What's it like to walk in 'the other's' shoes? Take 2 minutes to 'Change Perspective'...

[Sapphire Blue]

Videos from Real Change...


Change Perspective, Real Change PSA I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QmX5HLlSd0


Change Perspective, Real Change PSA II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGw_CGeHyeg


Change Perspective, Real Change PSA III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sqnvyu6-cM


Change Perspective, Real Change PSA IV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5juyAPvZCs8

[Mojorabbit]

1. Those are wonderful!

Thought provoking.

[Sapphire Blue]

3. I agree, Mojorabbit.

:hi:

[IndyOp]

2. Hey Sapphire - I just visited each post in the video forum...

Hard-hitting. Wow. :cry:

:hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

4. I saw that you did, IndyOp. These videos are so short, but so very powerful!

:hi: :hug:

[calimary]

5. God, these are GREAT! Short, and rather rivetting.

I used to have a boss (one I liked a lot) whose favorite saying seemed to be "there but for fortune go I." He'd say that whenever one of us in the newsroom had a bad day or some relatively trivial thing went wrong, and he'd remind us that - hell, a LOT of people have it a lot worse than we do - that any one of them would probably give anything they could pray for - to change places with any one of us on our purportedly "bad" day. Never forgot that.

I hope these are playing on TV. I'm glad they're on Youtube. They'll get seen there, too. REALLY well done. Quick hits. But they go straight to the heart, and they REALLY make you think. Especially when you see the incongruity of the elegant people in suits, ties, pearls, cleanliness, and plenty - and the words that come out of their mouths. And then you see their partners - and the words that come out of THEIR mouths.

Not ONE of us (certainly not myself) realizes just how good we have it, even on our own "worst" days.

Thanks for posting this, Sapphire!

[Sapphire Blue]

8. The words that come out of their mouths say it all, don't they?

[EFerrari]

6. Still video impaired tonight but bookmarking for the morning.

K&R

[Sapphire Blue]

7. I hope you get the chance to view them in the AM; they are really good.

:hi: Thank you for the K&R!

[EFerrari]

9. I'm SO CLOSE! Lol!

Thanks so much for putting this up!

:hug:

:hi:

[kdpeters]

10. OH, WOW!! Those are great!!

I just don't think most of America really realizes what kind of problem we have. Most communities are so intolerant, these poor people get swept into communities like mine -- and I certainly don't have the resources to help them all. I certainly wish I could, and I do tend to give anything in my pocket less than a $5 to someone who needs it worse than I do. But I'm already counting my own pennies.

[Sapphire Blue]

11. If you'd like to help, please contact...

... your Senators & Representative & tell them to fully fund Federal housing programs. You can also call them toll-free @ 1-877-851-6437 or 1-800-828-0498.

Please also consider sending a copy of, or link to, this report: Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failure: http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf

More info...

NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS CORRELATION BETWEEN HISTORIC CUTS TO FEDERAL HOUSING PROGRAMS AND CONTEMPORARY MASS HOMELESSNESS

Communities call for the new Congress to take a new approach to addressing and ending the national crisis of homelessness

(Excerpt)

“Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failures,” documents the correlation between these trends and the emergence of a new and massive episode of homelessness in the 1980s which continues today. It particularly focuses on radical cuts to programs administered by the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA), which administers funds for rural affordable housing. Available online in PDF format, the report also demonstrates why federal responses to this nationwide crisis have consistently failed.

Created in partnership with five other organizations, the report uses federal budget data and other sources to document that:

HUD’s budget has dropped 65% since 1978, from over $83 billion to $29 billion in 2006.

The Emergency Shelter phenomenon was born the same year that HUD funding was at a drastic low point. In 1983, HUD’s budget was only $18 billion, the same year that general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide.

HUD has spent $0 on new public housing, while more than 100,000 public housing units have been lost to demolition, sale, or other removal in the last ten years.

Federal housing subsidies are going to the wealthy. In 2004, 61 percent of these subsidies went to households earning more than $54,788, while only 27 percent went to households earning under $34,398.

More than 600,000 identified homeless students went to public schools in the 2003-2004 school year, according to the US Department of Education.

Federal support helps homeowners instead of poor people. In 2005, federal homeowner subsidies totaled more than $122 billion, while HUD outlays were only $31 billion – a difference of more than $91 billion.

According to Paul Boden, executive director of WRAP, “The Administration’s current ‘Chronic Homeless Initiative’ is just the latest in a series of inadequate flavor-of-the-month distractions from the real problem. It does nothing to address the huge cuts to federal affordable housing funding that caused mass homelessness. Housing is a human right, which a democracy should advance, not restrict.

