Gay Marriage

Gay marriage is not a new topic to the political stage of the United States, however it is one that has grown in support over the last decade. Our country has progressed beyond our previous oppressive beliefs about race towards universal equality, we are still kept down from reaching this goal because we have yet to nationally accept gays. In a Amendment proposed to the Constitution in 2003 by Marriage has been defined by many as "the union between a man and a woman."

This amendment clearly has not passed, but it puts the debate to a head. This proposed amendment is an attempt to block individual state constitutions and laws from allowing homosexual marriages. For over 200 years our country has not accepted gays for various reasons ranging from the Bible saying so to simply homophobic tendencies. Being gay is not and has never been a choice that people make, and this is a realization that many liberal democrats have made. The only reason why the reason why gay marriage acceptance laws have not passed are because a large amount of conservative republicans have opposed this issue strongly for a long time.

The Republican Party

Founded in 1854 by a group of anti-slavery expansion activists, the Republican party established itself quickly as the strong opposition to the Democrats with a key victory putting Abraham Lincoln into office. Many Republicans define themselves as limiting the role and power of government in the nation, and putting more of the power into the hands of the states and their individual governments. The Republicans have a very powerful following, and are currently the nation's second largest party, holding about one third of the nations votes.

Republicans believe in 'peace through strength,' basically using our military might to let the rest of the world know that we are not a country to be messed with, therefore creating 'peace.' This is a strength of the party that has worked well in previous times of war where a powerful national defense and strength is needed. Republicans firmly stand for having the government out of the nation's health care, believing that it will promote break down the free market economy competition that has made America great. This is good and bad, as health care reform is needed badly, which the Republicans agree with, but they are slightly too picky with exactly what they want.

The Republican party does have a good amount of flaws however. Their idea towards energy is what they call an 'all of the above' approach, meaning they will take any and all ways of acquiring energy. They are open to some change, but when our country needs to reduce its heavy dependency on foreign oil and start focusing on moving towards a greener America.

The Democratic Party

Evolving from the Anti-Federalist party in the 1790s, the Democratic party originally favored states' rights and a strict following of the Constitution, and was strongly opposed to a national bank along with the interests of the wealthy. Since then, the Dems have moved more into a generally 'liberal' space about modern issues of the time, favoring progressive movement towards changing policies in an attempt to fit a changing world. This tactic has worked very well for the democrats, seeing as they are the nation's largest party.

The Democrats pride themselves in being 'Progressives' on most issues supporting issues that change the old ways of thinking such as abortion rights, same-sex marriage, universal health care, and lower dependency on foreign oil. The Democrats are a good counterbalance to the Republicans and are there to keep the nation up to date as new technologies bring about these new issues.

That being said, there are many ways in which the Democrats can become overly 'progressive' or not be smart on certain issues. Defense spending for example. The safety of our country is an issue that should be held in the highest regard, and lowering defense spending is not something that we should be doing. Defense spending should be kept in check so they do not get out of control, but not cut severely.

Poverty in America

Part 1: All across the state, all across the country, and all across the entire globe, there has been, is, and always will be the issue of poverty. Poverty as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is: “the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possession.” Poverty is defined by the United States government by ‘poverty thresholds’ that sets a certain annual income per number of family members relying on that income, where any family that falls below that line is officially poor as labeled by the government. Poverty is an issue that, if not taken care of, leads to hunger and homelessness, among other problems. The United States really needs to focus on this growing problem that is afflicting literally millions of Americans all over the country and is leading to extremely dire consequences.

