– without housing, that person will remain homeless."


-------------------------------------------

WITHOUT HOUSING: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness, and Policy Failures


Executive Summary (Page 9)

Without Housing documents federal funding trends for affordable housing over the past 25
years, particularly funding for housing programs administered by the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as Section 515 rural affordable housing
administered by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). It describes the correlation
of these trends to the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in
the early 1980s that has continued to the present, and also demonstrates why federal
responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed. It is focused primarily on
what we consider to be one of the most important – if not the most important – factors
in explaining why so many people are homeless in the United States today: the cutbacks
to and eventual near elimination of the federal government’s commitment to building,
maintaining, and subsidizing affordable housing.

In 1978, HUD’s budget was over $83 billion.1

In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion.2

In 1983, general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide.3

In 1987, Congress passed the Stewart B. McKinney Act, providing $880 million in homeless
assistance funding (2004 constant dollars).4

Since 1987, annual McKinney homeless assistance has never been more than $1.4 billion.5


Our perspective is that the overwhelming omission of the systemic and broad structural
causes of homelessness in public discussions and policy responses is nothing short of a
collective deception that has only led to increased homelessness. Federal responses to
homelessness have failed and will continue to fail unless and until they include a serious
and sizable federal recommitment to funding affordable housing.


The Root Cause of Contemporary Homelessness

While decades of homeless policy responses have focused upon individual – rather than
systemic – factors to explain and address homelessness, the fact that millions of families,
single adults, and youth with different biographical backgrounds came to simultaneously
experience homelessness in 1983 – and that millions continue to suffer on our streets
today – requires a reexamination of historical and social structural forces.

From 1976-1982, HUD built over 755,000 new public housing units, but since 1983, HUD
built only 256,000 new public housing units.6

From 1976-1985, a yearly average of almost 31,000 new Section 515 rural affordable housing
units were built, but from 1986-1995, average yearly production was less than half that of the
previous decade.7

From 1996-2005, Section 515 built an average of only 1700 new units per year.8

In recent years, over 200,000 private-sector rental units have been lost annually, and 1.2
million unsubsidized affordable housing units disappeared from 1993-2003.9
HUD budget authority in 1978 was 65% more than its 2006 budget of $29 billion.10


ii
The de-funding of federal affordable housing programs, coupled with the loss of public
housing units as well as private-sector affordable housing, should be central to any
discussion of the causes of homelessness, yet they have been all but ignored in the debates
about and policy responses to the current ongoing crisis. No matter what other factors
may come into play in any individual’s experience of homelessness – without housing,
that person will remain homeless.

http://wraphome.org/documents/Without_Hous...



"No matter what other factors may come into play in any individual’s experience of homelessness – without housing, that person will remain homeless."



"No matter what other factors may come into play in any individual’s experience of homelessness – without housing, that person will remain homeless."



"No matter what other factors may come into play in any individual’s experience of homelessness – without housing, that person will remain homeless."



"No matter what other factors may come into play in any individual’s experience of homelessness – without housing, that person will remain homeless."



"No matter what other factors may come into play in any individual’s experience of homelessness – without housing, that person will remain homeless."




Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

Nakeisha Faal
Ms. Charu Jindal
Budi Kamath
Denisha Halim
Sharat Khan
Jiri Wainaina
Kasan Rahman
Isoke Abdalla
Arlindo Cavalcante
Shani Ndembe
Prasong Vasu
Kito Ahmed
Lian Thakur
Mr. Kasan Ngai
Salihah El-Gawad
Mr. Iravan Shan
Tarisai Matlala
Jasmin Mandal
Wafa Botha
Komali Seto
Isoke Samb
Ms. Sangwan Begum
Pablo Amaral
Ramla Zuma
Lakshan Agrawal
Mr. Shasmecka Wangai
Nishith Kurnia
Hada Sy
Shanyu Cuan
Chika Nwoko
Mr. Mahit Menon
Pemba Botha
Malika Vasu
Hasina Tillim
Mr. Sumitro Phanse
Ebere Mbuno
Laksha Zhan
Habika Matlala
Parmita Bhat
Aminah Kane
Kalini Khan
Binah Wangai
Cam Alam
Liana Bakar
Ms. Nakeisha Fosso
Dayo Botha
Ms. Asha Holkar
Ilori Wangai
Ms. Lavanya Tan
Feechi Jogee
Adil Ngai
Faizah Nwoko
Trishala Zhan
Oba Diop
Jasmin Gao
Alisha Li
Gamada Belali
Kasan Mahat
Akim Wainaina
Sara Ngai
Mosi Halim
Ms. Inu Katari
Iniko Nkanga
Laksha Ahmed
Ms. Tendai Sy
Asha Wah
Kwame Laka
Vina Kamath
Gustavo Antunes
Okoth Faye
Sunisa Menon
Tendai Ahmed
Ari Gao
Chipo Bizos
Sri Tran
Zahara Sango
Sinduk Bedi
Ms. Tayla Halim
Phalak Kwan
Zahra Diongue
Utalika Bing
Caimile Laka
Nishita Patel
Ms. Fanta Wangai
Ms. Alisha Tran
Iman Khumalo
Mr. Naveen Kwan
Aba Githuku
Jhalak Khumpai
Wangari Honwana
Umed Halim
Saidah Sango
Sri Dai
Siyanda Nwoko
Lavanya Vasu
Maya Sadri
Tania Soares
Ednit Das
Ms. Xhana Cruz
Kiran Irawan
Akim Dlamini
Nishita Phang
Chipo Sawadogo
Sangwan Ahmed
Lulu Akakpo
Hasan Holkar
Shani Makengo
Komali Holkar
Dalia Boutros
Irwan Ahmed
Song Bing
Ms. Tabita Halim
Yada Biki
Okoth Ndembe
Shaista Nogueira
Alpana Darawan
Siyanda Seydi
Lavanya Bintang
Dalia Lundangi
Mr. Badal Mata
Hada Udemba
Asha Phang
Aminah Ahmed
Nishith Biki
Keetau Biki
Marjani Laka
Harshal Kamath
Ada Takawira
Ms. Jintana Wah
Ida Sagi
Zina Hassan
Eesha Kampboh
Mosi Dieng
Aloki Nguyen
Malika Ogira
Mr. Kapil Rahman
Bala Nokhwal
Tayla Botha
Luciana Cavalcante
Pakpao Phal

http://www.poverty.com/index.html

-----------------------------------

Hunger and World Poverty

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.

Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.

There are effective programs to break this spiral. For adults, there are “food for work” programs where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads, and so on. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the poverty. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help them to escape from hunger and global poverty.

Hunger and World Poverty Sources: United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Oxfam, UNICEF

Note: The world hunger map display above is representational only and does not show the names and faces of real people. The photographs are computer composites of multiple individuals.

http://www.poverty.com/index.html

-----------------------------------


2007 International Aid Donated (Official Development Assistance)

COUNTRY For each $100 earned in the country, how much is donated in aid Aid as % of income How close the country is to reaching the 0.7% goal

Norway 95 cents 0.95 Already reached goal
Sweden 93 cents 0.93 Already reached goal
Luxembourg 90 cents 0.90 Already reached goal
Denmark 81 cents 0.81 Already reached goal
Netherlands 81 cents 0.81 Already reached goal
Ireland 54 cents 0.54 Scheduled to reach in 2012
Austria 49 cents 0.49 Scheduled to reach in 2015
Belgium 43 cents 0.43 Scheduled to reach in 2010
Spain 41 cents 0.41 Scheduled to reach in 2012
Finland 40 cents 0.40 Scheduled to reach in 2010
France 39 cents 0.39 Scheduled to reach in 2012
Germany 37 cents 0.37 Scheduled to reach in 2014
Switzerland 37 cents 0.37 No schedule yet
United Kingdom 36 cents 0.36 Scheduled to reach in 2013
Australia 30 cents 0.30 No schedule yet
Canada 28 cents 0.28 No schedule yet
New Zealand 27 cents 0.27 No schedule yet
Italy 19 cents 0.19 Scheduled to reach in 2015
Portugal 19 cents 0.19 Scheduled to reach in 2015
Japan 17 cents 0.17 No schedule yet
Greece 16 cents 0.16 Scheduled to reach in 2015
United States 16 cents 0.16 No schedule yet

http://www.poverty.com/internationalaid.ht...

-----------------------------------

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Print A Letter: http://www.poverty.com/printletter.html

Learn More: http://www.poverty.com/more.html


Please visit Poverty.com's sister site for world hunger, FreeRice: http://www.freerice.com /


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

... poor black mothers will continue to lose their children to the state. And we will continue to label these women "bad mothers" to assuage our own guilt." - Gaylynn Burroughs



Too Poor to Parent?
By Gaylynn Burroughs, Ms. Magazine. Posted May 23, 2008.


