Gaia Community: diana nicholson's Blog

I'LL CLOSE MY EYES AND START AGAIN ANEW

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:35:48 GMT

Poverty in America

I'm going to phrase this pretty starkly, because that's the way things are:

37 million Americans are living below the poverty line, and inequality has increased to a level not seen since before the Depression and the New Deal. I could batter readers with statistics forever, shock you with the percentages of children who go hungry and families who lack stable housing, but that would be missing the point.

The point is that an enormous number of people living in the richest nation in the world are struggling to get by, while a sliver of folks at the top just keep raking it in.

There are some who would point out that poor people in America are still rich by world standards, that compared with the 1 billion people who live on the oft-repeated "dollar a day," they are doing pretty well for themselves. It's certainly true that those of us who live in this country are very lucky to do so. But a key aspect of evaluating poverty is considering the ability to participate in one's society, and that is growing increasingly difficult for poor Americans to do.

The opportunities and choices available to low-income individuals and families are so different from those available to their wealthy and even middle-class counterparts that they might as well be living in another country. You're more likely to get sent to Iraq, more likely to go to jail, more likely to have an unplanned child, more likely to have asthma from breathing polluted air if you're poor. More likely to have to choose between paying for food (none of that organic stuff, either) and medical treatment, less likely to get adequate care if you choose the latter. Pointing out that there are still people in the world who are worse off in an absolute sense does not absolve us of the responsibility to address our own country's need.

Why is this important for young people? Well, first of all, young Americans make up a large percentage of those below the poverty line, a percentage that is increasing more rapidly than that of any other age group. As the gap between the rich and the rest increases, more and more of us young folks are likely to find ourselves flirting with poverty. But even those of us who are heading for jobs at Google should be worried about the principles of the country we hold so dear, the one that first declared that all men are created equal.

The invocation of the American dream is more disingenuous than inspiring these days; the America that we're inheriting is one that treats its own residents disgracefully. Poor people have become second-class citizens, and the stigma attached to poverty is justified by the illusion that we live in a meritocracy. Segregation is acceptable as long as it's rationalized by socioeconomic status, since that is supposedly determined by a person's choices in life. We don't like to admit that it helps to have been born into the right neighborhood, race, gender, family.

It's much easier to dismiss poor people as undeserving, unsavory, crackheads, welfare queens--not like respectable middle-class Americans--than to acknowledge the enormous problems that continue to plague our society. What it really comes down to is not morality or work ethic but that some of us have sufficient resources to cushion us from our mistakes and others do not. For millions of Americans, one fluke event can turn a delicate balancing act into financial free-fall. And when the government doesn't provide an adequate safety net, it's a long way down to the bottom.

I once read a study for a sociology class that showed that risk-averse people, when given a choice at a young age, choose to live in a society that is relatively equally distributed over one that is equally rich but grossly lopsided. Seems like a no-brainer, right? But as people age and find themselves in the higher brackets, the lopsided society doesn't seem quite so bad. People with power don't act to end the oppression of those without it unless pushed by some sort of force.

The growing gap between those at the top and the bottom of the socioeconomic scale is perhaps the greatest moral issue facing America today. If we, the young people of America, don't attack it with all the idealism and energy of our youth, who will? Desperate and afraid, we can turn on whoever seems to present a threat--immigrants, perhaps--or we can open up a constructive dialogue about the reality of poverty in America and what we can do about it.

by ALYSSA KATHARINE RITZ BATTISTONI

There is a powerful need for Obama to put poverty back on the national radar. The grim stats on the ground and the lives intertwined with them demand a bold agenda. Beyond Obama such an agenda needs independent organizing to drive it, much the way the 1963 March on Washington eventually helped drive the War on Poverty. Ending a trillion dollar war and redirecting some of those resources back home is key as well.

Unless (and until) we tackle the gap between the very rich and the rest of America--including the growing number of people falling into poverty --it will be increasingly difficult to confront the major challenges of our time.

The truth is, lifting the boats at the bottom has historically been good for all Americans.

by KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL

Tags: poverty in america, zeropoverty.us, Zero Poverty US, willy mason, oxygen, gap between rich and the poor, economy, Obama

LIVING ON A SEESAW

http://transform.gaia.com — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:35:26 GMT

Willy Mason - The Message (GrandMaster Flash Cover)

How we measure poverty

The U.S. government's method, established in 1964, is badly outdated and leads to an inaccurate picture of who is, and is not, poor in America.

By Rebecca M. Blank
September 15, 2008

Who is poor in America? It turns out that's a hard question to answer.

The federal government's badly outdated method of measuring poverty provides an inaccurate picture. New York found the official numbers so useless that the city recently developed its own poverty measure. Other cities, including Los Angeles, are considering doing the same thing, and those efforts are expected to be high on the agenda when the U.S. Conference of Mayors meets in Los Angeles on Sept. 23-24.

But what's most needed is an overhaul of the nation's poverty measurement statistics. The good news is that legislation is being drafted in both the House and Senate. A change is long overdue.

Why does it matter if we have a good measure of poverty?

In the last four decades, the U.S. has greatly expanded programs for lower-income families, including food stamps, housing vouchers, medical care assistance and tax credits. But the poverty rate doesn't take any of these resources into account because it doesn't account for taxes or noncash income. At the same time, Americans' medical expenses have increased, and more single parents work and pay child-care expenses. The current poverty measure is unaffected by these changes too.

The result?

Poverty statistics that make it depressingly easy to claim that public spending on the poor has had little effect. Indeed, most programs to help the needy would never budge the U.S. poverty rate the way we measure it now.

The current measure of poverty was established in 1964 by a Social Security Administration economist named Mollie Orshansky. Looking at data from 1955 -- the best available in the early 1960s -- she found that a family spent, on average, one-third of its income on food. Hence, three-times-food became the official poverty line. That line has ticked upward only by being adjusted for inflation each year.

No other regularly reported economic statistic has been unchanged for four decades. Food prices have fallen; today, food constitutes less than one-seventh of the average family's budget. But people pay substantially more for housing and energy.

Still, the old poverty measure continues to be used by all sorts of government programs. Some use it for eligibility limits; most families below 130% of the poverty line, for instance, are eligible for food stamps. Some federal block grants to states are partly based on state poverty levels.

In 1995, I participated in a panel of scholars at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a group that advises the federal government on scientific issues. We recommended a far more effective way to establish a poverty threshold, based on expenditures for a bundle of necessities, including food, shelter, clothing and utilities. Furthermore, this threshold would vary geographically, based on differences in housing costs.

This would mean that families in Los Angeles have a different poverty line from families in rural Wyoming. When New York calculated a new threshold with this methodology, officials found that it was $21,818 for a family of four, not far from the official U.S. figure of $20,444. But when they adjusted for New York's high housing costs, it rose to $26,138.

