Support the Troops

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

  AP

More than 400 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have turned up homeless, and the Veterans Affairs Department and aid groups say they are bracing for a new surge in homeless veterans in the years ahead.

  NY Times

WWJD

Luckily, the feeder of 5,000 (with a few loaves and fishes) isn't around today, because, as noted by Left I: "[I]in some places in the United States, attempting to feed the poor is an arrestable offense."

Eric Montanez, of Orlando's Food Not Bombs, was arrested for violating a local ordinance against feeding more than 25 people in the park. He fed 30.

Eli at Left I wonders, beyond the ordinance itself, about the under cover cop whose job it was to keep count.

Jeb's Florida is serious about crime, eh?

Two thousand years apparently isn't enough for messages like "love thy neighbor" to really sink in.

Nearby in Georgia at prom time....

When the four [Ashburn, Georgia] senior class officers — two whites and two blacks — met with Principal Chad Stone at the start of the school year, they had more on their minds than changes to the school‘s dress code.

On April 21, they‘ll have their wish. The town‘s auditorium will be transformed into a tropical scene, and for the first time, every junior and senior, regardless of race, will be invited.

  Raw Story article

What year is this anyway?

America's Great Shame

The other one.

And, for Republican voters: it's not just a social issue.

Serious respiratory problems among the chronically homeless in a shelter are as common as beer guts at a racetrack. If an epidemic strikes, the susceptibility of the homeless will translate into an increased risk of exposure for the rest of us and, eerily enough, our public libraries could become Ground Zeroes for the spread of killer flu. Librarians are reluctant to make plans for handling such scenarios because we do not want to convey the message that America's libraries are anything but the safe and welcoming environments they remain today.

But here's the thing: It's not just about libraries. The chronically homeless share bus stops, subways, park benches, handrails, restrooms, drinking fountains, and fast-food booths with us or with others we encounter daily, who also share the air we breathe and the surfaces we touch. When sick or drunk, they vomit in public restrooms (if we are lucky). Having a population that is at once vulnerable to disease and able to spread microbes widely to others is simply foolish -- and unnecessary -- public policy, but in the library we focus on more immediate risks. We offer our staff hepatitis vaccinations and free tuberculosis checks. We place sanitizing gels and latex gloves at every public desk. Who would guess that working in a library could be a hazardous occupation?

[...]

We could solve the problem for less than it costs to manage it. In the meanwhile, they will cycle between the jail and the library. [...] From a taxpayer's perspective, however, it seems cheaper to warehouse them in the library, between stints in jail -- or simply to pay no attention to where they are at all.

What They Didn't Teach Us in Library School

Sometimes, it's not the humidity

A record heat wave has led to the deaths of 18 people in Phoenix, most of them homeless, leaving officials scrambling to provide water and shelter to the city's transient population.

[...]

Fourteen of the victims were thought to be homeless. Authorities did not know if a man found by the side of a road Sunday had a permanent residence.

The other three victims were elderly women, including one whose home cooling system was not on, police said.

[...]

The number of illegal immigrants killed by heat-related illnesses while trying to cross the desert are counted separately.

  CBS News article

And for you YWA readers here in Missouri...

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 7 AM THIS MORNING TO 7 PM CDT SUNDAY

Includes the Counties: Boone, Callaway, Cole, Moniteau, Osage

Includes the cities: Columbia, Jefferson City

  Weather forecast