When a recurrent plumbing problem in an upstairs unit caused raw sewage to seep into her New York City apartment, 22-year-old Lisa called social services for help. She had repeatedly asked her landlord to fix the problem, but he had been unresponsive. Now the smell was unbearable, and Lisa feared for the health and safety of her two young children.

When the caseworker arrived, she observed that the apartment had no lights and that food was spoiling in the refrigerator. Lisa explained that she did not have the money to pay her electric bill that month, but would have the money in a few weeks. She asked whether the caseworker could help get them into a family shelter. The caseworker promised she would help -- but left Lisa in the apartment and took the children, who were then placed in foster care.

Months later, the apartment is cleaned up. Lisa still does not have her children.

~ snip ~

But when state child-welfare workers come to remove children from black mothers' homes, they rarely cite poverty as the factor putting a child at risk. Instead, these mothers are told that they neglected their children by failing to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, education or medical care. The failure is always personal, and these mothers and children are almost always made to suffer individually for the consequences of one of the United States' most pressing social problems.

The legal system often provides no haven for these parents. Based on even the flimsiest allegations, they are essentially presumed guilty and pressured to participate in various cookie-cutter services that often do not directly address the concerns that brought them to court. For example, after her children went into foster care, Lisa was asked to attend parenting classes, undergo a mental health evaluation, seek therapy and submit to random drug testing before her children could be returned. But child-welfare authorities did not assist her in repairing her home or finding a new apartment, nor have they gone after her landlord for allowing deplorable conditions.

Race and poverty should not be a barrier to raising one's children. But in order to prevent the entry of poor children into the foster care system, state and federal government must confront poverty-related issues. Until this country comes to terms with its culpability in allowing widespread poverty to exist, poor black mothers will continue to lose their children to the state. And we will continue to label these women "bad mothers" to assuage our own guilt.


(Gaylynn Burroughs is a staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders in New York City. She works in the family defense practice, where she represents parents accused of child neglect.)

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustic... /


"Until this country comes to terms with its culpability in allowing widespread poverty to exist, poor black mothers will continue to lose their children to the state."


And people will continue to be hungry.

And people will continue to be homeless.

And people will continue to go without medical care.

AND PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO DIE ON THE STREETS OF AMERICA.

"And we will continue to label these women "bad mothers" ", we will continue to label homeless people as drug addicts, drunks, mentally ill, or just too damn lazy to pull themselves up by their (NONEXISTENT) bootstraps... all these labels "to assuage our own guilt."


I think it's time for this country to come to terms with its culpability in allowing widespread poverty to exist; don't you?


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue)

Homeless Shelters:
A Feeble Response to Homelessness
Betty Reid Mandell

~ an excerpt ~

In tracing the history of poor people's movements, Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward conclude that the only power that poor people have is the power of disruption. Therefore, they argue, the role of organizers is not to try to form permanent membership organizations but to mobilize the poor for disruptive action when the time is ripe. Membership organizations, they argue, always end up by losing their base in their struggles to get funding and to hold on to leadership roles.

Organizations endure . . . by abandoning their oppositional politics. . . . Organizers tended to work against disruption because, in their search for resources to maintain their organizations, they were driven inexorably to elites, and to the tangible and symbolic supports that elites could provide. Elites conferred these resources because they understood that it was organization-building, not disruption, that organizers were about.52

During the Great Depression, there were rent riots when small bands of people prevented marshals from putting furniture on the street. People also stormed the relief offices demanding relief.

As the unemployed became more disruptive, even cherished procedures of investigation and surveillance of recipients were relinquished . . . As indignation mounted . . . some people not only defied the prohibition against going on the dole, but some even began to defy the apparatus of ritualized humiliation that had made that prohibition so effective.53

People began to shake free of what William Blake described in his poem London as "mind-forged manacles," which had locked them into submission and into internalizing their oppressor's view of them as not deserving of respect and equal rights. The general population also began to shake those mind-forged manacles when they understood that structural reasons created poverty, not people's individual failings.