The current U.S. poverty thresholds of annual income as a relation to number of family members are very low considering the number of family members. If one person living on $10,830 or more a year, they are considered by the United States to not be poor. The numbers adjust proportionally as more and more family members are added to the equation, but if everything is taken into consideration with that small amount of money that keeps a family officially ‘not poor,’ most if not all of this income is used on the simple basics of life; food and shelter, leaving nothing to be spent on improving one’s position in the world or living conditions. But they still are getting enough money to survive on their own, or for their family. For those below the poverty line, anything under the income threshold on the chart, life is just terrible. In 2008, California had a statewide poverty level of 13.3%, which translates into roughly 4,888,637 Californians who are living below the poverty line. This is quite a bit up from reported 12.7 percent recorded in 2004. These percentages are almost identical to that of the United States as a whole, which measured with the same poverty thresholds with 12.6% of Americans living below the poverty line in 2004 and 13.2% in 2008, which means that 40,135,884 Americans were living below the poverty line in 2008, a statistic that has likely stayed the same or even risen into 2010. These staggering numbers are completely unacceptable. The United States without a doubt one of the greatest nations on the planet, and yet we are still unable to prevent over 40 million American citizens from living below the poverty threshold. Poverty is a serious problem that needs to be dealt with, because the results of inaction can literally be death from lack of money to maintain the basics of life.

A family is ‘food secure’ if it, throughout the year, never has a time where the family has to worry about or deal with food availability. In 2008, the United States Department of Agriculture reported that about 85% of Americans were ‘food secure.’ Pretty good? Not really. That means that at some time in the year of 2008, and in many cases multiple times, 15% of Americans were living in fear of or dealing with not having access to food. This number of insecure Americans is up from the 2007 number of merely 11.1% food insecure Americans. The issue of poverty in the United States is directly related to the poverty issue, because of the obvious reason that food costs money. Poverty leads to hunger, which leads to eventual starvation. But hunger isn’t the only direct problem from poverty.

Homelessness is another massive issue that is evident around the world. Street performers, beggars, and people sleeping on the sidewalk are major parts of every city, all of whom add up to about 3.5 million Americans who are homeless, as recorded in 2008. This is a small percentage of Americans as a whole, but it is still a big issue, when our country has this many people who are living without any type of regular shelter. Homelessness too has been on the rise recently, in 2004 the amount of homeless Americans was reported to be about 2.5 million, so we have made quite the jump in a short 4 years, which interestingly directly correlates to the poverty rise in the United States.

Poverty is a problem that, if proper reform is made, can be solved and with it, our nation’s issues of homelessness and hunger.

Part 2: Clearly, poverty is a big issue. But what is our government doing about it? The United States government is funding several programs such as the Corporation for National Community Service and the AmeriCorps program, which both help move the country closer to a poverty free America. These programs are helping out the impoverished a great deal but in the end, they will not solve our national poverty problem. However, these programs are steps in the right direction and are good examples for what should be done.

The Corporation for National Community Service is a government funded program that’s mission is ‘to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering.’ The CNCS focuses on ways it can attain community involvement, sponsoring programs that act on the local level, and get the whole community involved in working together towards a common goal. The CNCS promotes and funds community service, along with providing these programs with willing workers nationwide. The CNCS works by funding 3 key organizations: Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America.

The Senior Corps is a program that takes senior volunteers (over the age of 55) with expertise in a certain field, and uses their knowledge in that field to be mentors, supervisors, coaches, or companions to people for community service projects. The idea that when one hits 55, they are instantly free from all need to help the community is one that is rapidly disappearing as the Senior Corps continues to gain backing. Whether it be building houses or immunizing children, whatever the previous expertise of a senior, it can be put to use through the Senior Corps. The Senior Corps is a great way to help out the community, because many seniors who are retired have little to do with their time, and with Senior Corps, they are able to help the betterment of those in community who are in need of the assistance.

Learn and Serve America is a program of the Corporation of National Community Service that focuses on one of the key solutions to poverty: education. Many times people who are living in poverty want to get out of their current positions, but without a decent education of any sort, they are unable to get much more than a cheap fast food chain job. LSA focuses on creating programs that get students involved in their education, so they are concentrating on learning and education. LSA also provides funding for training and technical assistance for teachers and schools in America that are in need. LSA is another government program that is assisting in the fight to end poverty.

But the most effective program sponsored by the CNCS is the AmeriCorps program. The AmeriCorps program takes any and all workers who are looking to either volunteer or work for a humble wage to participate in any of their myriad of programs. AmeriCorps offers opportunities to tutor and mentor disadvantaged youth, fight illiteracy, improve health services, build affordable housing, help communities respond to disasters, and more. AmeriCorps is a great solution to the problem of poverty through all their individual focuses on programs, sponsoring volunteers to organize and work with individual programs throughout the country, all of which have helped stop poverty in their own ways.

The government is taking steps toward ending poverty by funding these programs that strengthen communal involvement towards the betterment of society, but these programs, unless funded more, are not enough to bring about an end to poverty in the United States.

Part 3: The Government’s role in solving the state and nation’s continual problem of poverty has been one of assisting and funding programs that focus on community building, and in doing this, the government is showing us the way. The reason why our country has so many people living below the poverty line, barely making it, or in many cases not making it at all, is because our communities have lost their sense of togetherness. In order for a society to truly be able to function properly, everyone in it must be committed to a common goal of the betterment of the society. This is not how Americans live. Our country is too focused on the capitalistic, dog eat dog constant fight to have the bigger salary, the bigger house, to achieve the ‘American Dream.’ This idea that success in life is measured by the size of one’s paycheck is something that is simply downright wrong. In our quest to always be the ‘best,’ we have lost our sense of being a true community. Those dedicated to becoming as rich as possible just get richer and rise further and further away from the rest, leaving the masses of people who did not achieve the ‘American Dream’ to suffer with no money and no help. This needs to end.

Community service is now generally seen as something that is a punishment to criminals, and not something that the average American should have to do. This goes all the way back to Aesop’s original saying: “United we stand, divided we fall.” A community is defined as “a unified body of individuals.” A community that is comprised of selfish individuals who only care for the betterment of themselves is not a community at all; it is simple people who leave near each other. America’s problem is that it no longer has any true communities; instead we have cold cities that run on greed and self-service. If America was able to turn this around, we would be so much stronger as a nation. This is not to say that there is no one that is trying to change this. Programs such as the Habitat for Humanity program are setting the example for exactly what should be done. The Habitat for Humanity program works by taking the applications of families that are below the poverty line or very close to it, and are working to do everything they can to get out, but really could use a helping hand. Habitat for Humanity takes these people and gives them that helping hand, providing them with affordable housing. Habitat for Humanity works by using members from the AmeriCorps program to be leaders and workers long term, but the real help comes from the volunteers, who come from all over, in groups with companies, schools and churches, or even simply individual volunteers, which is how I participated. Habitat for Humanity is a program that is showing how when the community comes together and works, the possibilities are endless. Since 1978 in the U.S. alone, Habitat for Humanity has built or restored over 30,000 homes and is constantly building more. Community service works, and Habitat for Humanity is a perfect example of a program that really has made a difference.

If America is to solve the issue of poverty, the people must make a critical change in their mindset towards living as a community and helping their fellow man. This can be done quite easily individually, but as a whole it is going to take a lot of work, but the end result will make our country unimaginably better.

Sources:

1. McCarty, Maggie. "Homelessness: Recent Statistics, Targeted Federal Programs, and Recent Legislation ." Google Docs. The Library of Congress, 31 May 2005. Web. 06 Apr 2010. .

2. Fleming, Robert. "Crisis: Homelessness Population Grows, Tent Cities Thrive." Black Star News 27 Mar 2009: 1. Web. 06 Apr 2010. .

3. "Facts and Figures: The Homeless." PBS.org. Public Broadcasting Service, 26 Jun 2009. Web. 06 Apr 2010. .

4. Nord, Mark, and Alisha Coleman-Jensen. "Food Security in the United States." United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. U.S. Department of Agriculture, 06 Nov 2009. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

5. "State and County QuickFacts." U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Census Bureau, 23 Feb 2010. Web. 07 Apr 2010. .

6. "THE 2009 HHS POVERTY GUIDELINES." Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

7. "Corporation for National and Community Service."National Service. Corporation for National and Community Service, 07 Apr 2010. Web. 07 Apr 2010. .

