http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Oakland-Artist-Turns-Garbage-Into-Homes-For-The-Homeless-253620791.html

Let me know what you all think.

Sam

Before taking this course I honestly had not heard of the Half in Ten campaign at all.  I now understand that its objective is to cut poverty in half in 10 years.  With the mission being to build political and public will to cut poverty in half in ten years, I knew that this was something I am going to be a part of.  Heise outlines the three points that sum up the goals and pursuit of Half in Ten, and states that the goal is not simply to move families one dollar above the poverty line, but to create a movement in which individuals come together to affect and enact policies that 1, create good jobs.  2, strengthen families, and 3, promote economic security as to grow the middle class.  I would like to highlight how possible and attainable this is, as proved by statistics and historical references of when America has cut poverty and rates of hunger in half.

As we have learned over the course of this semester, it is imperative that we raise minimum wage to a level that accounts for inflation, and is livable.  This is stated as “increasing the minimum wage to its historic level of half the average wage”.  This will allow people to have enough money to live, being able to pay rent, buy nutritious food, pay for utilities, and get to work. Next, making tax code actually work for working families and expanding income tax credit and child tax credit.  This needs to happen in order for families to have fair tax credit given, so that the people who are just getting by do not pay the same amount of taxes to those who have luxury and opulent life styles that can afford to contribute much more.  This is a way for people with lower incomes to function soundly within our system.  The next is making childcare fully available as a work support for low-income families.  I have learned that without childcare being affordable or even an option, many families are bound to other (or no) alternatives, and forced into a life that leaves no room for a job, the ability to provide for family, or survive in today’s world.  Utilizing technology and the internet is key for the success of something like Half in Ten.  Through the use of webinars, fact sheets, sample letters to Congress, and social media actions, people were able to take action and effect the change and create improvements in tax legislation.   Because of the long reaching arms of the internet we have the ability to connect so many people and unite them on such issues, allowing for social change, affecting current policies and politics.

One thing I have learned recently is when you give a person the story, picture, account, and life experience of another who is/has experienced terrible injustices and pain, they are able and more likely to empathize with this person.  It doesn’t allow them to trivialize or minimize the issue or importance.  Having a personal account of this person who is directly affected by these issues gives life and personalizes the issue.  The individual can then recognize that their contribution and participation in creating change is worth while, important, and greatly appreciated.  This humanization process seems to be key in transcending boundaries and walls that serve to separate and divide us as humans, getting us in a situation and society such as we have now.   It can be the difference between knowing about an issue or huge problem but not caring enough to take action, or taking action and helping  our fellow human beings, allowing for health, happiness, and meaning in life.

Somehow when I read the piece entitled, “Public Radio and the Poor,” the phrase “money talks” immediately came to mind.  How true it is, really.  This article talks about Chicago Public Radio Station WBEZ posting four of its stations in  south side neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods whose stories typically would not be covered unless real-time human beings were physically present in those areas living and breathing their real-time stories.  Stories of the hood involved the high drop out rate at the high schools, teen pregnancy and parenthood, and the ineffective efforts to address these issues, etc.  The keynote example, however, highlighted the fact that the real mouthpiece for highlighting problems in the hood still emanates from those of financial stature.  A congressman’s son was shot across the street from a  south side hospital, but this hospital – as is true for all south side hospitals – did not have a trauma center.  The boy died, and his congressman father felt that he might have lived had the hospital been equipped to deal with his injuries.  His, the congressman’s, voice is the voice that is heard by people who hold the purse strings that could make a difference.

Perhaps it important that the masses hear the stories of the people struggling in the underbellies of our cities.  Many surely care.  Most feel helpless – myself often among that group.  But perhaps we are all waiting to be delivered from evil/unrighteousness by those with means who are somehow affected by the plight of those without.  It is only when the structural inequality affects those who typically are privileged that the issues come to the attention of those with the power to make a difference.

Mind The Gap

My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.  Abraham Lincoln

Even in the mid nineteenth century, we were feeling like the American dream was in jeopardy as evidenced by Lincoln’s quote above.  Today, however, the dream of a chicken in every pot or the dream of owning your own home is eluding more and more Americans at an alarming rate.  The problem is definitely economic.   Lisa Wirthman in her Denver Post article “Mind the Gap” reports that the richest 400 individuals in American have more wealth than the bottom 150 million individuals combined!    She points out that the shrinking middle class is a problem for all of us, in large part because there are more of us.  If the middle class folk continue to work longer hours that never net them higher wages or increased job opportunity, who will be spending?  The middle class, she points out, are the real job creators.  And even scarier, as we concentrate the wealth in the upper tail of the curve, we are also concentrating the power in the hands of the wealthiest Americans.  So…we will be led like sheep to slaughter as the kingpins feather their nests.

