Reblogged from think-progress
HourglassIssues
Political Science & Sociology Student who cares about the real issues our country & world are facing.
Education Reform! Help fight the good fight
Affordable: $1 TRILLION per year in tax cuts for the rich
Unaffordable: $6 BILLION per year to help millions of students
I really don’t get what Republicans have against education.
We’re a tease, so we’ll just give you a couple:
- Bush passed a huge tax cut plan, mostly benefiting the wealthy. Romney’s tax cut plan is four times larger, more heavily weighted to benefit ultra wealthy.
- Bush supported comprehesive immigration reform, a path to citizenship for 12 million undocumented immigrants and provisions of the DREAM Act. Romney opposes all of it.
- Bush acknowledged global warming is caused by humans. Romney says “we don’t know.
in regards to my anonymous question, the Citizens United supreme court case determined basically that corporations are people too.. funny right? NOT scary.Necessary context.
Anonymous asked: Do you foresee any changes made by Congress in regards to its current poll rating?
Well, it’s always shown that the candidate with the most money usually wins. Our congress has been doing good at making corporations happy. However, their approval ratings are at what? 8%? A low approval rating doesn’t seem to bother them that much. You can never tell though, it may go up. I think Americans are sick of partisanship (well I am anyways). There used to be a time when congress members would argue the hell out of an issue, then go play a game of golf with each other or share a drink, or whatever.It seems that this has changed, the partisanship has created such a gridlock in congress that it seems nothing gets passed…ever. I do think though that Americans will continue to be mostly apathetic and just elect the current members back into office, which is sad. It will be another vicious cycle. I can always be hopeful that due to such a low approval rating, Americans will rise up and take back control of their congress, but that will only happen when we stop treating corporations as constituents, and start treating PEOPLE as constituents. Thanks for the question.
Let’s fight the good fight! Education is important for any civilization to advance. We need education reform! Spread it! Lobby it! We need some change, and this is how it happens!
The face of homelessness is changing in the United States. People used to think of homeless people as either mentally ill, or drug addicts.
However, nowadays since the 2008 recession with massive forclosures, today’s homeless may as well be a suburban couple with children who lost their house and are staying with relatives or in a shelter. (Katel)
More than Two Million Americans are homeless during the course of a year, and since 2008 that number has been rising. As previously stated, the stereotypical homeless person is not what it used to be. 40% are families with children, 30% are substance abusers, 23% are mentally ill, and 10% are veterans. (Triplett)
Senior Pastor John Steinbruck of Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington D.C., a homeless sympathizer, is quoted saying “In an environment of love and care, healing can take place. People shown how to reach a better place in life. We try to provide an exit route from homelessness to independence. It’s not our goal to provide just ‘three hots and a cot’.” (Worsnop)
Cities have already began to readily rely on law enforcement to deal with the homeless. As seen in the documentary Dark Days, the homeless have nowhere to go, so they stay in an abandoned subway tunnel, only to be evicted from there too. Rudy Giuliani, while mayor of New York in 1999 ordered the arrest of any homeless person refusing to go to a city shelter. In Orlando, lying down on the sidewalk is illegal.
We the people of the United States, need to recognize this as a problem. It’s a big problem. These numbers for homelessness are not for 2012, they are for the latest 2009. That number could very well be up to Three Million. So, to put that into perspective, if you have more than 100 friends on facebook, odds are 1 of those people is homeless. Sure, shelters are available, and so is public housing but the processes of getting into one of these institutions can be long and grueling, sometimes taking months. Also, independent individuals may not want to burden others. Some are mentally ill, and don’t even recognize that there is help available and this is sad that we proclaim to be the greatest nation in the world, yet we still have such a big issue of people not even having a place to call their own home.
We must arm the homeless with the tools necessary to become the masters of their own destinies. This is a problem that needs to be addressed properly. We can’t sweep these people under the rug with law enforcement. We must arm the homeless to become productive members of society, to become tax payers, to be the best they can be.
Our statue of liberty contains verses from “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus,
Not like the brazen giant of Greeek Fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to. (Lazarus)
Our Constitution’s preamble reads:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
(2004): n. pag. Web. 28 Mar. 2012
CQResearcher. 6.3 (1996): n. pag. Web 29 Mar. 2012
Dark Days trailer.
Directed by Marc Singer.
Gives good insight into the homelessness problem in New York City, New York.