8. "Senior Corps." Senior Corps. Corporation for National and Community Service, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

9. "Learn and Serve America." Learn and Serve America. Corporation for National and Community Service, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

10. "AmeriCorps." Corporation for National and Community Service. Corporation for National and Community Service, 04 Mar 2010. Web. 11 Apr 2010. .

The Onion: Keeping Us Up To Date On The Pressing Issues Of The Day

"GLENS FALLS, NY—An esteemed high council of elders gathered in the hushed chambers of the Hillside Assisted Living Center this week to determine the fate of Wanda Drexler, a 43-year-old day nurse suspected of stealing loose change from atop various dressers and nightstands....."

The Obama Tracker

NPR's interesting interactive new way to keep tabs on what the Obama administration has been getting done lately.

Health Care: A BFD

Today Joe Biden gave his own editorial remarks alluding to his enthusiasm over the passing of the long awaited health care bill, somewhat forgetting that his mike was on as he told his running mate that

"this is a big fucking deal."

Biden has always been outspoken in his thoughts throughout his job, but this is an interesting comment, considering he is the vice president now. Yes, he is just a human like every one of us, but one would hope that the vice president of the United States has a bit more class than what he has shown. That being said, passing the health care bill is a pretty big fucking deal.

The UK's Solution to Poverty

This week in the United Kingdom a new bill is up for voting in the parliament, the Child Poverty Act. Great Britain's bill that may pass into national legislation today ambitiously promises to end child poverty by 2020. A previous promise to halve child poverty by 2010 failed miserably, so the government has decided to step up its programs and taxes to ensure that it reaches its goal by 2020.

Programs and laws such as this are happening in the United Kingdom, and they need to be happening here. Now that health care has gone through, Obama needs to concentrate on his big 'Jobs Bill' that he talked about in the state of the union address. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later so we can, in this case, do things like the UK.

No Viagra for Offenders?

As Obama's Health Care bill has finally passed in the house, and now it has moved into the Senate for reconciliation, where the Republicans can do little to slow the bill down from its process of being passed other than proposing new amendments to the bill. One of these amendments is one that will omit the purchase of Viagra or other such male enhancement medications from the health care plan, at least for registered sex offenders.

This is an interesting tactic on the republicans part, because small and seemingly meaningless amendments to the bill will take time to be voted on, and will stall the process a great deal. This really is the only option the Republicans have, because this bill is basically going to pass no matter what happens in the Senate debates during the reconciliation period.

Mental Health Break

Mexico Seeks Help with Drug Wars

Although Mexican drug wars have been a problem for a long time along the U.S.-Mexican border, now Americans in particular are being targeted by the gangs and mafia style organizations that fuel the drug industry in both Mexico and the United States. After the recent murder of a pregnant woman and her husband for no apparent reason other than them being American, the Obama administration is coming under questioning as to what policy it is going to take to protect American citizens.

But so far the only real response to the tragedies this past weekend have been that the area along the border is just a dangerous place that shouldn't be taken lightly:

"The tragedy of this weekend just underscores how severe and significant a danger this represents to Mexico, to the United States, to the hemisphere."

Dem's Going for Reconciliation

With Obama's health care plan getting bogged down in the two different houses of congress, the Democrats in the House of Representatives are grasping at straws and might go for a desperation measure: reconciliation.

Reconciliation, a tactic that has been used before by the Republicans in the Bush administration, requires the House to pass the Senate bill and reconciliation. The Senate then can pass the health care bill with only a simple majority. This tactic can be considered something of 'cheating,' usually by the opposing party, but at this point it may be the dem's only option.

Poverty Seems bad here...

A graphic put up by NPR shows how much it really costs to make our pants, take a look at the costs of labor:

ONN: Keeping Everyone in the Know

Quake in Haiti Could Actually Bring Good Change?

Now with the focus on Haiti after the massive earthquake, Haitians are looking to use this new influx of help and money into their country and use it towards not only rebuilding the country from the earthquake, but also focusing on some of the country's previous issues, such as poverty and unemployment.

Previously Haiti had a 70% unemployment rate so, grim as it is, the deaths of so many Haitians has opened up the job market for many others who were previously out of work. These new workers are now doing whatever they can do to restart the economy by working in textiles to create clothes to sell to the United States.

