The Global Village presents analysis of political, economic and social issues at home and abroad. It will deconstruct and demystify some commonly-held assumptions including inaccuracies put forward by the established media and when necessary will "speak truth to power.”

Annette Walker is a writer, radio producer and educator. She worked in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic as a teacher-trainer and traveled throughout the Caribbean including Cuba. She has been a lecturer in the City University of New York, Aurora Community College and Metropolitan State College.

Debt Relief for Haiti Imminent
By Annette Walker

Over the past several weeks the United States and the international community have proposed assisting Haiti with its overwhelming debt. Haiti, the most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere, has an external debt of $1.2 billion. Eighty percent of its 8.5 million people live on less that $2 a day.

On April 14 during a speech to the Haiti Donors Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the Obama administration will provide $20 million to help that Caribbean nation's debt service obligations.

Human rights groups immediately praised the U.S. initiative. "Today's announcement is a victory for the people of Haiti," said Kristin Sundell, Deputy Director of the Jubilee USA Network, a coalition of faith-based, development, human rights and community organizations working for debt relief for impoverished countries.

"The U.S. pledge to cover Haiti's debt service obligations will free $20 million for basic infrastructure, healthcare, and education and will help Haiti to recover from last year's devastating storms," she continued.

However, Jubilee USA, put forth a note of caution. "The Obama administration may require approval from Congress in order to obtain the $20 million needed," said Sundell.

The $20 million will cover Haiti's 2009 debt payments to its multilateral creditors and is part of an overall $50 million aid package from the United States, the island's largest benefactor. This amount brings total U.S. aid this year to $302 million.

The total amount raised at the donors' conference, held at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., is $324 million. Tha goal was $600 million.

Jubille USA and other human rights groups want more than these grants. "What Haiti needs and deserves is immediate cancellation of its huge external debt, much of which was run-up by former dictators, without externally-imposed conditions attached," said Neil Watkins, Jubilee's national coordinator.

Haiti is on the list of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. This allows poor countries to 'qualify' for debt cancellation after they meet a number of criteria and conditions, some of which are controversial. Among these conditions are spending cuts and privatization of basic social services. In some nations announcement of these conditions have sparked civil unrest.

Haiti has not recovered from four tropical storms last year. 800 people were killed and much economic output was devastated. There were also food riots last year.

LINKING YOU to Important Kids' Behavioral Health News

(For an online version and archives, please visit:
http://www.csi-policy.org/linkingyou/april09.html)

This month's updates come from:

Colorado LINKS for Mental Health
Building Bridges for Children's Mental Health
Colorado Health Institute
Division of Behavioral Health

Office of Homeless Youth Services

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Colorado LINKS for Mental Health

The LINKS Big Meeting IV: Sustaining Integration, on Friday, April 17th was a great success, with several very interesting presentations and discussions. Many people, both attendees and those who were unable to attend, expressed interest in receiving the materials from the meeting, so we have posted all the materials on our website at http://www.csi-policy.org/research/2.htm We have included the PowerPoints from those presenters who had one, as well as overviews of the various LINKS tools and activities, and the acknowledgments of the funders and partners who make LINKS the active and meaningful project that it is.
For more information, please contact Jewlya Lynn at Jewlya@csi-policy.org .
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Building Bridges for Children's Mental Health
The Building Bridges Inter-Agency Agreement between Colorado Department of Education, Department of Human Services, and the Colorado Judicial Department has been signed! The purpose of the Interagency Agreement is to establish a formal relationship and commitment between CDE, DBH, and the Colorado Judicial Department, to work together to achieve Building Bridges’ goals and objectives in accordance with a set of shared values and guiding principles.
In collaboration with the MacArthur Project, Building Bridges is sponsoring two sessions of Mental Health First Aid in Mesa County at the end of May that will be attended by schools, families, juvenile justice, child welfare, mental health, and other community representatives. The purpose of the Mental Health First Aid Trainings is to increase mental health literacy through a 5-step process that teaches how to assess a situation (including learning risk factors and warning signs), select and implement appropriate interventions, and help individuals in crisis connect with appropriate care.