But the poverty measure also needs to recognize that the resources in low-income families extend beyond wages and cash income. The NAS panel recommended a much broader definition, including cash income adjusted for tax payments, plus the value of government benefits such as food stamps or Section 8 rental vouchers. Unavoidable costs were subtracted from income, as well, because working requires spending money on transportation and, often, child care. Similarly, out-of-pocket medical expenses also were deducted.

Why weren't these changes made years ago? That's a story of politics getting in the way of good statistics. Back in the 1960s, the poverty measure was placed under the control of the White House. This is in contrast to all of our other national statistics, which are defined and updated by agencies with a long history of nonpolitical decision making.

Unfortunately, no president (Democrat or Republican) has wanted to touch this political hot potato. If a new measure shows higher poverty, the president looks bad, but if a new measure shows lower poverty, he'll be accused of dismissing the problem.

And the numbers will change. In New York, where the official U.S. poverty measure finds 18% of the city is poor, the new measure (largely because of housing costs) finds 23%. But the picture will be more accurate. New York found rates differed little for children but were much higher for the elderly because of out-of-pocket medical expenditures.

That's why Congress needs to pass legislation to direct one of the statistical agencies to calculate a new federal poverty measure, guided by the NAS recommendations. Under a new measure, single-mother families receiving food stamps and in subsidized housing would appear a little better off; disabled individuals with high medical expenses, a little worse. Families in big cities with high housing costs, such as in California, would be poorer, and families that receive working tax credits less poor.

But that is just as it should be. If we want to debate new policies to help the poor, we first need a poverty measure that shows us who they really are.

Rebecca M. Blank is the Robert V. Kerr senior fellow in economics at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

Tags: poverty in america, poverty, poverty measure

WE EITHER HEAL AS A TEAM OR WE CRUMBLE AS INDIVIDUALS

http://transform.gaia.com — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:57:22 GMT

THIS IS A BATTLE

A BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL

WE EITHER HEAL AS A TEAM OR WE CRUMBLE AS INDIVIDUALS

WE ARE IN HELL RIGHT NOW

LIFE IS LIKE A GAME OF INCHES

WE CAN CLIMB OUT OF HELL ONE INCH AT A TIME.

THE MARGIN FOR ERROR IS SO SMALL, ONE HALF A STEP TO LATE OR TO EARLY AND YOU DON'T QUITE MAKE IT, ONE HALF SECOND TO SLOW OR TO FAST AND YOU DON'T QUITE CATCH IT.

ON OUR TEAM WE FIGHT FOR THAT INCH

IT IS A FIGHT AND IN ANY FIGHT IT'S THE GUY WHO'S WILLING TO DIE (figuritively speaking) WHO'S GONNA GAIN THAT INCH!

I KNOW IF I AM GOING TO HAVE ANY LIFE ANYMORE ITS BECAUSE I'M STILL WILLING TO FIGHT AND DIE FOR THAT INCH.

BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT LIVING IS, THE SIX SENSES IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

NOW, I CAN'T MAKE YOU DO IT

BUT YOU CAN LOOK AT THE PERSON NEXT TO YOU, LOOK INTO THEIR EYES.YOU MAY SEE A PERSON WHO WILL GO THAT INCH WITH YOU,YOU ARE GONNA SEE A PERSON WHO WILL SACRIFICE THEMSELF FOR THIS TEAM BECAUSE THEY KNOW THAT WHEN IT COMES RIGHT DOWN TO IT, YOU WOULD DO THE SAME FOR THEM.

NOW, EITHER WE HEAL AS A TEAM OR WE WILL DIE AS INDIVIDUALS

THAT'S LIFE, THAT'S ALL IT IS

NOW WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?

from the movie "any given sunday" starring the awesome Al Pacino.

Any Given Sunday - Peace by Inches - Pacino

join our team ::: Zero Poverty :::

sincerely,

Diana Nicholson/

founder zeropoverty.us

Tags: al pacino, any given sunday, zeropoverty.us, diana nicholson, zero poverty u.s., jamie fox, dennis quaid

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE WITH POVERTY?

http://transform.gaia.com — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:25:45 GMT

HEAVEN AND HELL IN ONE PLACE

Break The Silence,

Almost two out of every five Los Angeles County residents do not have enough income to meet their basic needs

Skid Row- Starring Pras of the Fugees

Local Charities Hurting From Sluggish

Economy

March 16, 2008 - 9:04PM

BY JOYCE LOBECK, SUN STAFF WRITER

The sluggish economy is posing a double whammy for Yuma's charity organizations, who are finding themselves with more people on their doorstep in need of help even as there's less in their coffers to provide it.

Add to that, the charities are facing the same rising costs in fuel and utilities that are impacting both their donors and clients.

While times are tough now, though, they're bracing for a long, hot summer that will challenge their budgets even further.

"Definitely, we're seeing a large downturn in donations," said Capt. Jonathan Harvey of The Salvation Army. "The last couple of months it's been really slow for donations. If we don't get those goods, we can't give them to our clients or sell them in our thrift store."

That's likely a reflection of the economic slowdown, he said. "People are more cautious. If they don't buy a new couch, they're not donating the old one."

As for cash donations, what people may once have donated to their favorite organization is now going to pay their increased utility bills and to fill their gas tanks, he said.

At the same time, Harvey said, requests for assistance are up dramatically. It's a trend he's been seeing for the past year, but one that is accelerating.

In January, the agency saw a 39 percent increase in cases from January 2007, he said. In February, there was a 48 percent increase in cases from the previous February.

It's the same story for Crossroads Mission and the Yuma Community Food Bank.

At Crossroads Mission, every penny is being stretched as far as possible, said Myra Garlit, executive director. "We're seeing a marked decrease in cash donations."

And she estimates that donations to the thrift store, a vital source of revenue for the mission, are about half what they were. That's based on the number of trips the truck makes to pick up donations, she said, which has dropped from 15 to 20 a day to six or fewer.

Meanwhile, the mission is bedding overflow crowds of people in need of shelter on the floor at both the men's dorm and the family shelter, she said.

With the electric bill for the mission's facilities already in the thousands of dollars, Garlit said she's expecting a rough summer. At the same time, she's clinging to the hope that the community will provide.

"Last summer we were down to one can of green beans in our pantry. Then a 4-H group came in with a food drive. The community comes through."

She invites residents to come visit the mission and see the real need not just for men, but also women and children.

The food bank has been seeing a 10 to 15 percent increase in requests for emergency and supplementary food across the board for its various programs, said Ronna Sue Stubbs, executive director.

"With the economy the way it is, more people are needing help. At the same time, it's harder to raise dollars."

That's even more true during the summer, when donors' thoughts turn to vacations rather than giving, while seasonal workers need food to feed their families.

New sources of food donations are also being developed through the food bank's membership with Second Harvest.

