Merry Christmas Vs. Happy Holidays

      So every year between Thanksgiving or Black Friday on through Christmas all I ever hear about is the entire debate of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays. I'm going to make a lot of people upset, but I personally think that's petty. On both sides. While this is getting debated there are more important problems going on - let us not look at the number of children who go homeless in other countries, because I know some conservatives can write that off. Let us look at instead children without homes in America - A new report by The National Center on Family Homelessness finds that more than 1.6 million children - or one in 45 children - are homeless annually in America ( http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/ ). Let us look at how many people in general are without homes - On an average night in the 23 cities surveyed, 94 percent of people living on the streets were single adults, 4 percent were part of families and 2 percent were unaccompanied minors.  Seventy percent of those in emergency shelters were single adults, 29 percent were part of families and 1 percent were unaccompanied minors.  Of those in transitional housing, 43 percent were single adults, 56 percent were part of families, and 1 percent were unaccompanied minors.  Those who occupied permanent supportive housing were 60 percent single adults, 39.5 percent were part of families, and .5 percent were unaccompanied minors (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2008) ( http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/How_Many.html ). How many people in the country go hungry every year? According to USAToday, "Providing a buffer against this need, a record number of 44 million or one in seven Americans (half of whom are children) are currently enrolled in the government's largest nutritional safety net program. When the recession took hold in 2008, the number of Americans who were considered food insecure spiked to 17 million, the highest level recorded since the Department of Agriculture (USDA) began monitoring food security in 1995. It has remained close to that level since — the 2009 number, released last November, was 17.4 million." ( http://www.usatoday.com/NEWS/usaedition/2011-05-10-hungermain_ST_U.htm ).
     Hunger and homelessness. These are really big issues. These are human lives at stake. These are warnings of overpopulation unheeded. But now that we are in this situation, we cannot continue to avoid it. We cannot continue to run and hide from it. Journalists everywhere, mainstream and independent, need to accept responsibility. It is your job as a reporter, as an anchor, as a journalist to report what is going on, and not only to report what is going on, but to report what you can do about it. If you don't report on it and on what can be done about it, your part of the problem.

So here is what I am going to do. I'm going to provide you a link where you can find a soup kitchen near you.

Soup Kitchens: http://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/volunteer-soupkitchen-thanksgiving , http://www.homelessshelterdirectory.org/foodbanks/index.html

I'm even going to offer to you that if you cannot find a soup kitchen near you that I will help you find one.

Now you can walk to soup kitchens, ride a bike or a skateboard or a bus or a cab. Carpool. Find something. I'm sure you will have success getting their if you put your mind to it. I imagine that you always can find your way to the mall or the movies or the bar when you want to be there, so I'm confident you can find your way to the soup kitchen.

Now as far as homelessness. This is more difficult. We may have a hard time accepting complete strangers into our homes. I imagine I would. But what if we donate tents? Here is a site: http://www.nextag.com/1-person-tent/shop-html . You can shop for a cheap one and donate it to a person at the soup kitchen or the homeless shelter.

If you find any other sites for soup kitchens, one person tents, or other places where we can donate our time or we can donate necessities, please let me know and I will post them.

Thanks for Listening,

Alexander Fisher
@JAFThrasher
J.Fisher2028@yahoo.com

"Those that dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the day to find that all was vanity, but the dreamers of the day, are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams and make them real."