebrate the people who succeed and achieve, but also to remind us that others, for whatever reasons, remain behind.

Let me know what you think: Best: Visit the “Starting Point” at www.sunjournal.com and join a conversation; Next best, e-mail me at [email protected]; or third-best, call me at 784-7045, ext. 2104.