Those on the frontline of homelessness – homeless people and the providers who serve them – are drowning in a sea of blame. We have joined together to speak truth to power: until federal affordable housing programs are restored and expanded, homelessness will continue to grow.”

http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/press_release_wrap.html

[Sapphire Blue]

24. Kick... Please read post #11 ^^^^^ and TAKE ACTION.

:kick:

[nam78_two]

32. KICK

:kick:

[nam78_two]

12. SB you are the best

A :toast: to you-great post/videos. I will pass these around....
K&R
On edit: Hmm...:( I could only see part of one. Youtube seems to be down right now. Will check them out tomorrow and pass them around.

[Sapphire Blue]

16. Youtube is back up & running; hope you've gotten a chance to see the videos!

:hi:

[Nutmegger]

13. I have more for you:

:hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug:
:grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug:
:hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug:
:grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug:
:hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug:
:grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug::grouphug::hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

17. ..

:hug: :loveya: :hug:

[rman]

14. k&r

[Sapphire Blue]

18. Thank you, rman!

:hi:

[mntleo2]

15. Just Dropping In

...Real Change the newspaper has been around for a long time and was the "pioneer" for newspapers that homeless and low income people sell, produce and write in other parts of the country now. I wish you could all meet a pioneering editor of this paper, an interesting man. He is a math genius and was university faculty until one day his mental illness left him without that job and medical care. As a doctorate and one of the most brilliant mathematicians in the country, this man wound up wandering the streets without a home, a job or anywhere to go. He and his wife were a gift to Seattle because they fought poverty and homelessnesses instead of trying to teach a bunch of bored university students math they will forget after the quarter is over. Thanks to Steve Schrock who was once a newsman but also from the street and others, Real Change partners with our public access television studio and are branching out into film and television, with articles like SB posted here, that raise the awareness of what is happening right under our noses. They are amazing because well, the Real Change people are amazing people themselves, because they take people who believe what the world tells them they are; nothing, worthless and then show them that they always were amazing and worthwhile. Almost all of the Real Change people were once the people you passed by begging on the sidewalk and never gave them a glance.


Call your legislators and let them know housing the homeless is important to you. Then, next time perhaps someone here in this forum will give more than a glance to a street person. IMO we are not enabling a drug addict or alcoholic if we help them find a home, simply because everyone deserves a safe, private place to sleep and live. By supporting housing, you are helping more addicts get to sobriety because how can they have any hope for a change in their lives if they are left to beg on the street? Stop and give maybe a dollar because you are saying to them they are *not* worthless, or buy their newspaper where not only will you have contributed, but you will find some excellent reading because if you give the homeless more than a glance, you will find there are lots more out there like the Real Change staff ...

Cat In Seattle <---who is privileged to know some of these wonderful people through my work with WROC http://www.wroc.org

[Sapphire Blue]

19. mntleo2, THANK YOU for your post! "Call your legislators and let them know housing the homeless...

... is important to you."

Suggestions here: 11. If you'd like to help, please contact...: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=263922&mesg_id=264780

:hug: :loveya: :hug:

[Sapphire Blue]

20. KICK for Real Change. Please read mntleo2's post #15 ^^^

:kick:

[bobbolink]

30. Thanks for this info! This is something I want to do, so I'll look 'em up!

I really appreciate the headsup on this!

:applause:

[hashibabba]

21. This is such an awesome thread! Thanks for starting it

Sapphire Blue! I watched the videos and they really say it all.

I wrote my Rep. about it yesterday and I'll write to my Senators today. At least one of them is a Dem.

I'll save this thread and look again at all the wonderful information and links you've given us all.

[Sapphire Blue]

23. Thank you so much for taking action & DOING something about it!!! I hope more people will!

:hi: :hug: :loveya: :hug:

[Jcrowley]

22. K&R

Solidarity

Talking points and celebrity sounbites won't feed the poor.

Thanks for everything.

Wake up America

[Sapphire Blue]

25. Thank you, Jcrowley.

:kick: for & :toast: to solidarity!

[AbbyR]

26. I watched them all

Thank you for posting. I'm going to write my column this week about homelessness and poverty. Not only do you make me aware, you give me something to write about.

[Sapphire Blue]

28. AbbyR, thank YOU for writing a column about homelessness and poverty.

:hi: :hug:

[bobbolink]

31. Please give us a headsup about your article, 'K?

As a person who "fits the description, I must tell you how much it means to me to know you're going to write an article.

It's so very discouraging to be so invisible!

Thanks! :applause:

[Solly Mack]

27. bookmarked

recommended

much thanks

[Sapphire Blue]

29. Thank you, Solly Mack!

:hi: