PBS Newshour posted a story about an art project on hunger in contemporary America.
“Hunger Through My Lens” has a dual mission: to empower people who are living in poverty and to promote awareness about hunger issues. Sponsored by the non-profit group Hunger Free Colorado, the program gives digital cameras to food stamp recipients and asks them to chronicle what it’s like to be hungry in America.
Fascinating photos, cool project. It deserves a look: HERE.
David Brooks published a very thoughtful essay in yesterday’s New York Times, applying the lesson of ‘the prodigal son’ to our current social divisions.
He argues, in brief, that there are two prodigal sons in the famous parable, not one. There’s the younger son who blows his inheritance, repents of his bad choices, and crawls back to his father, seeking only a menial job and a place in the stable. There’s also the older son, the prig, who judges his younger brother harshly and wants to punish him for his misdeeds.
Brooks points out that only the father realizes that both sons are wounded, not just one. Only love can restore either of them to wholeness. Not judgment. Not hectoring about ‘bad life choices’. Not efforts to regulate others’ behavior. Just love and acceptance. Brooks presents this as a powerful parable for our times.
Those of us who have made the ‘right’ choices need to overcome our tendency to judge and punish the homeless, the poor, and the weak, even if they have contributed to the mess they’re in. We mustn’t reserve our love and help for just the blameless victims. If we do, we become less than human.
Read the essay HERE.
This morning’s L.A. Times reports about a new study of affordable housing in California. There’s less of it. Andrew Khouri writes that “Nearly 1 million extremely low income California households lack affordable, habitable homes, a need most pronounced in Southern California.” Rents are up 20% between 2000 and 2012, but median household income has fallen by 8%. The foreclosure crisis threw former homeowners into the rental market, driving up prices. The report said that Los Angeles County has 19 affordable units for every 100 extremely low-income household — and Orange and San Diego counties are about the same. Read about it HERE.
Economist Paul Krugman’s OpEd piece in this morning’s New York Times describes how the 1960s “War on Poverty” actually lowered poverty rates, improved children’s health, and helped many poor people lead better lives. Read it here …
The New York Time published a web app that maps poverty levels by county across the U.S. It also maps data by census tracts for several major U.S. cities. Striking. Check it out at http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2014/01/05/poverty-map/
News clip from Der Spiegel Online: “Food banks and soup kitchens in many German cities are having trouble keeping up with growing demand. Some are now abandoning their free food models in their efforts to continue helping the needy.” More need plus fewer charitable and public donations make it hard for food banks to cover their costs – even though they are staffed mostly by volunteers. Read more HERE.
There’s an article in this morning’s New York Times on hunger and the growth of poverty in Britain. http://nyti.ms/1eZ6U2H It shows how an increasing class split has eroded working people’s lives there, just as it has in the U.S. Worth reading.
This blog lets students summarize what they are learning about hunger and homelessness in contemporary America. Each course participant is required to post a substantive, thoughtful, and public post each week. Anyone is welcome to comment in response.
(We will delete spam and comments that are impolite, irrelevant, or oriented toward anything but reasoned learning.)