For example, soon the food bank will begin picking up outdated and pulled product from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, she said. "I have no idea yet of the impact, but I believe it will be sizable."

That food will go into boxes for families who come to the agency, and also help other charities that look to the food bank for food assistance for their own programs, she said.

Diana Nicholson,

executive director/

www.zeropoverty.us

join us!

Tags: pras michel, skid row, charity, charities, zeropoverty.us, zero poverty u.s., poverty, diana nicholson, extreme poverty, millenium development goals

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A HUMAN LIFE?

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:49:43 GMT

POVERTY DEVALUES THE HUMAN LIFE.

American Dream Now a Nightmare for Millions
U.S. Census: One in Five Lives on Less than $7 per day.
The so-called “wealthiest, most abundant nation on Earth” now has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. In light of the fact that one dollar spent in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia buys what $3 or $4 does in the U.S means the quality of life for tens of millions of Americans is now on a par with huge populations living in the developing world.

WE CAN'T KEEP ASKING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE TO GIVE WHEN

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN IS POOR.

Poverty in America

WE ARE THE RICHEST NATION BECAUSE OUR GOVERNMENT NICKELS AND DIMES US TO DEATH.

WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE GOVERNMENT BY DEFINITION!

IT IS TIME TO UNITE AND INSIST THAT WE GET OFF THE WAR PATH AND ONTO THE RIGHT PATH OF SAVING LIVES. jeffrey sachs

WHY ARE WE NOT WAGING A WAR AGAINST POVERTY?
18,000 THOUSAND CHILDREN DIE OF STARVATION EVERY DAY.

JOIN US AND BE A HERO FOR www.zeropoverty.us

Tags: human rights, extreme poverty, poverty, jeffrey sachs, bruce springsteen, the end of poverty, president bush, pink, u2, grace, saint mother theresa

THE TRIAL OF THE CATONSVILLE 9: A MOVEMENT!

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:37:04 GMT

Star-Studded Reading of The Trial of the Catonsville Nine

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
–Dwight Eisenhower

A wise man told me that we must look to the past to see how we should proceed in the future.

WHAT MOVES ONE TO ACT?

“Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.”

percy bysshe shelley

AT WHAT POINT DO WE DECIDE TO DO SOMETHING TAKE A STAND.

WE CAN'T KEEP DOING THINGS THE SAME WAY EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS!

IT IS TIME TO ACT
THIS TIME IT IS NOT A REVOLUTION, IT IS A CONSCIOUS EVOLUTION WITH A SOLUTION
JOIN US! TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING!
IT'S TIME TO EVOLVE....

Click here to check out
The End Poverty Malibu Meetup Group!

Tags: the trial of the catonsville 9, tim robbins, daniel berrigan, philip berrigan, paul haggis, conscious evolution, actors gang, martin sheen, beau bridges, keith carradine, sandra oh. jeremy piven

Apathy&Genocide; Darfur, A Modern Day Holocaust

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:20:05 GMT

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." Dante

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

HISTORICALLY IN WAR TIME PEOPLE HAVE A TENDENCY TO BECOME ISOLATIONISTS. OUR GENERATION HAS AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE REMEMBERED AS THE ONES WHO CARED AND DARED TO CHANGE EVERYTHING.
Join us and be a hero for Zero Poverty!

THE UNITED STATES AND THE HOLOCAUST

During World War II, rescue of Jews and other victims of the Nazis was not a priority for the United States government. Nor was it always clear to Allied policy makers how they could pursue large-scale rescue actions behind German lines. Due in part to antisemitism (prejudice against or hatred of Jews), isolationism, the economic Depression, and xenophobia (prejudice against or fear of foreigners), the refugee policy of the U.S. State Department (led by Secretary of State Cordell Hull) made it difficult for refugees to obtain entry visas to the United States.
The U.S. State Department also delayed publicizing reports of genocide. In August 1942, the State Department received a cable confirming Nazi plans for the total destruction of Europe's Jews. The report, sent by Gerhart Riegner (the representative in Geneva of the World Jewish Congress), was not passed on to other government officials. The State Department asked American Rabbi Stephen Wise, who also received the report, to refrain from announcing it.

Reports of Nazi atrocities often were not publicized in full by the American press. In 1943, Polish courier Jan Karski informed President Franklin D. Roosevelt of reports of mass murder received from Jewish leaders in the Warsaw ghetto. No immediate executive action was taken. The U.S Congress twice rejected legislation that would have allowed entry to the United States for 10,000 unaccompanied Jewish children seeking refuge.
On April 19, 1943, U.S. and British representatives met in Bermuda to find solutions to wartime refugee problems. No significant proposals emerged from the Bermuda Conference. In January 1944 Roosevelt established the War Refugee Board (within the Treasury Department) to facilitate the rescue of imperiled refugees. Fort Ontario, in New York, began to serve as an ostensibly free port for refugees. Refugees brought to Fort Ontario, however, were not from Nazi-occupied areas, but rather from liberated zones.

By the spring of 1944, the Allies knew of the killing operations using poison gas at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. Jewish leaders pleaded unsuccessfully with the U.S. government to bomb the gas chambers and railways leading to the camp. From August 20 to September 13, 1944, the U.S. Air Force bombed the Auschwitz-Monowitz industrial complex, less than five miles from the gas chambers in Birkenau. However, the U.S.MAINTAINED IT'S POLICY OF NON-INVOLVEMENT IN RESCUE, and bombed neither the gas chambers nor the railways used to transport prisoners.

Citizentube focus: Darfur

Tags: holocaust, apathy, genocide, darfur, united states, zeropoverty.us, enough campaign

BE A HERO FOR ZERO POVERTY!

http://transform.gaia.com — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:20:39 GMT

CITY OF MALIBU
PROCLAMATION DECLARING MALIBU
A MILLENNIUM PROMISE CITY

“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality” - Abraham Lincoln

Whereas the Malibu City Council and residents of Malibu believe that extreme poverty can be eliminated from our planet in our lifetimes; and

Whereas we seek to help implement the U.N. Millennium Development Goals and the Millennium Promise. We support the goals and steps articulated in Jeffrey Sachs’ “The End of Poverty”; among them, the eradication of extreme poverty by the year 2025; and

Whereas we seek to foster cooperation among individuals, organizations and nations;
and

Whereas we feel that Malibu has a unique opportunity to set an example for the rest of the world;
Now, Therefore, Be It Resolved that the City Council of the City of Malibu hereby declares Malibu as a Millennium Promise City; a city that stands united against extreme poverty and supports a plan to end it within our generation.

