| Originally posted at DailyKos by OneCrankyDom and reprinted here with permission.
The next time someone starts raving about making the former Mayor of NYC Pres., remember this diary. In this Reuters report is all the ammo you need to shoot down his chances to ruin run the country.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Food or rent? That is the daily choice faced by about 1.2 million of New York's 8.2 million people.
Faced with that choice, mostly they pay rent and rely on emergency or charity food to survive, poverty activists say.
One quarter of New York's 1.9 million children are living in poverty, 40 percent of families with children had difficulty affording food in 2005 and one-fifth of the city's children rely on free food to survive, according to a report by the Food Bank For New York City.
More than 1 million New Yorkers ask: food or rent? |
| You may think the title to this diary is a bit over the top, but those living this nightmare wouldn't think so. That in a city such as New York, that so many of our children are going to bed hungry is a National Disgrace. We are spending millions of dollars to build a memorial to those that died on 9/11, who will build a memorial to these downtrodden?
This year Bankers and CEOs are reaping billions in bonuses for the way they made money on the backs of these folks. By continuing to pay min. wages, using poor bookkeeping practices, backdating stock options and numerous other ways these proud businessmen "earned" their bonuses.Oh, I'm sure they made their token donations to United Way so they could protect themselves from paying taxes. While outside the doors of these businesses what is going on goes ignored for the most part.
While the city's Wall Street bankers are due to collect nearly $24 billion in bonuses this year, more than one-fifth of New Yorkers are battling to make ends meet below the national poverty line of $10,000 a year for an individual.
About 3,800 people were living on the streets in 2006, according to New York City statistics.
I don't remember the exactly PC term we are using these days for the " nutritionally challenged ", but no matter what you call it, we should be ashamed. We are spending over a Trillion fighting a illegal war based on lies while our own children go hungry. This is not only in NY, but countrywide. The UN wants to spend over a billion is a remodel that could be done for less than half that price by tearing the building down and just building a new UN. Imagine the people that could be fed with the difference.
There are some Heroes in this story,and many more unsung heroes across this country, that work hard to feed those that can't feed themselves. We need many more and a way to change that need.
The Food Bank for New York City, which helps distribute food for 250,000 meals a day, hands out more than 11 million pounds a year of fresh produce.
"It's about being able to feed people in a way so that they stay healthy, continue to work." Cabrera said.
The amount of money we save on Healthcare alone should make this a priority, let alone the humanitarian reasons. I won't hold my breath waiting for Congress to make this happen. I do have more hope today than I did when the Right was in power, but not much.
If you live in NYC, I have given you a few places to donate to, if you live elsewhere, almost every city has a local foodbank or such that can alway use money or volunteers. Lets stop this trend of only paying attention to the Hungry at Christmas time, and make it something we do on a daily basis. You can make a difference, will you ? Please ? |