The playwright Jean Racine expressed it well in his play Brittanicus. Narcissus says to Brittanicus:

As long as you are seen as a mere suppliant,
Uttering complaints but not inspiring fear;
While your resentments spend themselves in talk,
No doubt of it, you will complain forever.54

Piven and Cloward conclude:

One can never predict with certainty when the "heavings and rumblings of the social foundations" will force up large-scale defiance, although changes of great magnitude were at work. Who, after all, could have predicted the extraordinary mobilization of black people beginning in 1955? Nor can one calculate with certainty the responses of elites to mass disruption. There are no blueprints to guide movements of the poor. But if organizers and leaders want to help those movements emerge, they must always proceed as if protest were possible. They may fail. The time may not the right. But then, they may sometimes succeed.55


http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue43/BMand...



Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

Homeless Shelters:
A Feeble Response to Homelessness
Betty Reid Mandell


HOW WOULD YOU LIKE SOMEONE to say to you, "Come with me into the bathroom? I want to watch you pee into this paper cup to see if you have been taking drugs." That is what is happening in some shelters for homeless families in Massachusetts. Steve Valero, a lawyer at Greater Boston Legal Services, is indignant about this and has been telling shelters that it is an illegal practice. Some shelter directors claim they had no idea it was illegal. They thought it would be better to have all residents tested for drugs rather than singling out one person.

Valero said that he tells those directors they have it backwards. It might be legal to single out a person whom you suspect of being on drugs if that person was behaving as if she is drugged -- for example, if she seems completely stoned and is neglecting her kids. But to test everybody routinely is an illegal invasion of privacy.

One shelter resident said that she had to undergo drug testing every week for over 40 weeks, with a staff member watching her pee, even though she has never taken drugs.

The war on drugs has invaded shelters for the homeless, treating homeless people as criminals. In this article I discuss the causes of homelessness, how the shelter system, which was presumably a temporary response to homelessness, has become institutionalized as the dominant response, and how it is used for social control. I discuss the various approaches to ending homelessness, many of them distractions from the main cause -- poverty.

~ snip ~

Blaming the Victim

I AM BEMUSED by announcements that come over the radio from time to time by foundations or institutes saying they are studying the causes of homelessness and seeking cures. In fact, the causes are quite simple and have been studied quite enough. Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services. It is true that many of the homeless are alcoholics or drug addicts, but they need a home while they are coping with their problem, and they need treatment programs, and both are in short supply. It is also true that many of the homeless have emotional problems. Who wouldn't have emotional problems if they were homeless? But they need a home while they are coping with their problems and they need support services. Both are in short supply. A disproportionate number of foster children who have "aged out" of the foster care system are homeless. A disproportionate number of veterans are homeless. It is the fault of the government that they are in this condition, but the government has deserted them. A large percentage of homeless women have been abused.29 While they may need a temporary refuge to escape the abuser and counseling to help them heal, they also need permanent housing, childcare, a job that pays a living wage, and social supports.

The focus on individual problems shifts attention away from structural problems and obscures the real causes of homelessness. It leads to stereotyping of homeless people as deviant and degenerate, drunk or drugged, or crazy. When these stereotypes are embedded in people's minds, they view every beggar as a scammer. Stereotyping leads to criminalizing the homeless, allowing cities to sweep them from the streets.30 It gives implicit permission to delinquent thugs to beat them up. One man made a series of documentaries in which homeless men fight each other, while being plied with liquor. Reality show producers took the homeless on shopping trips as a subject of amusement. On the Boston radio station WBCN-FM, DJs Opie and Anthony ran an event called the Homeless Shopping Spree, taking street people to a high-end shopping center, giving them liquor and money to shop, and ridiculing their purchases for the amusement of their listeners. Boston's Mayor Menino publicly expressed his outrage at the show.


Much, much more to read @ http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue43/BMand...



"Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services."


"Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services."


"Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services."


"Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services."


"Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services."

Too many people still think that there is a 'safety net' for people going through hard times. If that's what you believe, you really should check out what is (and ISN'T) available in your own community....

This is a slight update of a thread my mom posted on October, 3, 2007 (http://journals.democraticunderground.com/... ). I hope that some of you will consider this seriously.


It's Monday, May 19.

Your car broke down 3 months ago. You haven't had the money to fix it, so now you're riding the bus.

You go to work to find out that you no longer have a job.

Your behind on all your bills, including your rent.

You've arrived home to find a 3-day eviction notice posted on your door.

You have $12.68 to your name.

I encourage you to spend one day, just one day, this month walking in someone else's footsteps.

What will you do in those footsteps?




There are so many people in similar (and worse) situations. What can you do to improve our country for all of its citizens?

What WILL you do?