Presented this 11th day of June 2007,
On behalf of the Malibu City Council
Signed by the Mayor of Malibu
Jeff Jennings

Malibu declares goal to end poverty

Mayor Jeff Jennings read a proclamation at Monday's City Council meeting declaring the city's support of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the U.N. Millennium Promise's goal to end poverty. The proclamation was handed to Diana Nicholson, organizer of the End Poverty Malibu Meetup Group.
http://www.malibutimes.com/articles/2007/06/13/news/newsbriefs.txt

GET YOUR CITY TO DECLARE ITSELF A MILLENIUM CITY.
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends"
- Martin Luther King Jr.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/12/sunday/main2174664.shtml
Join us and be a hero for zeropoverty.
http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/

Sincerely, Diana Nicholson
organizer of the
"End Poverty Malibu Meetup Group"

Tags: zeropoverty.us, malibu city council, bobby, emilio estevez, malibu times, bobby kennedy, u.n. millennium development goals, millennium promise, diana nicholson, end poverty malibu meetup group

American Dream Now a Nightmare for Millions

http://transform.gaia.com — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:41:44 GMT

American Dream Now a Nightmare for Millions U.S. Census: One in Five Lives on Less than $7 per day By William Shanley New Haven, Connecticut (April 16, 2007) From Combined News Services and Evolution Solutions Newsroom – A 2004 analysis of data by the US Census reports that 60 million Americans now live on less than $7 per day. That's one in five in the U.S. living on less than $2,555 per year. At the same time, the richest 1 per cent now garners about 16 per cent of national income, double what they earned in the 1960s.[1] While global income inequality is probably greater than it has ever been in human history, with half the world's population living on less than $3 per day, and the richest 1% receiving as much as the bottom 57%, the fact that so many Americans are living on so little, is particularly confounding. The so-called “wealthiest, most abundant nation on Earth” now has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.[2] In light of the fact that one dollar spent in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia buys what $3 or $4 does in the U.S means the quality of life for tens of millions of Americans is now on a par with huge populations living in the developing world. And there’s more bad news to report from here. There has been no increase in non-supervisory wages since 1972. Twenty-five million Americans now depend on emergency food aid.[3] This rapidly increasing trend is a brutal reminder of how the extreme political right has eviscerated the social safety net in the U.S. over the last 25 years. At a time when globalization is in full gallop, and its destructive effects are being felt in many working-class communities from Detroit to Connecticut, the national crisis is being exacerbated by the rising power and stature of a winner-take-all culture that celebrates greed and egotism by rewarding the super-rich at the expense of the poor. With only 6% of global population, the US consumes 25% of the world's resources. A profile of Connecticut, one of America's richest states, is quite revealing. It possesses islands of some of the greatest wealth in the world throughout Fairfield County, yet has three of America's ten poorest cities, Hartford—the capitol—Bridgeport and New London. The New Haven-Meriden corridor has the 7th greatest gap between rich and poor in the US–in close running with some of the Old South’s poorest and most segregated states, Mississippi and Alabama. Across the nation, the price of this economic dysfunction is an increase in the level of insecurity and pain for everyone, and there is almost no place left to live without encountering violent and non-violent crime, proliferation of drugs, guns, mental illness, lost hope, cynicism and corruption. At the same time, the middle class is being forced to bear the brunt of the economic cost for courts, police, prisons and welfare through taxes. While the median price of a home has doubled in the last five years, and with interest rates now on the rise, home foreclosure rates for first-time homebuyers are skyrocketing. Rents have followed suit, pushing millions more into economic hardship, poverty and homelessness. For too many Americans, the litany of violence, punishment and suffering seems unending, and the American Dream is now a uniquely Made-in-America Nightmare. Evolution Solutions, a young, New Haven, Connecticut-based Internet start-up, is stepping into the breach to help bridge the chasm by organizing and circulating the enormous untapped wealth via a peer-to-peer gifts and wishes pool called GiveGet Nation. The non-profit social enterprise has launched its beta 1.0 application and its founders are welcoming the public to take the system for a test drive (www.givegetnation.net). ”If we can attract a mere 1% of what people in Connecticut have stored in lockers, attics, closets and basements, for example–a 1% that they will likely never use again–we can begin to wright the course and provide promise and possibility to the weakest among us here in the richest state,” said founder William Shanley. “Everyone, no matter how rich or poor, has needs and resources. We provide a level playing field for everyone to participate in the infinite game of life through sharing.” “By beginning to circulate the limitless human product, labor, intelligence and spiritual capital of the world, we can transform it a little bit at a time,” said Timothy Wilken, MD, a Carmel, California-based general practitioner and synergy scientist. Dr. Wilken is William’s partner in the initiative and is the inventor of Giftegrity, a give and get synergy engine used in GiveGet Nation based on the work of the late genius Buckminster Fuller. “We not only provide a means to circulate lumpy items like goods, but our application also organizes and circulates work, intelligence and spiritual power to build, solve and heal. If you are retired and need a volunteer to rake your lawn, we can provide it. The same is true with professional counseling, engineering, medical and legal services. If you have artistic and spiritual interests and pursuits, you can post gifts and wishes in those domains, as well.” “To make a difference, it’s crucial that we get the message out and alert givers and getters to the opportunities and efficiencies afforded by participating in our person-to-person world of sharing,” William continued. “Unlike many other non-profits that use a condescending top-down model with large staffs and overhead, we’re are the action that makes the rubber meets the road, without having to go through a cadre of social practitioners to meet peoples needs.” US in Denial as Poverty Rises Next door to Yale, the bastion of privilege that turns out the land's leaders, lies a tent city of America's poor, huddled masses. PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AND BE A HERO FOR ZERO POVERTY http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/hero-for-zero-poverty

Tags: homeless, american people, poverty, zeropoverty.us, homeless in america, evolution solution, extreme poverty, end poverty malibu group, diana nicholson

The Only Super Power Is Love!

http://transform.gaia.com — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 05:13:23 GMT

photo by anthony verebes www.avphoto.com "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." – Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968, American Civil Rights Leader and Nobel Prïze Wïnner There are two worlds One where people are poor The other where people have lots of things Maybe I am naive, but I believe it's time! time to wake up and say what's what TRUTH STEVE HARGREAVES, Staff Writer - CNNMoney.com How exactly are the American taxpayers going to get back the half trillion dollars in expenditures of money -- to say nothing of blood -- they have made? Or is this the penalty we as citizens will pay for electing an administration that created the debacle that is Iraq? And people think their vote doesn't matter. [ Laura Nyro "save the country" ] Bob Marley said "One Love" "One Heart" Lets get together ONE WORLD We can change everything together! Healing in joining! http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/

Tags: love, bob marley, one love, one world, martin luther king jr., www.avphoto.com, laura nyro, zeropoverty.us, end poverty malibu group, diana nicholson

AN INCREASE IN POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN AMERICA?

