"We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude." -Cynthia Ozick

With 131,000 homeless veterans in the United States, it is no wonder that the Veteran’s Administration has developed a new plan to end homelessness among veterans within five years.

Studies show that though physical disabilities are barriers to employment and housing, it is the disabilities that we cannot see that more gravely affect veterans. Among these problems are PTSD, depression and addiction and though there may not be visible signs of these issues, they are no less pervasive to the very integrity of these men and women that served our country.

Eric Shinseki, the Secretary for Veterans Affairs, outlined a plan on November 3rd that provides preventative services in addition to reactive services to veterans. It also provides leniency for small business owners that are veterans along with educational benefits for advanced degrees and training upon their return.

Shinseki claims that while it is important for the federal government to take control of the situation, it moreover needs to be in the hands of the local government and grassroots organizations. It is these people that are on the front lines and see the despair and struggles that our veterans go through day-to-day upon their return from serving our country. They are able to identify the needs and treat them, but that the government should be funding these efforts.

I’m not going to preach about how we as a country are seriously failing those who’ve fought for us, or how there are people suffering from mental illness when there are plenty of resources to help them, or that this issue should’ve been on the forefront of the VA years ago. All I’m going to say is that I’m glad that it’s becoming an issue and that needs are finally being met for our heroes.

Below are two links, the first one which outlines the specific plan and its 5 points; the second is a more in-depth look at the issue.

http://www1.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=1807

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200991104027

"It is our corporate misfortune to be sharing a dying world while holding the cure in our hands."

As was announced on the St. Francis Inn Ministries website under the News and Events section, the Team recently took the St. Francis Pledge, committing to pray, learn, assess, act and advocate on behalf of the preservation and protection of God’s creation. This is not simply a call to environmental awareness but is a greater movement to acknowledging that all living things are creatures of God, humans, plants and animals alike. The Pledge gathers Catholics in the campaign to morph current ideologies of greed, consumption and wealth into a world where all creatures share in the beauty of God’s creation.

The website for the Covenant is http://catholicclimatecovenant.org Please peruse the site, not only for your own awareness, but to understand more fully what is being done at St. Francis Inn Ministries so that we can be better stewards of Creation.

Below is a prayer from the website that I thought was worth sharing. Enjoy!

Loving and Creator God

Cathy Melesky Dante

We are a Eucharistic people,
Permeated with relationship
That gives us life and light.

To those to whom much is given, much is asked.
We pray that we may be made worthy
Of bringing forward light and life
For our brothers and sisters who do not have enough.
Creator God, Spirit that has breathed life in all of us,
We offer ourselves to you as holy and living sacrifices
In service to you and all your creation.

You taught us to be poor in spirit,
Emptying ourselves of what we do not need,
That we may be true vessels for your Spirit,
That we may do your work in this world.

Help us to be free of what holds us back,
Free from attitudes, habits, beliefs
That trap us in relationships that exploit and manipulate
Your people and the environment,
That holds us all together.

You gave us the model of St. Francis,
Who lived his life in solidarity with the poor,
Serving them by promoting justice.

Help us to live your saving justice, Lord.
Help us to care for your creation,
Working along side of you,
In your garden in this world.

In doing so, we pray
That we may be in solidarity with the poor,
Living as Eucharistic people
And caring for our environment.

“The more we take, the less we become. The fortune of one man means less for some.” -Sarah McLachlin, World on Fire

I awoke to an eerie quiet last Tuesday morning. The usual soundtrack of the “el” and city buses was not heard, but it wasn’t until I got into the office that I found out that SEPTA (South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) and the Transportation Workers Union (TWU) were on strike. For the 900,000 people that rely on the city’s public transportation daily, this unexpected walkout created a gridlock on the streets of Philadelphia. The strike lasted for six days, ending at 12:45am Monday morning, in enough time for the morning commute to be back on track (pun intended).

Catholic Social Teaching tells us "All workers have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, and to safe working conditions. They also have a fundamental right to organize and join unions. People have a right to economic initiative and private property, but these rights have limits. No one is allowed to amass excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life."

Initially I sided with the workers, believing that they were acting in accord with CST, seeking just wages. But after learning more about the discourse between the TWU and SEPTA and the City, it seemed, more and more, that there was a push for more cash from a city whose unemployment rate is 11%.

The Union had SEPTA in the palms of their hands while nearly one hundred thousand people were unable to get to their jobs, their doctor’s appointments, and even their soup kitchens for meals. I received a call from a woman on Friday who normally takes public transportation to get to St. Francis Inn and didn’t have any food in the house for three days because of the strike. The last sentence above “No one is allowed to amass excessive wealth when others lack the basic necessities of life” is what really settles this whole thing for me. Not only are people losing money because they are unable to get to work, but they are doing so at the expense of people who are seeking more money in an already unstable economy.

"Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand upright." -B. Franklin

Putting a Number on Poverty

Last month the U.S. Census Bureau released new data on poverty. The number of people living in poverty has risen a full percentage point over last year. Today, 13.2 percent of people in the country are living below the poverty line - about 40 million in all. This is a big problem, but it is not the whole story.

The way the U.S. government measures poverty is extremely flawed. Official poverty estimates do not take into account factors like rising medical care, transportation, child care, as well as cost of living as it varies by geographic location and therefore are not accurately factored in to calculations.

This raises the question: how then is poverty defined? Since the 1960s the government has marked poverty in absolute terms, independent of outside factors and events. The U.S. Census Bureau says that individual or families below the “absolute poverty line” are considered to have insufficient resources to meet basic needs for healthy living. Absolute poverty line threshold vary depending on collective income and number of family members, but generally if a family’s total income is less than its calculated “threshold,” they are considered poor. In 2008, the poverty line for a family of four was $21,834, according to the census; for a family of two adults and one child, it was $17,330.

Our outdated poverty measure not only fails to take into consideration significant factors like cost of living, but it also fails to capture millions of Americans who are in need of aid but not officially classified as being impoverished. It is pretty clear that the federal government is not doing a good job of addressing the root causes of poverty in America. Perhaps it is because they are wasting precious resources on analyzing data that is not accurate.

However, there is some good news in all of this talk about the way the federal government measures poverty. Congress has a bill pending that would provide more realistic standards. The Measuring American Poverty Act was introduced in the Senate in September by Sen. Chris Dodd,: a house version was introduced by Rep. Jim McDermott.

(This article was submitted by Br. John Gill, ofm)