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

'The Bread You Possess Belongs to the Hungry'
by St. Basil

They say: Whom do I wrong by keeping my property? What, tell me, is your property? Where did you find it and brought it to your life? Just like someone in the theatre, who had a seat and then stopped those who entered, judging that what lies common in front of everyone to use, was his own: rich men are of the same kind. They first took possession of the common property, and then they keep it as their own because they were the first to take it. If one had taken what is necessary to cover one’s needs and had left the rest to those who are in need, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, no one would be in need.

Isn’t it true, that you fell off the womb naked? Isn’t it true, that naked you shall return to the earth? Where is your present property from? If you think that it came to you by itself, you don’t believe in God, you don’t acknowledge the creator and you are not thankful to him who gave it to you. But if you agree and confess that you have it from God, tell us the reason why he gave it to you. ...

Who is the greedy person? It’s him who doesn’t content himself with what he has. And who strips? He who steals what belongs to the others. And you think that you are not greedy, and that you do not strip the others? What was granted to you, in order for you to take care of the others, you took it and you made it your own. What do you think?

He who strips the clothed is to be called a thief. How should we name him, who is able to dress the naked and doesn’t do it, does he deserve some other name? The bread that you possess belongs to the hungry. The clothes that you store in boxes, belong to the naked. The shoes rotting by you, belong to the bare-foot. The money that you hide belongs to anyone in need. You wrong as many people as you were able to help.” —St. Basil

St. Basil was bishop of Caesarea in the 4th century.


http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magaz...

... to the same degree, there would be a national outcry and call for governmental action," - Michael Stoops, acting executive director of NCH.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Violent Crimes Against Homeless People on the Rise
Advocates fault lack of affordable housing, public attitudes
May 02, 2008

Washington, DC, April 29, 2008 - Today the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP) released the 2007 numbers on the epidemic of hate crimes and violent attacks against homeless Americans. The numbers are part of a new report entitled Hate, Violence, And Death on Main Street USA, 2007.

Click here to download a copy of the report: http://www.nlchp.org/view_report.cfm?id=24... .

Key findings include:

The total number of attacks rose by 13% from 2006 to 2007 - from 142 to 160 attacks.
The number of fatal attacks rose by 40% from 2006 to 2007 - from 20 to 28 deaths.
64% of the attacks were committed by youths aged 13-19; two attackers were just 10 years old.


"Those experiencing homelessness are often ignored or misunderstood by society. If these brutal attacks were committed against any other religious or minority group to the same degree, there would be a national outcry and call for governmental action," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of NCH. "We must respond to this dehumanization and protect homeless persons against hate crimes."

The 44% of homeless people who are unsheltered are the most vulnerable to these attacks. Because crimes committed against homeless persons often go unreported, the actual numbers of non-lethal attacks may be much higher. While the motive for an attack is often unclear, some of the attackers said they committed the crime out of "boredom," or for a "thrill" or "fun."

"Young men see the way we treat homeless people - criminalizing them, shoving them out of sight - and they get a message: these people are less than human, and it is OK to attack them," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of NLCHP. "If we want to stop these attacks, we need to send a clear message that homeless people have the same human rights as everyone else."

The report also details ways cities, states, and the federal government can act to solve the crisis of anti-homeless violence. "The bottom line is, people need to be housed," said David Pirtle, a formerly homeless victim of violence and NCH Board member. "If the federal government adequately funds permanent affordable housing, fewer people will be on the street, and fewer men and women will be attacked."

There also needs to be action at the local level. "Cities often focus on cracking down on panhandling or sleeping outside as a way to push homeless people out of sight," said NLCHP Civil Rights Program Director Tulin Ozdeger. "These numbers show the need for a different response - training police to help protect homeless people and deliver needed services, not to lock them up in jail."

Click here to download a copy of the report: http://www.nlchp.org/view_report.cfm?id=24... .

For more information on the report contact NLCHP executive director Maria Foscarinis (Mfoscarinis@nlchp.org, 202/638-2535) or NCH acting executive director Michael Stoops (Mstoops@nationalhomeless.org, 202/462-4822).



The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty's mission is to prevent and end homelessness by serving as the legal arm of the nationwide movement to end homelessness. To achieve its mission, NLCHP pursues three main strategies: impact litigation, policy advocacy, and public education.