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 15:13:29 GMT

Today there are 6 billion people living on the planet and it is possible to produce food for 10 billion. Hunger, starvation and misery are on the increase (800 million people suffer from malnutrition and 2.4 billion live under the poverty line.) The three highest Microsoft CEOs have a combined wealth greater than the amount of money the US spends on anti-poverty programmes. The exchange of products between different economies does not take place in a fair and just way: a small number of powerful multinational companies control most of the wealth (40% of the planet's Gross Domestic Product and 70% of trade) and they impose their interests on the rest of the world. The division of the world economy between the different countries does not benefit all eqitably but condemns the underdeveloped countries to providing the more advanced countries with cheap raw materials (oil, minerals, agricultural products) and cheap labour. This process increases inequality instead of reducing it. "Is crusading against extreme poverty a noble act?" I DO NOT CONSIDER THIS A CRUSADE NOR DO I CONSIDER IT TO BE A NOBLE ACT. A THINKING MAN KNOWS THAT IT IS ONLY PRACTICAL! Whatever we do has consequences There is an alarmingly growing number of homeless in America. "HOMELESS" is a word we like to use instead of "PEOPLE IN EXTREME POVERTY" And how many are a heartbeat away from living on the streets? Every day living in terror, struggling to make ends meet. In America being poor is shamefull, and kept a secret, isolating people from the help of their friends, family and community. "It takes a village!" Our communities and citizens must join together, it is the only way. Help one another! Clearly not every American is benefitting from this gross imbalance of trade. How long can we go on pretending everything is fine, when evidently it is not! Join us and be the solution! http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/ Sincerely, Diana Nicholson Organizer of "End Poverty Malibu Group"

Tags: homeless, american people, poverty, extreme poverty, end poverty malibu group, diana nicholson

We Don't Need Special Powers To Make a Difference!

http://transform.gaia.com — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:23:25 GMT

We Don't Need Special Powers to Make a Difference Every Person’s a Hero the Soul of a Citizen Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time, Paul Loeb explores the "mistaken belief that [an advocate] … has to be a larger-than-life figure, someone with more time, energy, courage, vision or knowledge than a normal person could ever possess. … As a result of such images, many of us have developed the perfect standard. Before we will allow ourselves to take action on an issue, we must be convinced … that we have perfect understanding of it, perfect moral consistency in our character, and that we be able to express our views with perfect eloquence." In what ways does this "perfect standard" interfere with your willingness to tackle issues in the classroom, school or community? "What is a hero?" A hero is someone who uses his powers to help or save other people. "Does a hero have to have special powers?" "No, Martin Luther King Jr. was a hero, and he didn't have special powers. But he wasn't just a normal person -- he did a lot of great things to help the world. Just a regular person probably couldn't do all the things he did." "Do you think you could do the things he did?" "Probably some things, but I don't know if I could be a hero like him." Join us and tap into the hero in you, http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/ Together we can do anything! [excerpts from article by Dana Williams] Sincerely, Diana Nicholson

Tags: hero, martin luther king, citizen, conviction, activisim, end poverty malibu, extreme poverty, zeropoverty.us, global poverty, poverty, diana nicholson

SAVE THE HUMANS

http://transform.gaia.com — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 08:34:04 GMT

"Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number - Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you - Ye are many - they are few." percy bysshe shelley At the moment aids is a tragic emergency along with darfur, malaria, tuberculosis...The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is currently evaluating its grant portfolios, and it appears that despite receiving the smallest share of Global Fund resources, TB interventions are saving more lives than any other Global Fund investment. And this doesn't even capture the bigger picture — the many families who were not pushed over the brink into severe poverty thanks to TB treatment. What's next, maybe something worse There will always be an emergency As long as we ignore the root of the problem We could be hacking away at the branches forever until we deal with the root The Root Is Extreme Poverty America "We The People" should embrace our humanity against extreme poverty 15,000,000 million people die of poverty related causes every year Deaths from the war in Iraq; 750 / year (actually 600 / year (from http://icasualties.org/oif/stats.aspx) in combat, the rest in accidents etc.) 2 billion dollars a day spent on a senseless war 18,000 thousand children die every day from starvation Thirteen cities in the United States still have people living in extreme poverty SAVE THE HUMANS YOU CAN DO SOMETHING If "We the People" join together we can acheive great things! Our nation, our government just needs to be reminded of; "WHAT MATTERS MOST" The reality is it won't happen without the United States on board Without the United States help, who knows maybe the next coming plague born in an extremely impoverished region will be the one that leaves us to weak to hack away at. Dear Mr. President we are here to remind you of what matters most JOIN US! http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/

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Tags: Revolution, bono, hiv/aids, activism, zeropoverty.us, president bush, president of the united states, end poverty malibu meetup, extreme poverty, poverty

JuST THe TiP Of A LeTHAL ICEBeRG

http://transform.gaia.com — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 15:56:08 GMT

People tell me: FIgHTING FoR THe "ENd Of EXTReME POVeRTY" Is YOuR FIgHT NoT MINe! My response to this is; "If we don't get a cap on extreme poverty it will quite literally be our downfall": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTX5kwr1mk0 "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil, for every one who is striking at the root". H D Thoreau (The root is Extreme Poverty) Jeffrey Sachs Interview On Extreme Poverty, Chicago Public radio http://audio.wbez.org/wv/2007/02/wv_20070213b.mp3 We Are Racing Against an Airborne Killer and What You don't know Will hurt You, It is Just the Begining! January 17, 2007 — The emergence of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) — a form of TB that can be incurable — has set off alarms throughout the global health community. Called “Ebola on steroids” by some, XDR-TB is a particularly deadly threat to people with HIV/AIDS and is swelling to emergency proportions in Southern Africa. Unless steps are taken now to strengthen TB control efforts in Africa and throughout the world, these deadly strains will continue to spread and multiply — Undermining much of the recent progress in AIDS treatment scale-up and TB control, and posing a risk to the U.S. and members of our armed forces serving overseas. XDR-TB: A New Menace Emerges Poor TB treatment spawns multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and ineffective monitoring and treatment of MDR-TB gives rise to XDR-TB. XDR-TB strains raise the very real specter of a virtually untreatable disease. The Lancet reports an estimated 424,000 cases of MDR-TB occurred in 2004, and these drug-resistant strains have been found in nearly every nation. Without strong action now, we could soon see an explosion of XDR-TB cases. Already, XDR-TB has been identified in 26 countries on five continents — including the U.S. — and researchers worry this is just the tip of a lethal iceberg. XDR-TB: Threatening to Reverse Progress Against AIDS and TB The world caught a preview of this frightening scenario last summer when an outbreak of XDR-TB at one hospital in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa killed 52 out of 53 patients, most within a matter of weeks. All of those patients who were tested were HIV-positive, demonstrating that XDR-TB is a particularly deadly threat for people with AIDS. Even more worrisome is the fact that anti-retrovirals did not protect people with AIDS from the XDR-TB strain in the South Africa outbreak, underscoring the threat to progress made, and billions invested, in life-saving AIDS treatment scale-up in southern Africa (and in other regions where the two diseases collide, like Eastern Europe). The U.S. has invested billions of dollars to reduce deaths and sickness due to HIV/AIDS through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Especially in southern Africa — an epicenter of the AIDS pandemic and now the site of a growing MDR/XDR-TB disaster — lives saved by AIDS program scale-up could easily turn into casualties of an XDR-TB epidemic. Basic TB control programs — which are among the highest impact health interventions in the world — have seen enormous treatment success in the last decade, with massive expansions particularly in Asia, and with programs in place across in Africa and almost every nation in the world. The question we must answer is: If a modest investment now will save lives in Africa, protect the enormous investments and progress made in AIDS and TB treatment to-date, help secure our health here at home from nearly incurable TB and protect U.S. personnel overseas, how can we afford to not act? The consequences of inaction are predictable, costly and dire. Time Is Running Out XDR-TB is deadly, transmitted by the most natural act in the world: breathing. Delaying action would be a huge and irreversible mistake. In the early 1990s, an outbreak of MDR-TB in New York City cost about $1 billion to deal with just some 300 cases. MDR-TB is treatable. An XDR-TB outbreak here at home would be measured not just in dollars lost, but in the tragedy of human lives needless taken. We cannot afford XDR-TB at home and we must not merely stand by as it ravages the lives of those abroad. >> TB is the leading killer of people with HIV/AIDS Sincerely, Diana Nicholson

