Mr. Obama, will you be the President to end homelessness?
For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.
It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.
What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.
This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
President Obama, January 20, 2009
Bob Braun, a columnist for the Star-Ledger, is a must read. His column on Inauguration Day “Washington’s homeless fear being relocated for inauguration” was a a solid piece that stopped breakfast before it came to the table. Click here to read the full column. The column focuses on the possibility that the City of Washington was hiding the homeless during the inauguration. The position of the city was that they were protecting them from the cold.
We should not be debating the issue. The time has come to end homelessness!
This is a brief excerpt from Bob Braun’s column:
It is good to be many things in Washington now. Good to be an American. A Democrat. An African-American. The city is glittering, its streets full even days before the inauguration, buzzing with the chatter of excited people who came here to be part of history. The world is watching our party, and some of it has come here to participate.
But it is not good to be homeless now in Washington, D.C.
The truth is that it is never a good time to be homeless anywhere in America including New Jersey.
President Obama delivers his inaugural address
President Obama spent the holiday for Dr. King volunteering in a shelter for homeless youth.
Volunteerism is good, but now is the time to end homelessness, not to manage or hide the homeless.
“It is imperative that we use the technologies and strategies that we employed to reduce homelessness to address this new wave,” said Nan Roman of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “The response to recession-related homelessness must not simply be shelters and soup kitchens. Instead, we must employ the tools of prevention, rapid re-housing, and linkage to services that have been proven to work. There is still hope to end homelessness, but not if we flood our towns and cities with millions more homeless people.”
In his inaugural address, President Obama reminded us that “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
The homeless are neither equal or free and do not have a chance to pursue happiness.
Mr. President we can achieve this dream of ending homelessness, but we need your leadership and support. We are ready to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America” by ending homelessness during your first term.