Wirtham suggests some solutions:

• raise the minimum wage – this would impact 16.5 million people with a net loss of less than 500,000 workers and improve life by decreasing turnover and training expenses
• make child care more affordable so that 50% or more of a single mom’s salary doesn’t go to childcare before rent or food
• put money where it counts – K12 education and higher education:  the greatest predictors of mobility are education and the ability to own a home.  Many of us are leaving college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt from student loans…we won’t be homeowners any time soon.

The problem is huge, but the solutions are there.  We need to wake up now and ban together to support bills that can and will help the masses.  We outnumber them, but we are giving our power away with apathy!

After realizing the intricate and interdependent nature of the causes of homelessness, we can start to see how the individual and structural causes start to reinforce each other.  With wages falling and the system failures of our time being exacerbated by an unequal system of disparity, what can be done?  I was looking at some different sites and read an article that posted a very similar story to one that Samantha had posted, but it was not in HP, it was in Nation of Change.  The article describes what we are actively becoming aware of and describes how Utah, a republican state, has reduced homelessness by 78% in the last eight years.   It is even proposed that homelessness is to be ended in Utah by 2015.  http://www.nationofchange.org/utah-ending-homelessness-giving-people-homes-1390056183

Another aspect of that article and of another video I saw recently is touching on this aspect of how to react, and it gives us a good test of how the public or figures are looking at and how they generally view homelessness and the stigmatic nature of this issue.  I’m talking about passing legislation such as what we saw in Santa Monica and many other cities that make homelessness either illegal, or the assisting of said homeless persons illegal.  This particular avenue of moving all homeless away and into camps is rather scary, and not something I am supportive of or would want to be part of as an American.  So with these two contrasting stories I hope to illustrate the various routes that can be taken, and the effectiveness of one over many others.

http://truthia.com/its-now-illegal-to-be-homeless/

After our last class session and the overwhelming feeling some spoke about, I thought a little more and wanted to blog about some thoughts.  Learning the somewhat intricate nature of homelessness, it’s causes, the personas involved, and what we are actively doing about it.  It is proving to be difficult to know what to do after becoming aware of such a problem in our society that has no easy or discernible answer or solution.  Just being aware of this problem within humanity is a step and being able to recognize all the factors at play helps to better position oneself in a helping and useful way, I also feel that this is not enough.

Volunteering does seem like a great outlet but equally important, is knowing the organization in which I engage with, making sure that my own values and knowledge align  with the organization that is attempting to help the persons I wish to help.  After learning about the restaurant that employs homeless persons for and also feeds them, I felt that model was one of true, genuine, and meaningful change that was very grass roots.  It may take creating programs or businesses that are like minded to that one in order to more properly address this issue.  I can think of a few ways in which I would create a business that has a model or aspect specifically dealing with this issue, and may be a great avenue for further investigation and creation.

One thing is for sure in my mind, cutting government aid and spending on social improvement programs, low income housing, and outreach will not help this problem and it will surely not go away.  Problems arise rather quickly where as solutions take long periods of time to actually start working, and making a statistical change, or decrease in the numbers of homeless persons.

I have been noticing more and more as the course progresses, that everyone, homeless or not wants similar things from life.  As listed in Grand Central Winter by Lee Stringer, love, respect, happiness, a sense of fairness and justice, a sense of well-being, a sense of purpose and value, and the feeling of being connected to something substantial, lasting, and secure.  When I recognize the truth in this for me personally, and for most everyone I know, it allows for a feeling of solidarity, that all of us no matter what race, creed, gender, or walk of life, want pretty much the same thing.  I then feel part of a greater whole, and a compassion towards my fellow humans, as they are trying to do the same.

In starting to understand how lucky and fortunate I am to have the things I do (food, shelter, entertainment, social relations, money, educational opportunities etc.) and the circumstance into which I was born, I appreciate it more.   I realize that many others do not have such resources and beneficial circumstances.  This dawning forces me to look critically at our society, and ask questions regarding the world and country I live in, and why it is the way it is, and what I can do about it.