Tags: XDR-TB, lethal, HIV/AIDS, TB, tuberculosis, global, ebola, south africa, tracy poe, jeffrey sachs, chicago public radio

DARE TO CARE; THE EVOLUTION WITH A SOLUTION!

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:41:51 GMT

THE UNITED STATES SHOULD BE WAGING A WAR AGAINST EXTREME POVERTY. WE ARE THE RICHEST NATION IN THE WORLD AND IN THIRTEEN CITIES THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO STILL LIVE IN EXTREME POVERTY! EXTREME POVERTY KILLS JUST AS MERCILESSLY AS ANY TERRORIST! THREE QUARTERS OF THE OUR TAX MONEY (THE MONEY WE ARE NICKEL AND DIMED FOR EVERY DAY!) GOES TO BUILDING ARMS AND PERPETUATING A SENSELESS WAR! IT IS THE MONEY THAT IS USED TO RUN OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. GOVERNMENT BY DEFINITION IS "WE THE PEOPLE" "WE THE PEOPLE HAVE A SAY " ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS STAND UNITED! ALL IT WILL TAKE IS A FRACTION OF FRACTION OF A FRACTION... OF OUR TAXES TO END EXTREME POVERTY! WE CAN USE SOME OF THE MONEY FOR SAVING LIVES, LOVE, AND CARING, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? "WE THE PEOPLE!" NOT DOING SOMETHING! JOIN THE EVOLUTION WITH A SOLUTION, IT'S JUST THE BEGINING! http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/ "We will have time to reach the Millennium Development Goals – worldwide and in most, or even all, individual countries – but only if we break with business as usual. We cannot win overnight. Success will require sustained action across the entire decade between now and the deadline. It takes time to train the teachers, nurses and engineers; to build the roads, schools and hospitals; to grow the small and large businesses able to create the jobs and income needed. So we must start now. And we must more than double global development assistance over the next few years. Nothing less will help to achieve the Goals." United Nations Secretary-General Kofi A. Annan Investing in Development Is The only way Task Force Reports The detailed analysis and recommendations the UN Millennium Project Task Forces are presented in a series of in-depth reports. To view any of the Task Force reports, please go to http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/index.htm Hunger Halving hunger by 2015: Education and Gender Equality Toward universal primary education: investments, incentives, and institutions Education and Gender Equality Taking action: achieving gender equality and empowering women Child Health and Maternal Health Who's got the power? Transforming health systems for women and children HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on HIV/AIDS Combating AIDS in the developing world HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on Malaria Coming to grips with malaria in the new millennium HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on TB Investing in strategies to reverse the global incidence of TB HIV/AIDS, Malaria, TB, and Access to Essential Medicines, Working Group on Access to Essential Medicines Prescription for healthy development: increasing access to medicines Environmental Sustainability Environment and human well-being: a practical strategy Water and Sanitation Health, dignity, and development: what will it take? Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers A home in the city Trade Trade for development Science, Technology and Innovation Innovation: applying knowledge in development As of Jan 1, 2007, the advisory work formerly carried out by the Millennium Project secretariat team is being continued by an MDG Support team integrated under the United Nations Development Program. PLEASE PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT THIS MAN IN THE VIDEO HAS TO SAY! THE ORGANIZATION MILLENNIUM PROMISE IS STANDING UP AND DOING SOMETHING BECAUSE THEY CARE! JOIN THE REVOLUTION WE MAY HAVE A SOLUTION! http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/ Sincerely Diana Nichoilson

Tags: evolution, millennium promise, extreme poverty, united nations development program, UNDP, care, lonelygirl15, renatto, end poverty malibu meetup, jeffrey sachs, bono

DARE TO CARE (LOVE)

http://transform.gaia.com — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 16:36:49 GMT

CARING IS SOMETHING PEOPLE FEEL, IT RADIATES WARMTH LIKE THE SUN! WHEN IT IS NOT THERE IT FEELS COLD LIKE WINTER PEOPLE WHO CARE ARE THE FUTURE CHANGE AGENTS IN OUR WORLD. WHEN YOU CARE PEOPLE KNOW IT INSTINCTIVELY. ONE OF TWO THINGS HAPPEN, 1. IT MAKES PEOPLE TRY HARDER BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEIR ACHEIVEMENTS REALLY MATTER TO SOMEONE, 2. OR THEY'RE INTIMIDATED AND RESENT YOU BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY CAN'T LIVE UP TO YOUR EXPECTATIONS, EITHER WAY PEOPLE FEEL YOUR CARING, IT IS THE SEED WHICH GROWS THE CHANGE. IF MORE PEOPLE CARED WE WOULD HAVE A HEALTHIER HAPPIER MORE PRODUCTIVE SOCIETY! HERE IN LIES THE SOLUTION: IT STARTS AT THE TOP! IN ANY BUSINESS, GROUP, SCHOOL, ORGANIZATION, COUNTRY,FAMILY THE LEADERSHIP HAS TO CARE! NOT JUST PRETEND, THEY HAVE TO WALK THE WALK, NOT JUST TALK THE TALK. AS A NATION IF WE FEEL THAT OUR GOVERNMENT CARES, GREAT THINGS CAN HAPPEN! THINK ABOUT THIS, WHO IN YOUR LIFE CARED ABOUT YOU? BELIEVED IN YOU, GAVE YOU A LEG UP, INSTLLED CONFIDENCE? IT COULD HAVE BEEN A TEACHER, MOTHER, FATHER,FOOTBALL COACH, GRANPARENT... IT MATTERED WHAT THEY THOUGHT BECAUSE YOU KNEW THEY CARED. IF OUR GOVERNMENT TRULY CARED WOULDN'T IT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD? WHY THEN DOES IT FEEL COLD LIKE WINTER? WHAT'S MISSING IS JUST A LINK, LET'S AS A PEOPLE FORGE IT! LOVE ONE ANOTHER, EVERYBODY GET TOGETHER... SINCERELY, DIANA NICHOLSON. JOIN US! http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/