For more information, please contact Barb Bieber at Bieber_B@cde.state.co.us
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Colorado Health Institute
On May 3rd and 4th, The Colorado Health Institute will be holding their Colorado's Safety Net Symposium, called Building and Monitoring Caring Communities. The symposium’s objectives are to learn ways that high-performing caring communities work together in Colorado and to understand and apply the basics of performance monitoring in your community. Registration is $40 at the door.
For more information, please go to www.coloradohealthinstitute.org
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The Division of Behavioral Health
In partnership with JFK Partners, the University of Colorado at Denver, and many others, the Division of Behavioral Health has released Colorado’s Strategic Plan for Early Childhood Mental Health. The plan is the result of numerous focus groups across the state, input from a number of stakeholders, and the leadership of the Blue Ribbon Policy Council. To access the plan, please go to: http://earlychildhoodcolorado.org/inc/uploads/Blue%20Ribbon%20Strategic%20Plan%20Final%2011-24-08%20(2).pdf .
For more information, please contact Sarah Hoover at Sarah.Hoover@ucdenver.edu
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Office of Homeless Youth Services
The 2008 Annual Report for the Office of Homeless Youth Services has been released by the Colorado Department of Human Services, Division of Supportive Housing and Homeless Programs. The report covers the accomplishments and activities of the Office of Homeless Youth Services and the Advisory Committee on Homeless Youth. To access the report, please visit http://www.cdhs.state.co.us/shhp/Homeless-Youth.htm .
For more information, please contact Andy Johnson at andrew.johnson3@state.co.us
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To be included in next month's LINKING YOU, please send us your planning or organization group's name, contact info, up to three bullets of one sentence each, and where possible, a link to more information.

Brought to you by the Colorado LINKS for Mental Health Initiative. For more information about the Initiative, please contact Jewlya Lynn at Jewlya@CSI-Policy.org.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." -Martin Luther King

This is an email from the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. RMPJC CO-SPONSORED OR SUPPORTED EVENTS:

Saturday, May 2 GREELEY Unity March: For just and Humane Immigration Reform For a better Greeley, in a better World Unity. The event will begin at 1 p.m. at the Island Grove Park, Greeley. More info: www.myspace.com/alfrentedelucha or 970-388-0834.
March May 2nd 1pm Island Grove Park (14th Ave. & A st.)
For Denver and surrounding area participants:
UNITY CARAVAN & CARPOOLING!
Aurora: 16th and Dallas (Creative Options School) meet at 9:30 am
Denver: 12th & Mariposa (Lincoln Park) meet at 10:00 am
Longmont: Skyline High School (600 E Mountain View Ave) parking lot, meet at 11:30 am
Boulder: 3970 Broadway, Suite 105 (Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center) at 11:30 am

CLASS ON THE ECONOMY STARTING ON APRIL 30:
Beginning on Thursday, April 30, the RMPJC will hold a class and discussion on the economy based on the work of United For a Fair Economy out of Boston. We will cover everything from defining economics, capitalism and globalization, their effects on the average American, the growing income and wealth gap in America, CEO compensation, the Federal Reserve, what can be done to level the playing field and anything else folks have an interest in discussing. Please come and join us! We will meet every Thursday (except the 3rd Thursday of the month) for the next ten weeks at the Peace Center from 7 pm to 8:30 pm. The class is free. If you['re interested call Ryan at 303-818-0965.

Sunday, May 3 BOUDER Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos Anna Baltzer, a Jewish American Columbia graduate, Fulbright scholar, and granddaughter of Holocaust refugees, will present photographs and stories from her work documenting human rights abuses and supporting nonviolent resistance in the West Bank with the International Women's Peace Service. Baltzer's talk covers checkpoints, the Wall, Israeli activism, censorship, nonviolent resistance, and other topics rarely covered in the US media. Her website is www.AnnaInTheMiddleEast.com. The event is at 7 PM at the Boulder Friends Meeting House, 1825 Upland, Boulder and is free. Donations appreciated.

Sunday, May 3, 2009 DENVER "Jerusalem: The East Side Story" A powerful new video by Mohammed Alatar, the director of "The Iron Wall." 3:00 pm at Montview Blvd Presbyterian Church 1980 Dahlia Street, Denver (Corner of Montview and Dahlia) Free. Presented by Friends of Sabeel. 303-494-2338; www.sabeelcolorado.org

Monday, May 4 DENVER Life in Occupied Palestine: Eyewitness Stories & Photos with Anna Baltzer (see May 3 above for more info) at 6 PM Sturm Hall, University of Denver.