The National Coalition for the Homeless' mission is to end homelessness and poverty. NCH seeks to accomplish our mission through policy advocacy, public education, research, community organizing, and empowering the homeless population.

http://www.nlchp.org/news.cfm?id=45

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Why is this going on amid silence?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Perils of Indifference
Elie Wiesel

(excerpt)

In a way, to be indifferent to that suffering is what makes the human being inhuman. Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony, one does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative. Even hatred at times may elicit a response. You fight it. You denounce it. You disarm it. Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response.

Indifference is not a beginning, it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. The political prisoner in his cell, the hungry children, the homeless refugees -- not to respond to their plight, not to relieve their solitude by offering them a spark of hope is to exile them from human memory. And in denying their humanity we betray our own.

Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment. And this is one of the most important lessons of this outgoing century's wide-ranging experiments in good and evil.

In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims, and the bystanders. During the darkest of times, inside the ghettoes and death camps -- and I'm glad that Mrs. Clinton mentioned that we are now commemorating that event, that period, that we are now in the Days of Remembrance -- but then, we felt abandoned, forgotten. All of us did.

And our only miserable consolation was that we believed that Auschwitz and Treblinka were closely guarded secrets; that the leaders of the free world did not know what was going on behind those black gates and barbed wire; that they had no knowledge of the war against the Jews that Hitler's armies and their accomplices waged as part of the war against the Allies.

If they knew, we thought, surely those leaders would have moved heaven and earth to intervene. They would have spoken out with great outrage and conviction. They would have bombed the railways leading to Birkenau, just the railways, just once.

The full speech (text & audio) is available @ http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/wiese...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

It really is what she would have wanted, for people to do act when witnessing injustice, not to turn their backs, but to ACT, to do whatever they can, whenever they can, in any way that they can, to change things for the better. That's what she taught us. And to her, poverty was the greatest injustice in this world.

Please, everyone, don't look away.

... to end poverty in America.

Please join John @ http://www.halfinten.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

half in ten
from poverty to prosperity


A Campaign to Cut Poverty in the United States in Half in Ten Years

Half in Ten plans to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent within 10 years. Under the leadership of Senator John Edwards, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) (http://www.acorn.org ), the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF) (http://www.americanprogressaction.org ), the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) (http://www.democracyinaction.org/chn ), and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) (http://www.civilrights.org ), have joined forces on the campaign to:


(1) Elevate and sustain a focus on the situations facing the poor and middle class today

(2) Build and strengthen an effective constituency to demand legislative action on poverty and economic mobility

(3) Advance specific legislative and policy proposals that will deliver real benefits to struggling American families


For more information on how to reduce poverty in America, see From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/200... ) by the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty.


http://www.halfinten.org/aboutus.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please do this in my mom's memory.

Thank you, and love to all,

Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

My mom said this was a beautiful community, and I see it reflected here; you are all so very kind!

I hope you will all take to heart one of her last requests, something she told us: "I know that you're going to miss me when I'm gone. Shed your tears, then open the door and look outside; there's a whole world that needs your attention, a whole world that needs fixing. Do whatever you can, in any way that you can, whenever you can. So many people need you desperately."


Much love and my deepest appreciation to all,

Indigo

... to Cut Poverty in the United States in Half in Ten Years

Half in Ten plans to reduce poverty in the United States by 50 percent within 10 years. Under the leadership of Senator John Edwards, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF), the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN), and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), have joined forces on the campaign to:

(1) Elevate and sustain a focus on the situations facing the poor and middle class today

(2) Build and strengthen an effective constituency to demand legislative action on poverty and economic mobility

(3) Advance specific legislative and policy proposals that will deliver real benefits to struggling American families
For more information on how to reduce poverty in America, see From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut Poverty in Half (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/200... ) by the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty.



http://www.halfinten.org/aboutus.html


You can sign up to learn more @ http://www.halfinten.org


Indigo Blue (Sapphire Blue's daughter)

(I hope it's alright for me to post this under my mom's ID; I know she would have wanted to see this posted here)

It's Wednesday, October 3.

Your car broke down 3 months ago. You haven't had the money to fix it, so now you're riding the bus.

You go to work to find out that you no longer have a job.

Your behind on all your bills, including your rent.

You've arrived home to find a 3-day eviction notice posted on your door.

You have $12.68 to your name.

I encourage you to spend one day, just one day, this month walking in someone else's footsteps.

What will you do in those footsteps?

... their chances for survival increase significantly."




Think about it.

Do something about it.


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