Tags: change agents, care, state, government, football, poverty, extreme poverty, leadership, property taxes

HOMELESS IN "THIRD-WORLD MALIBU" / an article from Poor Magazine

http://transform.gaia.com — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 08:47:22 GMT

GRATITUDE TO ZAADZ OWN benjamin cziller http://benj.zaadz.com/ OF www.imagedriven.com FOR HIS GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION OF THE NEW ZERO POVERTY LOGO HE CREATED FOR http://endpoverty.meetup.com/40/ AN ARTICLE FROM POOR MAGAZINE! ADVENTURES IN THIRD-WORLD MALIBU By T.W.C. The year I began cleaning Dick Clark's windows and Mary Crosby's home, I lived alone in a three-bedroom bungalow on Broad Beach, the nicest beach in Malibu. I had pocketed a couple of thousand dollars, and I felt I might be able to make it through some heavy rains. When it began to rain, people began cancelling jobs and talking about waiting till after the rains (3 or 4 months). Then the front end of my '81 Subaru fell apart, piece by piece. After it had eaten up my entire savings replacing axles, brakes, calipers, rotors and things I knew nothing about, my only financial cushion was gone. Then my landlord gave me notice, and I had to get out. Without even the money to pay first month rent anywhere, I began to live in my car at the campground at Leo Carillo Beach on the western end of Malibu. It happened so fast, it took me awhile to accept the fact that I was homeless. It honestly doesn't sink in very rapidly. Even when you are driving around seeking a safe-looking place to park and lock yourself in for the night, you tell yourself it is only temporary. I discovered the trick to the campground after a few nights. There was an $8 charge normally, but if you came in after the rangers had gone and left before they arrived, you didn't have to pay. I still had the Crosby job, so I was earning enough each week for food and gas, but nothing more. I SPENT FOUR MONTHS LIVING IN THAT CAR, which seemed to shrink daily. I can't begin to tell you how depressing it was. It was raining a lot, and all I could do was sit or lie in the car, reading when there was light. I sincerely believed that one could find valuable understanding in every experience that life throws in our direction. As time passed, however, my search for some valuable lesson disintegrated into anger. I began to DRINK a lot of beer during that period to ease the pain. It occurred to me that some homeless people who become alcoholics don't necessarily follow the drink into homelessness: it becomes the quickest way to ignore what has happened, and dull the torturing thoughts which can make a bad situation one hell of a lot worse. At the campground, I realized that a lot of the people were there for an extended period, even though there were 14-day limits.MANY WERE FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN. and one or both parents would go off to work during the day. They were making enough to feed themselves, as long as they didn't have to pay five hundred to a thousand dollars rent. Many of them paid the daily fee, for which they received a campground with fireplace and public showers, and packed up and left for one night every 14, before coming back for another two weeks. I had been living in Malibu, California for over three years, and I had no idea that there was a whole community of people who lived at the campgrounds. Unfortunately, my deepest personal journey into the world of indigence was occurring under the eaves of the homes of some of Hollywood's wealthiest people. I had no desire for wealth. But cleaning Dick Clark's windows or Mary Crosby's home, and then getting in my car to wait for the sun to go down so I could park it for free and sleep in it, gave rise to emotions that I neither understood nor could control. I thought about how many of the places where I worked were just weekend homes or one-month-a-year homes. The rest of the time they stood empty - huge homes with massive bedrooms, restaurant-style kitchens, cathedral dining rooms, and totally empty. The owners were in Europe, or shooting a picture somewhere, or only came for two months in the summer. Hundreds upon hundreds of empty palaces, but not one with a spare bed for the hundreds of homeless people parked at the beach or squirreled away under the brush in one of Malibu's many canyons (where homeless people without cars lived). The ending of the rains that winter was like waking up from a nightmare. Jobs began reappearing, and finally I could afford the 80 dollars a week for which someone had offered me a room in their home. MY GOD,WHAT A LUXURY IT FELT TO SLEEP IN A BED AGAIN, and have a shower and toilet right next to the bedroom, and a kitchen to make some food in. Who cared if it was shared? I had my fill of locking myself in bathrooms of restaurants or office buildings to make a clean, private place to shit and then brush my teeth, sometimes getting rousted out by an impatient security guard. I was long ago weary of the loaf of bread, mayonnaise, mustard and cheese that traveled with me as lunch and dinner. THE NUMBER OF DAILY HUMILIATIONS THAT ACCOMPANY HOMELESSNESS ARE INNUMERABLE. "Poverty Sucks!" was the caption of a poster that hung framed on the walls of a few homes I worked in. It showed a man dressed in English riding attire, leaning against a Rolls Royce with the arrogant sneer of the priggishly rich on his face. Some people who chuckle over it have no concept of how deeply poverty sucks to those who stew in it, and the hatred of the affluent that impoverishment nourishes.

Tags: benjamin cziller, imagedriven.com, poverty, zaadz, malibu, malibu city council, poor magazine, extreme poverty, poverty in america, end poverty malibu meetup, diana nicholson

WINDFALL!

http://transform.gaia.com — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:59:19 GMT