Thursday, May 14 BOULDER Steven Salaita, assistant professor of English at Virginia Tech will be talking about negative images of Arabs in the USA in the context of Palestine, and about the recent presidential election at the Boulder Public Library, Canyon Theater, 1000 Canyon Blvd. at 7 p.m. Free.
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RMPJC MEETINGS:

The following meetings are held at RMPJC, 3970 Broadway, Suite 105. From Broadway and Quince, go east on Quince. Turn right at the second driveway. You'll see RMPJC in front of you.

1st and 3rd Mondays BOULDER Economics Collective to discuss present crisis and actions we can take. 7 p.m. at RMPJC.

2nd and 4th Mondays BOULDER Meeting of the RMPJC Middle East Collective which focuses on an end to the Israeli occupation and a just peace in the Middle East. 7 p.m. at RMPJC.

2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month BOULDER Citizens for Pesticide Reform. Current issues: making Boulder a Dandelion Friendly City, getting the City of Boulder to adopt the Precautionary Principle, use of larvaciding and clean up of mosquito breeding grounds rather than spraying toxins, and other related pesticide issues as they arise. At 6:30 PM at RMPJC.

1st and 3rd Tuesdays of each month BOULDER Everybody Eats works on achieving sustainable, healthy, affordable food for all and is working with the County to locate County Open Space that can be used as a multi purpose Community Agriculture site. 6:30 PM Contact Dave Georgis, Coordinator, for further information. dave@georgis.com

Every Wednesday BOULDER Meeting of the RMPJC International Collective which focuses on ending U.S. militarism and military occupations, achieving global economic justice, and creating a just foreign policy. 7 p.m. at RMPJC.
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EVENTS OF OTHER ORGANIZATIONS:

For upcoming Transition Colorado events go: http://transitioncolorado.ning.com/.

For weekly films and political and cultural events in Denver www.argusfest.org

Independent films in Broomfield www.broomfieldfilm.org

VOXFEMINISTA' s new show "Money" will play until May 16. For info on dates and times go to www.voxfeminista.org.

Wednesday, April 29th BOULDER From Nicaragua, a presentation by Meylin Reyes Cruz - talk about the current political, social, and economic conditions. www.aaccchildren.net and for more information email dyoung_pieat@yahoo.com or drjohn@colorado.edu - 6:30 - Naropa University - Shambhala Hall - Lincoln Building 2130 Arapahoe.

Saturday, May 2 BOULDER Worldwide Marijuana March --stop arrests, release the medicine, end the prison state. 4:20 p.m. at 13th and College. Info: Jeff at 303-449-4854 or hemptopia@comcast.net.

Saturday, May 2 ARVADA Town Hall Meeting on Healthcare and Affordable Housing.10:30 to noon at Arvada West High School. Attending: Governor Ritter, Dr. Irene Aguilar, Dr. Harriet Hall, Tay Kaponis an Advanced Practice Nurse and Bruce Eisnhauer with DOLA and Kathi Williams with the Division of Housing.

Wednesday May 6 LOUSIVILLE CATV (public access TV) Annual Meeting and Board Elections 6-8pm at Louisville Studios. Info: www.cctv54.org for directions and more information on how you can get involved.

Thursday, May 7 DENVER Iraq Veterans Against the War and Progressive Veterans present a night of music and awareness. At The Walnut Room, 3131 Walnut Street. Show 8 p.m.$5 cover/21+

Thursday May 14 BOULDER Meeting on Media Education for Media Reform to fix our broken media system. At Silver Sage Village Common House at 7:00 PM RSVP to
Henry Kroll, ACME Regional Vice President since accommodations
are limited. His number is 303 440 8818.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:

STUDENTS SEEKING FUNDS FOR TRIP TO GAZA From May 29th to June 4th, the anti-war organization Code Pink is taking an international delegation to Gaza. (http://codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=4816). Three CU students would like to go and are raising money to pay for plane tickets, accommodations, and humanitarian aid. They want to demonstrate that the outside world has not forgotten Gaza and make a statement to the Israeli government that this brutal occupation is unacceptable. To donate, please call Nadia Khasawneh (720-207-7448) or Asia Kambal (720-837-3062) or send a tax-deductible check to RMPJC, P.O. Box 1156, Boulder CO 80306-1156. Be sure to say what the funds are for.

