Image by Ed Yourdon via Flickr

Why is it that we think we can jail our problems away? The Chicago Tribune obviously thinks so.

Their recent article, “CTA Panhandler arrested 178 times,” chronicled the daily begging of Clarence Ervin, a homeless man who traverses the Chicago El Green line, asking for money from its passengers. The article states that Ervin has been arrested 178 times.Among his 178 arrests are charges for panhandling, disorderly conduct, drug possession and assault and battery. continue »

Residents stand near the wall that separates the former West Rock public housing development from the town of Hamden. Photo by Peter Hvizdak, courtesy of the New Haven Register.

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” Robert Frost begins.  As long as there has been someone to divide from, human beings have been making fences to keep someone in, or more importantly, keep someone else out.

In New Haven, Connecticut, a mile-long fence exists to keep public housing residents out. The fence sits between the town of Hamden, a working-to-middle class suburb of New Haven, and the former West Rock public housing Development, known for it’s troubled past.

It’s existed in some form for 50 years, now a triple-reinforced chain link fence, built by the town of Hamden when resident started complaining that “riff-raff” from the projects brought with them crime, trouble and disorder.

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Cruise Kinnison works on homework inside Auburn High School. Cruise is one of 1.5 million kids in the U.S. who are homeless.

(This post is the first in a series about American kids who are homeless. For more on youth homelessness, visit forsakengeneration.com)

Most high school kids aren’t particularly enthusiastic about school. Sick? Field trip? Playing hooky? Anything to stay home.

But Cruise Kinnison never thought that way.

“I’ve always wanted to get my education,” he says. “Within my family, there’s not many people who’ve graduated high school or college. I want to be the first to do so. I want to get a job, support myself, do the things that I want to do.”

It’s not just Cruise’s attitude or determination that make him unique. It’s his attitude in light of his circumstances.

Cruise is homeless. He has been for over four months. He’s slept on the street, crashed on friend’s couches, stayed with relatives – all so he could get the education he wanted.

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Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Among young black men in America, about 10 percent are currently incarcerated. It’s shocking, but we’ve almost grown used to it.

But while those young men are in prison, what’s happening to their wives, girlfriends, mothers and sisters?

Eviction. A new study coming out of Milwaukee shows that eviction is for black women what incarceration is for black men. One in 20 households there are evicted every year. In predominately black communities, that rate doubles to 1 in 10 families.

For those of us who are affluent, with relatively stable incomes, we’ve never even had to think about what it would be like. continue »

"Compassionate" conservative Andre Bauer (Image via Wikipedia)

Wow. It’s not often that you get to hear what a politician actually thinks. Behind those carefully selected words and sound bites, there actually be a functioning brain. How highly functioning is another question, as André Bauer, lieutenant governor and candidate for governor in South Carolina, showed us this week.

Bauer likened the poor on public assistance to stray animals. Yes, that’s right. Read (and weep):

“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals,” Bauer told a Greenville-area crowd. “You know why? Because they breed.

“You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.”

It’s so outrageous that it’s almost hard to be outraged. I’m nearly stumped. I’m sure Bauer’s campaign manager’s head exploded upon hearing it.

Bauer, a Christian, said his comments were made out of love and compassion and has not apologized. Funny, I thought conservative Christians didn’t believe in Darwin’s theory of natural selection.

So, I guess when the poor do breed, we should just stop feeding them? Or I guess send them to the pound and gas them to death when we can’t find anything else to do with them?

Oh, wait. We already do that.