Hi everyone! Nice to see you again! It's good to be back home, even though Atlanta has about 23 degree weather-- and a wind chill that makes it feel like 10 degrees. After 10 days of seeing snow on the ground back in NY, it doesn't seem so strange to come back to see snow here. Like everything else, it could be worse. Once again, thank you to everyone for filling in while we were away. It's a blessed thing to have a network of friends and people that are there for you when you need it.
Bob and I are fortunate. We don't own a home, and we don't have children. Our life is not one that must be rooted to any one place. It opens the door of opportunity to seek out new things. Many are not as fortunate as we are. Many are far worse off. Imagine struggling to get a good education, knowing what each night has in store for you.
Daniel, his mother and five brothers, ages 1 to 17, live in a garage without heat or running water in a modest, low-lying neighborhood that sits between celebrity-owned mansions in the hills and the Pacific Ocean. Each morning, they arise at 6:30, get dressed and then leave quietly; they return only after dark — a routine born out of the fear that detection could mean the loss of even this humble dwelling.
Daniel and his brothers have been sleeping in the garage for more than a year — members of what school officials and youth advocates say is a rapidly growing legion of homeless youth.
It is a growing issue in America. The housing crisis often does not talk about how it affects the youth of our nation. We talk about families losing their homes, but often the idea of drilling down into the details of what happens is something we, as Americans, don't really look at. Republicans outright deny those details, and quite often actually blame the victims when forced to confront those details.
Our economic crisis, our housing crisis, our banking crisis and our war crisis is not the fault of the America electorate. It won't be solved by bootstraps or by the government getting out of the way, as little Bobby Jindal told us last week. Real people are suffering and real people need help. The have gone for far too long, watching the social safety nets set up by FDR, be slowly stripped away. People like Bobby Jindal think it is GREAT that his dad had to pay for his son in installments. People like me believe that Americans, by way of the constitution are given a right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The powers that be have been slowly taking away those rights, and this is where we are, A country on the verge of depression, with republicans blaming Americans instead of themselves for the mess that we are in. Yes, I can blame the dems as well, but by and large, this country has been following the lead of conservative politics and ideaologies set in place decades aqo. It is time for a serious shift, not just from our leaders, but for ourselves. We must confront the details of the crisis in order to understand how this affects us ALL -- not just our friends and the person around the corner. The devil is really in the details.
I know that I don't need to tell our regular members these things. I just had to get it of my chest this morning. No child deserves to be homeless. It's frustrating to watch so many people suffer at the hands of this crisis, while those that actually have money feel like they are cutting back by maybe taking one vacation to Hawaii this year instead of 2 and then telling their workers they must cut hours due to the economy.
Let's get this month rolling. This is gonna be a great day and a better month!
:peace: and
Raine
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