AWAKENING THE DREAMER SYMPOSIUM The mission is to bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on the planet. Introductory video at http://awakeningthedreamer.org/content/view/115/135/

FUNDRAISER FOR RMPJC FOR VITAMIN COTTAGE SHOPPERS: RMPJC sells Vitamin Cottage $50 gift cards which you can use to buy your groceries. RMPJC gets to keep 5%. You can either come into RMPJC between 10:30 am and 6:00 PM and purchase your Vitamin Cottage cards, or, you can mail us a check and we can mail the card(s) to you. Please add $1 to the amount you are paying for the card(s) you are purchasing for postage and handling. Thanks! Call Betty at 303-444-6981.

VEHICLES FOR CHARITY Got a vehicle you want to get rid of? RMPJC gets a percentage of the sale. betty@rmpjc.org, (303) 444-6981.

TRIP TO ISRAEL/PALESTINE. Seeking Understanding in Israel/Palestine: A Two-Week Fact-Finding Trip May 16-30. Info: Joy Lapp 303-494-2338, lappj@earthlink.net.

XEROX COPIER FOR LEASE XEROX Copy Center 238 black and white copier. Excellent copier with lots of great features. Please call Betty (303) 444-6981 for more info.

RECYCLE SOME ELECTRONICS WITH RMPJC! Please bring items into RMPJC's office at 3970 Broadway, Suite 105 between the hours of 10 AM and 5 PM weekdays or call (303) 444-6981 to make arrangements. Call to find out if we accept what you have.

SUPPORT THE REGION'S PREMIER HOUSING CONFERENCE
Show your commitment to forwarding the affordable housing agenda, while gaining year round exposure to the largest and most diverse network of affordable housing professionals in Colorado by becoming a Housing Colorado organizational sponsor. The Housing Colorado NOW! Conference is THE place for Colorado’s housing community to find the cutting-edge tools necessary to make affordable housing happen in our communities. We hope you’ll join us Tuesday, October 13 through Friday, October 16 for the 21st annual Housing Colorado NOW! Conference in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado at the Beaver Run Resort and newly renovated Conference Center.

NOT JUST AN EVENT SPONSORSHIP

Ranging from Platinum to Bronze levels, all organizational sponsorships include year-round visibility on our website and in the Conference marketing brochure and program, as well as complimentary annual memberships, conference registrations and exhibit space. Detailed information about the benefit package at each level, our membership demographics, and 2008 conference attendees can be viewed on our sponsor page.

NEW BENEFIT OPPORTUNITY FOR 2009

All sponsors will receive a highlighted and preferential listing in our on-line Resource Directory--one of the most popular pages on our website.

COMMIT TODAY

Return your Pledge Form as soon as possible. The date pledges are received determines the order for listings and various selections for most sponsorships.

QUESTIONS

Contact Executive Director, Alana Smart, at alana@housingcolorado.org or 303-863-0124 to explore what sponsorship level would work best for your organization.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE

Join more than 500 professionals at the 2009 Housing Colorado NOW Conference. This year’s conference, Pathways to Progress, will look beyond the challenges posed by the current economic climate to emerging solutions, new directions for moving forward and the opportunities presented by tough times. Highlights include a 1/2-day session addressing federal stimulus funds, keynote presentations from national experts, a Colorado legislative panel, more than 30 workshops on industry best practices and trends, the prestigious Eagle Awards ceremony and several networking events.