The Haiti business elite, still a very corrupt bunch, is doing what it can to turn around this viewpoint along with the country as Haiti rebuilds.

Poorism

For years now tourists have been paid guided tours through the ghettos and shantytowns of South Africa, Brazil, and other poor countries to see how 'the other side lives.' Although this may be interesting for some to see, it seems as though it would leave the poverty tourists, or 'poorists,' with something of a bad taste in their mouth. But this hasn't stopped a Los Angeles Gang Tour from opening up, where people pay to be bussed through the ghettos and famous gang violence hot spots in L.A. Not only is this potentially dangerous, it creates the feeling of putting on a show.

But this 'show' is not some performance, it is real people out living their lives, and real violence happening for tour busses to see. This poorism creates the feeling of people going to a wild animal preserve and driving through to see the animals, something that is just plain wrong. Yes, gang violence and poverty is something that needs to be recognized and acted on, but this is the wrong way of going about it.

Will Amazon Have to Include Sales Tax?

One of the great things about buying items online is the fact that there is never any sales tax. Granted, the shipping and handling price usually is the equivalent of the tax on an item that one would find in a store, but no tax also has always been a plus. But with California in such a massive budget crisis, state legislators are looking for anything they can do to get money.

Online websites like Amazon have been able to evade state taxes by having their shipping locations outside of the state, but California, like New York and Colorado have already done, is attempting to make online shopping taxed. Although a passing of this legislation would get a lot of grumbling from the thousands of online shoppers in California, the fact of the matter is that our state is in great need of a money in any way possible, and if this is the solution to getting us out of the statewide recession, then its just something that we're going to have to accept.

Poverty = Shorter Life

Just something to think about.

1967 to Present, Nothing has Changed

A little over 40 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. had planned on making a second march on capitol hill, but this time it was to be not about civil rights in America, but about the ridiculously high amount of Americans in poverty. The number of Americans living in poverty in 1967: 40 million. The number of Americans living in poverty now: 40 million. Although the country has become more populated, this is still a ridiculous amount of people.

Dr. King saw that poverty was not a civil rights campaign, it was something that had the ability to oppress everyone, and therefore should be much easier to unite a nation under the cause of eliminating poverty once and for all. Unfortunately, under this aspect of life, we really have failed the great Martin Luther King Jr. Poverty is rising, and it needs to be stopped. With all these new government reforms, Obama is doing an okay job of keeping his attentions focused on Main Street as opposed to Wall Street, but doing this alone is not going to get the job done. The knowledge of our nation's poverty needs to get out and reach the nation so we can do something about this nationwide problem.

Mental Health Break: Vampire Protection

First Lady Launches Anti-Childhood Obesity Campaign

Michelle Obama has taken the initiative in leading a new program coming from the White House that is an attempt to fight the continually rising epidemic that is childhood obesity. According to recent studies, one in three youth in America are overweight or obese.

The program hopes to push the food industry towards healthier ways of eating and informing the general public of what they are eating by having companies label the front of packages with nutrition facts, as opposed to simply having the generic fine print on the backs of products.

Hopefully this push by our First Lady will prove to be a successful one, as childhood obesity is really a problem that needs to be taken care of quickly, or we will find that our entire country is going to be swallowed by this ever growing problem.

Poverty Continuing to Rise

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate of people living in the United States has risen to 13.2%. Previously at 12.5%, this sudden rise in poverty can most likely be accredited to the worldwide economic recession, but even the previous 12.5% is not anything to brag about.

Poverty is a growing problem in America, with the hyper rich owning a massive chunk of the nation's wealth. The steady rise of the middle class has brought many out of poverty, but has also distanced the gap between the middle and upper class Americans. Programs like Habitat for Humanity help low income families get back on their feet in these rough times, but they cannot do it all. In order to truly level the playing field, our government will most likely have to raise taxes for the hyper rich, and lessen taxes on the poor, a solution that will anger many republicans, but one that is a necessity to keep our country on its feet.