Category: take action

politics, social justice and ways you can make a difference in the world around you.

Homelessness not Hopelessness

There are roughly 2 million youths who experience homelessness every year.

Many of these kids are on the street due to issues beyond their control.

Girls that are being sexually molested by their fathers and boys who are being physically abused by their supposed loved ones, run away and are left on the streets because of the harsh card life has dealt them.

Roughly 2 million youths…

Let that sink in for a moment before watching this:

I found out about this campaign via Mark Horvath.

I’ve talked about Mark Horvath and his great work with Invisible People before. And I even had the chance to hang out this year IRL at SxSW and it was awesome to see that even in the midst of all that was going on (parties, events, etc.) – he still carried a backpack full of fresh socks (or freshies) to hand out to those on the streets of Austin.

As part of his own work to end homelessness, Mark kicked off a cross-country tour last month and he’s been highlighting the stories of homeless youth across the country. And this week he announced his partnership with Virgin Mobile, RE*Generation and Sevenly to help raise funds to help keep teens off the street.

“I understand where these kids are coming from. I was homeless myself but with the help and kindness of others, I was able get out of my dire situation. Our homeless youth deserve that chance and much more,” said Horvath. “These kids need compassion, guidance and care. With Sevenly.org and The RE*Generation, I believe we can really make a significant difference.”

To raise funds, Sevenly is selling some great shirts and for every shirt sold, $7 will go towards RE*Generation. And as a bonus… if 3,000 people share the Sevenly website this week (they’re at 1600 shares currently) Virgin Mobile will throw in an additional $50,000 to support RE*Generation.

So buy a shirt and share the site and do something to help end youth homelessness… and next time you’re out, grab an extra bag of socks to handout yourself. I know many would appreciate a clean pair of socks as much (if not more) than your spare change.

To see some of the teens already helped visit InvisiblePeople.tv or Mark’s Tumblr.

Gun ownership and firearm deaths go together

A new study that was published online in the American Journal of Medicine reports that gun ownership is a bigger factor than mental illness when it comes to firearms deaths. But the data suggest that both play roles.

NPR writes:

In the study, doctors in New York looked at data on gun ownership, crime rate, firearms-related deaths and depression from 27 developed countries, including the United States, Japan, Great Britain and South Africa.

The United States had the highest rate of civilian gun ownership, at almost 90 guns per 100 people. The next two countries on the list were Switzerland and Finland, with about 45 guns per 100 people. Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom had the lowest gun numbers, ranging from less than 1 gun per 100 in Japan to 6 in the U.K.

The countries with more civilian guns also had the highest rates of firearms deaths, with the United States leading the list at 10 deaths per 100,000, based on an international mortality database.

A letter from Trappist nuns in Syria

Catholic World Reports:

In March 2005 a small group of nuns from the Cistercian Monastery of Valserena in Tuscany moved to Aleppo, Syria, to found a new monastic community there. The nuns were inspired to take up the legacy of seven monks who were martyred in 1997 in Tibhirine, Algeria. The sisters wanted to follow the example set by these men, who had totally dedicated their lives to God and to their beloved Algerian neighbors, both Christian and Muslim.

The sisters’ guiding Scripture is John 10:16: “There are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must led these too. They too will listen to my voice.”

Today, like many Syrians they wait to see if Obama and the US will decide to follow through on their plans to attack their country.

The sisters write:

Today we have no words, except those of the Psalms that the liturgical prayer puts onto our lips in these days:

Rebuke the Beast of the Reeds, that herd of bulls, that people of calves…oh God, scatter the people who delight in war…Yahweh has leaned down from the heights of his sanctuary, has looked down from heaven to earth to listen to the sighing of the captive, and set free those condemned to death…Listen, God, to my voice as I plead, protect my life from fear of the enemy; hide me from the league of the wicked, from the gang of evil-doers. They sharpen their tongues like a sword, aim their arrow of poisonous abuse…They support each other in their evil designs, they discuss how to lay their snares. “Who will see us?” they say. He will do that, he who penetrates human nature to its depths, the depths of the heart…Break into song for my God, to the tambourine, sing in honor of the Lord, to the cymbal, let psalm and canticle mingle for him, extol his name, invoke it…For the Lord is a God who breaks battle-lines! … Lord, you are great, you are glorious, wonderfully strong, unconquerable.

We look at the people around us, our day workers who are all here as if suspended, stunned: “They’ve decided to attack us.” Today we went to Tartous…we felt the anger, the helplessness, the inability to formulate a sense to all this: the people trying their best to work and to live normally. You see the farmers watering their land, parents buying notebooks for the schools that are about to begin, unknowing children asking for a toy or an ice cream…you see the poor, so many of them, trying to scrape together a few coins. The streets are full of the “inner” refugees of Syria, who have come from all over to the only area left that is still relatively liveable… You see the beauty of these hills, the smile on people’s faces, the good-natured gaze of a boy who is about to join the army and gives us the two or three peanuts he has in his pocket as a token of “togetherness”…. And then you remember that they have decided to bomb us tomorrow. … Just like that. Because “it’s time to do something,” as it is worded in the statements of the important men, who will be sipping their tea tomorrow as they watch TV to see how effective their humanitarian intervention will be…

I’m challenged to believe that there is a third-way in Syria and other conflict situations around the world. The cycle of violence isn’t the answer.

There’s no redemption in violence and there’s no reconciliation in it. There must be another way.

I’m praying that the Church will rise up against the current violence in Syria and the pending violence and stand with these sisters and others who are standing firm, believing another world is possible.

There is something wrong, and it is something very serious… because the consequences will be wrought on the lives of an entire population…it is in the blood that fills our streets, our eyes, our hearts.

Yet what use are words anymore? All has been destroyed: a nation destroyed, generations of young people exterminated, children growing up wielding weapons, women winding up alone and targeted by various types of violence…families, traditions, homes, religious buildings, monuments that tell and preserve history and therefore the roots of a people…all destroyed…

As Christians we can at least offer all this up to the mercy of God, unite it to the blood of Christ, which carries out the redemption of the world in all those who suffer.

HT:

Syria’s Blurred Lines

Food for thought:

The Chemical Weapons Convention does not spell out the consequences for violations. Rather, it states that in “cases of particular gravity,” the issue should be brought by convention states to the attention of the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council.

Read more.

Muslims see irony in Obama’s Ramadan wishes

“I am assuming Obama’s greetings to Muslims wrt Ramadan are also directed at Muslims he will be force feeding at #GTMO during that month.”

“Obama wishing Muslims a happy Ramadan while he drone bombs them is like Hitler wishing Auschwitz a happy Hanukkah”

Via The Washington Times