PROPERTY TAX BOOSTS THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY! Fueled by California's red-hot real estate boom, Los Angeles County property tax revenues have soared as much as 40 percent in the last five years. The revenues have been a boon for local governments, with homeowners paying $9.5 billion in property taxes in fiscal 2004-05, compared with $6.7 billion in 2000-01. THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA COLLECTED 31.8 BILLION DOLLARS IN PROPERTY TAXES IN THE YEAR 2004! THE WINDFALL OF AN EXTRA BILLION DOLLARS IN ONE YEAR, DUE TO RISE IN PROPERTY VALUES. THIS; AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, IS FOUND MONEY! WHY NOT USE A FRACTION OF IT TO; 1. TO ENSURE OUR FUTURE GENERATIONS A WORLD WITHOUT EXTREME POVERTY? 2. A WORLD WHERE WE CAN ACHEIVE UNIVERSAL PRIMARY EDUCATION 3. TO PROMOTE GENDER EQUALITY 4. REDUCE CHILD MORTALITY. 5. IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH. 6. COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA, TUBERCULOSIS (new strain which has mutated and is now being called "Ebola on Steroids),and other infectious diseases. 7. ENSURE ENVIROMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY. 8. DEVELOP A GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP FOR DEVELOPMENT. WHAT IF THE STATE WERE TO USE A FRACTION OF THE PROPERTY TAXES THAT WE HAVE ALREADY PAID? IF EVERY STATE IN THE UNION DID THE SAME. COMMITING TO UPHOLD THE MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS!! (UNION INTERESTING WORD, UNITED!! ONE NATION UNDER GOD! ONE, ONE ,ONE!!) WE WILL SEE AN " END OF EXTREME POVERTY" AND A HAPPIER HEALTHIER MORE PRODUCTIVE PLANET! $28.5 million March Carpinteria, Calif. It was an active real estate year for actor Kevin Costner. Right around the time he paid $28.5 million for an oceanfront, bluff-perched mansion near Santa Barbara, he unloaded his Hollywood Hills home for $11.5 million to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest. Costner’s new digs feature five bedrooms, 950 feet of beach, stables and a polo field $28 million October Malibu, Calif. Michael Klein, the son of former San Diego Chargers owner Eugene Klein, unloaded his Malibu Colony home for $28 million dollars to an undisclosed buyer. He had owned the 7,000-square-foot, five-bedroom ocean side mansion, complete with beachfront pool, since 1999. $31 million to $35 million April $35 million Miami Beach, Fla. South Florida real estate came full circle when the 79-year-old villa once owned by Carl Fisher, the man credited with developing much of Miami Beach, was sold to high-rise developer Ugo Columbo for between $31 and $35 million. The 21,000-square-foot, 12-bedroom Italian renaissance style waterfront mansion is complete with an 85-foot high observation tower. PEOPLE WHO GET PERMITS ARE THE LUCKIEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD: Barbra Streisand and hubby James Brolin have gotten the go-ahead from the Malibu City Council to rip down one of their houses and build a new one in its place. That's what rich people call spring cleaning.   These RICH AND FAMOUS PEOPLE are EXTREMELY philanthropic, they give their time and money to numerous charitable orginizations. Giving shoud not lie SOLEY on the wealthy! A GENEROUS NATION: Donations by Americans to nonprofits rose to $248.5 million in 2004, according to a new report. Individual donors were responsible for three-quarters of those donations. The type of nonprofit to take in the most money: religious groups. Specific annual sums that can be counted on over time. It is the only way change can happen. RANDOM DONATIONS BY THE RICH AND EXTREMELY FORTUNATE; DONATIONS THAT GO TO THIS CHARITY OR THAT CHARITY IS NOT ENOUGH! With 1.5 million nonprofits in the US and growing, some experts say charities should merge. To reduce the number of nonprofits, some communities, including Pittsburgh, have offered financial incentives to encourage charities to merge. "Unfortunately, nonprofits don't like to be told what to do, and usually it's only the wrong organizations that take advantage of these efforts," Light says. Even Light suggests that there is room for more charities in certain sectors, ESPECIALLY in areas that care for the POOR. "Human-service nonprofits are still needed in some areas,(thirteen cities in the United States still have people living in extreme poverty http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2816480 ) but the new ones really need to SHAKE UP THE NORM or challenge the industry." WE CAN'T KEEP DOING THE SAME THINGS EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS! NOT EVERYONE CAN AFFORD TO GIVE! WE GET TAXED ON OUR INCOME, TAXED ON EVERY ITEM WE SPEND MONEY ON, TAXED ON OUR HOME TAXED ..... THE MONEY THAT'S NEEDED TO ATTACK THESE ISSUES OF EXTREME POVERTY IS ALREADY THERE WE ALREADY GIVE ALMOST HAVE OUR INCOME TO TAXES! WHY NOT TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE MONEY WE ALREADY GIVE; PROPERTY TAXES! "WE THE PEOPLE" ARE THE GOVERNMENT, BY DEFINITION! WHY NOT ENSURE THE FUTURE HEALTH AND SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR PLANET?

Tags: millennium development goals, dianne sawyer, 20/20, bono, jeffrey sachs, taxes in los angeles county, property tax, malibu city council, millennium villages, one campaign, extreme poverty

5 FACTS ABOUT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION!!

http://transform.gaia.com — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:11:42 GMT

5 Facts about Racial Discrimination Fact 1 In 2005 there were 26,740 charges of race discrimination Fact 2 The concept of race has no biological basis. It is a socio-political construction . Fact 3 A 2002 special report revealed that black students in Seattle schools — regardless of family income — are more than twice as likely to be suspended or expelled than other students. Fact 4 American schools are becoming increasingly segregated, despite the nation's growing diversity. Fact 5 It wasn’t until 2000 that U.S. Census respondents were given the option of selecting one or more race categories to indicate their racial identities even though about 6.8 million Americans identify with two or more races. SOURCES • (Race; The Power of Illusion, 2003, PBS) http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:EacZR-IA2_oJ:www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01-07.htm+the+concept+of+race+has+no+biological+basis&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=7 Investigative Journalism-Historical info on campaign to end urban poverty In late nineteenth century New York City, Jacob A. Riis, a Danish immigrant and police reporter in New York, launched a personal campaign to expose the misery of the underprivileged who resided in New York City's dangerous tenements of the lower East Side. In doing so, his writings and his photography provided a spark for future generations of investigative journalists. Excerpt from Riis's book "How the other half lives" 1890; http://www.cis.yale.edu/amstud/inforev/riis/chap3.html#para5 More from this book; http://www.bartleby.com/208/ From his book "Battle with the Slum"; http://www.bartleby.com/175/ What does it mean to be American? Jacob Riis's work, is a reminder of what this country is made of; IMMIGRANTS, from every part of the world. A quote from Debbie Allen, who recently said on a television show "I am a citizen of the WORLD!" Ultimately we are all from one place, Planet Earth! What we do affects them and what they do affects us, and what we all do affects our Mother Earth. Let's celebrate the differences, and acknowledge the sameness! Come together as one. Riis's idea inspired Jack London to write a similar exposé on London's East End, most notably Whitechapel, called People of the Abyss.

Tags: racial discrimination, power of illusion, alan goodman, debbie allen, race, africa, end poverty, extreme poverty, end poverty malibu meetup, diana nicholson, jacob riis

STEPHEN LEWIS FOUNDATION SAVING GRACE!

http://transform.gaia.com — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 00:32:02 GMT

The Stephen Lewis Foundation recieved a 1 million dollar donation from Alberta business women Jackie Flanagan. She is an angel and a saving grace! Much Gratitude, Love and Light to you Jackie Flanagan! http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/news_item.cfm?news=1730

Tags: STEPHEN LEWIS FOUNDATION, UNICEF, AIDS, JACKIE FLANAGAN, POVERTY, EXTREME POVERTY, END POVERTY MALIBU MEETUP, DIANA NICHOLSON, KWANOBUHLE, SOUTH AFRICA, PASTOR DAVID MACDONALD