Stringer states when talking about the human condition that, “The characteristic of absolute, unwavering devotion to something-common in those whom we might in error consider “lowlifes”-may well be, when directed toward spiritual growth, the essential element we readily assume drunks and druggies are by nature missing. ”

He talks further about the natural inclination and drive toward a spiritual path and how this has been replaced by the ever-present belief that material and physical things are more important and take precedence over the spiritual.   He goes on to say “…religion is for people who are afraid of going to hell, spirituality is for those who have already been there.” as stated in AA rooms.  This illustrates the clear division and disparity evident in the U.S. among those who have and those who do not.  Stringer also states that “Policy is never the real issue, the real issue is in the hearts of men.”  I find this to be a poignant reminder that we have failed in helping our own , and in search for success and happiness,  we have ignored and marginalized others.  We do such things blindly and often without concern for others, and all they can do is hope to simply survive.  Clearly the invisible hand of free market capitalism has its preference on whom to assist, and who benefits. I am not aware of anything that seems to ‘trickle down’ to those who need it most.  Stringer discusses policy and affirmative action, saying “concepts like affirmative action, while benefitting others, are essentially driven by our own desire to elevate ourselves.”  This I agree with strongly, and in my experience have known to be true.

One of the powerful things stringer also states is “I’m sure most Americans take comfort in the fact that racism has been abolished in this country.  Not the practice, of course, bus as a topic for public discussion…their response was not so much a true denunciation of racism as it was a response to the appearance of racism. The object being not to disturb the picture of America as we imagine it to be. ”  I find this very powerful and true, because he touches on the elephant in the room that many try not to notice, let alone talk about. Racism.  It makes people uncomfortable and the unfortunate response is to not create conversation and to quickly hurdle or whisk the topic away.  Instead of dealing with the highly conspicuous issue, we rationalize the current situation, and quiet any inquiry into the true nature and status of the issue as to maintain the ideal of America.

“…before we can put bigotry to bed, we must clear away the great confusion about what are the proper parameters for interracial coexistence.  And for that to happen, the subject of race itself, ugly, dispiriting, and prone to occasional blunder though it can be, must be taken back out of the closet. The current trend is to dismiss any and all dialogue concerning differing experiences among different racial/ethnic groups as liberal blather. ”

He goes on to say that anything that doesn’t support our one-nation version of cultural harmony is diverted, then allowing for the intolerance to be further implanted into our society.

We are all in this together so long as we are living on this earth, and to spend life ignoring the conditions in which so many live in order to protect one’s own sense of identity and comfort is to support the perpetuation of the endemic inequality, intolerance, and preventable suffering of so many.  If we are truly the nation that so many believe, we will take action and start to face our demons head on, together.

When someone is hungry and is given food, thirsty and is given drink, homeless and is given shelter, it can be regarded as a holy thing. (Matthew 25:31-46 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’)

In America, where “least” is defined quantitatively by the almighty dollar, giving to others in need is typically regarded as an act of charity.  The country that has maligned the words of Karl Marx “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” as dangerous and communistic, the country that touts its “dream” of rugged individuality wherein hard work guarantees the good life (home, a chicken in every pot, etc.), is a country that has many citizens for whom realizing the good life is an impossibility.  Lost here in the land of opportunity is the person, the humanity, the understanding that we are all essentially the same.  When the real – if usually cloaked – god is the almighty dollar, things can get pretty mixed up for people who are not lucky enough to be “born well.”  The value of “unskilled” laborers is faint, and these individuals are often despised.  At the same time, a demand for the hardest (physical) work remains ever-present. The people who have money to eat out, hire a house cleaner or gardener, and spend carelessly to satisfy their wishes are concerned with the service and not with the humans who provide the help.  They give at church and feel very holy and sanctimonious.  Where is the equality, the justice, the holiness in that?

In an OP-ED piece by Barbara Ehrenreich in the New York Times entitled Too Poor to Make the News, Ehrenreich notes that Larry Mishel, the president of the economic policy institute, offers data showing that blue-collar unemployment is increasing three times as fast as white-collar unemployment.  What a shock…not.  Our systemic failure and policy that support the dominance of the affluent and overlooks the suffering of those doing the actual life “work” is a natural byproduct of the unequal capitalist system that we enjoy.

I know that I am privileged…not only white privilege, but economically and socially privileged.  Reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” helped me understand the living circumstances and day to day routine of someone who is working multiple minimum wage jobs in order to survive. It also led me to question the ‘unskilled’ terminology associated with these lines of work that are so essential to everyday existence and social progress.  The outlay of energy and the effort and physical consequences of the work do not in any way match the amount of money earned or the social value imbued. In a nutshell…how dare we???

I am humbled by our readings.  I am incensed by our readings.  I am inspired by our readings that we can be the change that we want in the world.