WHO ATTENDS

Housing Developers, Homebuilders and Municipalities Exploring Development
Housing Advocates, Nonprofit Housing Organizations and Housing Authorities
Legislators, Public Officials and Planners
Financial Institutions, Lenders and Investors
Property Managers and Support Service Provider
Real Estate Attorneys, Real Estate Agents and Realtors ®

2008 HIGHLIGHTS

Attendees
Presentations
Pictures
Press Coverage
Eagle Award Nominees and Winners
Sponsors/Exhibitors/Donors
ATTENDEE COMMENTS

I rely on this conference to apprise me of the latest new resources, techniques to help make our jobs easier in producing affordable housing!
Good networking opportunity to hear statewide ideas.
Gave me a better understanding of the issues our industry faces.
Allowed me to take the work I have done locally and put it into regional context.
Inspirational and motivational. It also gave me some creative ideas of how to move forward.
The fact that people with experience and knowledge come from across the state makes the conference appealing!
New contacts, new deals, good speakers to motivate us!
Very diverse-It was a great gathering to make connections!
Our company acquired some business through our attendance, so the cost of going was well worth it!
Great conference-my only "must attend" of the year!
Inspirational and educational as well!

OUR 2009 PLATINUM SPONSORS

ABOUT US

Housing Colorado is a statewide organization, composed of housing professionals engaged in the full spectrum of affordable housing production and preservation activities, including both rental and home ownership opportunities. Membership spans all sectors: cities; public housing authorities; financial agencies and institutions; for-profit and non-profit developers; Realtors; and human service agencies. For more information, visit www.housingcolorado.org.

Partners In a Vision: In his own words. We have a long, long way to go.

Seven years ago, who would have predicted the first national documented decreases in homelessness in the nation, including in street and chronic homelessness?

Who would have believed that 20 Federal agencies, 53 Governors, more than 850 Mayors and County Executives, and business and civic leaders would be partnered through strategic business planning to the idea of using the verb "end" with the noun "homelessness"?

Who would have thought that federal spending targeted to homelessness would have nearly doubled?

Who would have expected a reframing of the issue of homelessness and its solutions that moved discussion to a focus on outcomes and the central antidote of housing?

Who would have imagined that the most humane, effective, and innovative solution to end homelessness - Housing First - would come directly from listening to vulnerable and disabled people living on the streets and would become the dominant strategy for ending homelessness?

Who would have conceived of the economic consequences of homelessness as the frontier of research through cost benefit analysis, proving to be the decisive mobilizer of political will among jurisdictional leaders?

These were difficult to imagine or believe, yet they are the reality in our country today. The dedication you have made in the field and our partnership has accomplished what many would deem to be impossible.

THE ABOLITIONIST AGENDA

During my 29 years of working to end homelessness, I have had the privilege for the past seven years of serving homeless people as the Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. When I first went to Washington in March 2002, expectations were low for the new Administration. Since then, I have had the honor of serving two Presidents, having been appointed by President Bush and now serving during the first 100 days of the Obama Administration.

Our work together in those seven years achieved significant results in increasing resources, decreasing homelessness, constellating an unprecedented national partnership, and in changing the national mindset on the issue. I am proud to have partnered with so many elected officials across our nation, local stakeholders, faith communities, and Federal officials. I have also had the honor of serving with what I believe to be the hardest working staff in the Federal government.

I will be leaving my position as Executive Director of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness effective May 15, 2009. I want to thank former President Bush for the opportunity he offered me in revitalizing the Council to advance a bipartisan abolitionist agenda from the White House. That spirit continues tangibly in the recovery package forwarded by President Obama which includes resources targeted to our homeless neighbors, further advancing our national efforts to reduce and end this moral disgrace.

In the past seven years we have made progress in that abolitionist agenda:

1. Federal spending on homelessness increased to record levels for eight consecutive years, nearly doubling between 2000 and 2009 to more than $5 billion.

2. The first documented national decrease in homelessness was achieved, a 30% decrease in street and chronic homelessness and a 12% overall decrease between 2005 and 2007.

3. The Council reframed the national response to homelessness, partnering with states and communities to create strategic plans led by jurisdictional elected officials, shaped by community stakeholders, oriented around business principles and practices, and measured by results in reducing homelessness.

4. Recognizing that no one level of government could solve the problem alone, and that homelessness could not be solved inside the Beltway, the Council created a national partnership which now includes 20 Federal agencies, 49 Governors who have created State Interagency Councils on Homelessness, and more than 850 Mayors and County Executives who are partnered in local strategic Ten Year Plans to end the homelessness of those who are the most vulnerable and disabled on our streets and in our shelters. This partnership literally extends from the White House in Washington to the streets of our country.

