The family gathered. They hugged. They talked. They annoyed each other. They argued. They drank too much. And, of course, they ate too much. They stuffed themselves fuller than your grandma stuffed the turkey. It's the biggest meal of the year. Gotta have that extra helping of mashed potatoes. Extra gravy. Don't bother saving room for the desserts - we'll just find a way to force those down on top of everything else.

After the meal, everyone complained about how full they felt, as they patted their extended stomachs and loosened their waistbands. Some took naps to sleep off the overstuffed feeling.

And they were proud of it. After all, this is what Thanksgiving is all about, isn't it?

It's a grand American tradition. This harvest holiday of thanks has become a celebration of gluttony and excess.

Meantime, right here in the United States, 11.2 percent of households (including 13 million children) suffer from hunger or the risk of hunger due to poverty. Many of these families must routinely skip meals, sometimes for a full day, sometimes for much longer. The lucky ones are able to get food assistance to keep themselves alive.

These people don't have so much to be grateful for on Thanksgiving. And, as long as they remain invisible to the rest of us and our leaders, they'll continue to suffer as we go for that second slice of pie.

Cities do their best to keep the homeless off the streets. The poor families who do have roofs over their heads are usually segregated in neighborhoods where the rest of us fear to tread. So the poor are, for the most part, an abstract concept. We hear about them from time to time, but the words represent something far, far away from the world in which the rest of us live.

Out of sight, out of mind.

We give our occasional donations to churches and charities, and we feel that we've done our part. And it helps. It's better than nothing. But those children are still dying. Our government needs to do more.

When he was a student at Harvard Business School, a young George W. Bush told one of his professors that "poor people are poor because they're lazy." It's their own fault.

Tell that to those 13 million babies.

It couldn't possibly have to do with government policies that favor the corporation over the individual, could it?

It couldn't possibly have to do with an administration that gives tax breaks to the rich while running up huge spending deficits that the rest of us and our grandchildren will have to pay for, could it?

It couldn't possibly have to do with huge companies, like Wal-Mart, that pay their hourly workers poverty-level wages and price the company health benefits so high that thousands of their employees must rely on public assistance, could it?

Well, yes, by George, it could.

Many of those facing starvation in this country are members of the working poor. Some of them work two or more jobs to survive. While we're choosing between the apple pie and the pumpkin, they are having to choose between food and medicine.

While they suffer, George W. Bush calls himself a "Christian" and a "compassionate conservative," as he showers his rich pals with more incentives to ship American jobs overseas to India and China.

Where is the America that our founding fathers envisioned?

Where is the America in which all are created equal, in which all are endowed with the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness -- not just the richest 2 percent?

Where is the America that the world once looked upon as the land of opportunity, where anyone willing to work hard could get ahead in life?

Where is the America in which the rich get richer, but the poor get richer too?

And why have 200 billion of our tax dollars been spent so far on the quagmire in Iraq, when that money could have been better spent on health care, education, and jobs here at home?

The problem of domestic poverty might never be completely solved, but it can be significantly reduced. However, for that to happen, our leaders must do a serious reality check and adjust their priorities. Our government cannot continue to be a government of, by, and for the wealthy elite and their oil interests. We must resurrect the vision of our founding fathers, in which the United States of America is a government of, by, and for the people. All people.

Until then, the middle class may well continue to shrink, and more and more ordinary Americans may well find themselves struggling to make ends meet.

The change must start now. By the 2006 mid-term elections, it will be too late for so many poor children.

Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist. She currently serves as Philadelphia Area Coordinator for Amnesty International, and her views on politics, human rights, and social justice issues have appeared in numerous online forums and in newspapers and magazines worldwide. Note that the ideas expressed in this article are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty or any other organization with which she may be associated. E-mail mary@maryshawonline.com.