5. The Council urged a consumer oriented approach that involved homeless and formerly homeless people as customers in decision making. That emphasis led to the identification by consumers of the central antidote to homelessness, housing.

6. The Council supported a Housing First approach, the rapid rehousing of homeless people with support services as the central strategy of strategic planning. That approach is now the prevalent strategy to reduce homelessness, not only in the United States, but in countries around the world.

7. The Council affirmed, supported, and made visible innovative initiatives that are now central to strategic thinking and planning. Innovators from across the nation, from New York City to San Francisco, from Seattle to Miami, from Minneapolis to Dallas, have offered remedies to cure the disgrace. The Council has had the great privilege to practice the rapid dissemination of these life enhancing and saving ideas through City Focus Groups, State Colloquies, and National Summits, as well as through our weekly newsletter and web site, and the extraordinary work of the Regional Coordinators. The Council's "faculty of innovators," drawn from across the country and beyond, were central in the disseminating process. And, perhaps, most importantly, the Council worked to move the dialogue and response from good intentions and well-meaning programs to innovative solutions informed by cost studies and cost benefit analysis documenting the economic impact of homelessness. Nothing has impacted political will more than the Council's encouragement and dissemination of the economic consequences of homelessness.

Through these new approaches the Council, together with its partners, focused first on the most vulnerable and disabled homeless people, living on our streets, languishing in our shelters. Those identified as experiencing chronic homelessness became the first priority of a larger strategy to end all homelessness, a strategy that was informed by the best researchers and business thinkers in our country. In that focus, the Council and its partners literally connected the story of the Good Samaritan to public policy. As a nation we would no longer pass by our neighbors on the street. We would stop. And we would ensure that they have a place to stay and whatever they needed to gain stability and security.

I went to Washington with an abolitionist agenda. I leave Washington with the knowledge that across our nation that intent is shared. While I have served in two administrations, I don't see my work as serving administrations, but in abolishing homelessness.

President Obama's commitment on the issue is obvious. In his recovery package homeless people were included with an emphasis on preventing homelessness and rapid rehousing. Those are the right themes, not only for the first 100 days, but for the next four years. I am encouraged by the focus already demonstrated by his Cabinet on this issue. HUD and VA have already demonstrated leadership in moving an aggressive agenda.

The legacy of the last seven years is clear. More resources than ever before - decreases in street and chronic homelessness - unprecedented political will - unprecedented innovations - and unprecedented research and planning. Your work in government and in the field in initiating and implementing these new approaches and partnering in local strategies has made the difference across our country. The economic difficulties of the past year - what I term the "double trouble" of foreclosure and job losses - have increased the numbers of families who have fallen into homelessness and who are at risk of losing their housing. The President's resolute action in his recovery package, infused into field-tested and evidence-based initiatives and jurisdictionally-led plans, is a recipe to mitigate the impact of that "double trouble." Even in the midst of the current economic difficulties, that old saying of Einstein's remains true: "In the midst of difficulty, lies opportunity."

And, finally, I am grateful to my "patron saints" who prepared my soul, heart, and mind for this abolitionist mission. St. Francis of Assisi taught me that one's whole life can be dedicated to companionship with the poorest of the poor. Simone Weil's life and writings call all of us, especially public officials, to focus attention on the "single and permanent obligation" to remedy "all the privations of soul and body" which may damage the life of any human being. And my abolitionist heroes William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass taught me that righting a moral wrong requires relentless advocacy and partnership with elected officials whether Mayors, Governors, or the President of the United States.

These "saints" and others taught me that our quest to end social evil is bound to moral insomnia. An insomnia inspired by Garrison's abolitionist declaration: "I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. And I will be heard."

Let's be clear. Our calling to serve our homeless neighbors is a call to abolitionism. Our work is to abolish the wrong. Anything less leaves our neighbors in human tragedy and long misery. As I have said many times across our country, the long moral arc of history, as Dr. King taught us, bends toward justice. In our abolitionist cause, history is on our side.

You can be certain that, in leaving this position, I do not leave our mission.
I stand ready to work with you to complete our abolitionist agenda.

Philip F. Mangano

At a press conference last month, President Obama became the first sitting president to acknowledge that many of our nation's homeless are children. There are more than a million homeless children on any night without a stable place to live. The new report on the findings for the seven county continuum of care, the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative is about to be released. There is expected to be a rise of homeless families beyond a third of all the homeless counted. Newly homeless families account for about half of all of the homeless people who are counted and that is usual and customary to some people, and has been all along in this nation. Almost always the children are caught in a divisive argument that homelessness is a person's own problem and that the person who is responsible is the homeless person for their plight. In fact, the cost of doing nothing is about ten times what it costs to treat the problem as the president is indicating.

In response to a question about a new report finding that 1 in 50 U.S. children go homeless each year, the President said:

"I'm heartbroken that any child in America is homeless... Part of the change in attitudes that I want to see here in Washington and all across the country is a belief that it is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours. And so we're going to be initiating a range of programs... to deal with homelessness."

President Obama's declaration is a call to action.

As the President noted, we must help homeless families lift themselves out of poverty with jobs. But this in itself will not be enough. We also need Congress to pass a bill that will expand the availability of affordable housing with a priority on homeless families and to ensure that new investments are made in early education and care.

Please urge Congress to take these steps to end child homelessness today >>

Only by making these changes will we begin to move towards the day when there are no more homeless children in a country so blessed with resources.

In effect, neither the "Great Society," nor the "New Deal," was ever completed. America has enjoyed the privileges of great wealth while many people began and ended their lives in a veil of tears. In the book written by Stephen Pimpare, "The People's History of Poverty in America," the marginal life of generations of Americans is spelled out with simplicity and clarity. The essence of the issue is that for any community to thrive the poor must be housed and educated. It makes perfect sense, when an indicator for constructing prisons is how many children do not read at the grade level of children who are ten years of age.

The Heart is made up of four chambers. On the Lub-of-dub, the heart pumps blood into the aorta and throughout the vessles of the body. On the dub-of-lub the blood returns to the heart muscle, the size of your fist. It is a continuous contraction cycle that goes on and on for generations. The heart muscle has two main purposes, to transport all of the CO2 and poisons away from the organs and to enrich the organs with O2. This is called perfusion. When the heart works it is a pump of greater cpacity and rhythm than any ever created. There is no pump that is that small and compact that works for a life time. What is the reason then, that we need pacemakers, artificial hearts, valves, aortas, and defibrillators? What is it about human beings that tend to make trouble for such a perfect machine?

We can thank modern industry and efforts to make life faster and less healthy for the heart disease and deterioration of the health of this most superb creation. My grandfather was in his early sixties when he died from carelessness associated with his way of life. He suffered a heart attack and then Myrocardial infarction. Sadly, I never met him.

Let us think back, back, back to the Victory Gardens of yesterday. A time when the growing gardens were side by side, yard by yard, block by block throughout the land. Before there was an Organic Gardening Magazine, there were people who canned and dried their vegetables and fruits, herbs and flowers. They saved seed and no one thought that they were infringing on genetic codes of seeds. It was common for people to share their goods and services. This nation was self-sufficient and people admired the fresh, sweet corn, the tart apples with spots and strange shapes, the pokeweed and dandelion salad greens and the ingenuity and care with which people gathered and prepared food.

Sustainable living is not easy to find when you are not used to getting out early and watering, hoeing and cultivating beds of flowers and herbs. It is not easy to be in the hot sun and remember to protect the fragile transplants from insects and critters in the garden. People used natural means of protecting their crops like row cover, and beneficial insects. They planted succession crops and made calendars of their plans. When they watered,they watered the roots and they designated special plants for seed storage and pollinating. Most farms had bees and land was alive with a fecundity of organisms. The most productive elements of the land are unseen and unknown to the eye. The fungi that come to the surface and poke through are a sign of the vitality of the land. The earth should be dark, rich, crumbly and by all means moist. Earth should have a fragrant smell and feel to the touch.

We need to recommit ourselves to these virtues in all walks of life and small private gardens. We need to grow food and herbs in containers and learn that the best food is fresh and succulent. Like a rich tomato that squishes in your teeth when you bite into it and the flavor is incomparable, we need to recommit our environment to the sacred places of the garden.