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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums65 Million Americans Are Not Having a Happy July 4th
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/65-million-americans-are-not-having-happy-july-4thOver sixty five million people in the US, perhaps a fifth of our sisters and brothers, are not enjoying the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness promised when the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. They are about twenty percent of our US population. This July 4 can be an opportunity to remember them and rededicate ourselves and our country to making these promises real for all people in the US.
More than two million people are in our jails and prisons making the US the world leader in incarceration, according to the Sentencing Project, a 500% increase in the last 30 years.
Four million more people are on probation and parole, reports the US Bureau of Justice Statistics.
On the night of July 4 and on any given night, over 600,000 people are homeless, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, a quarter of which, over 130,000, are children.
Over 4 million people live in homes where each person lives on less than $2 per day (2.8 million are children) according to the National Poverty Center of the University of Michigan. Over 20 million people are living in deep poverty with incomes of less than 50 percent of the already low US poverty lines.
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)Thanks for the thread, xchrom.
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)http://www.democraticunderground.com/11702331
http://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp
There is more on the link.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)What should I do?
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)You are the best uncle ever!
Uncle Joe
(58,355 posts)daleanime
(17,796 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)speaking out against slavery while owning slaves and never freeing them.
He was a man of his times.
We are quick to condemn Jefferson for holding slaves, but we close our eyes to the terrible inhumane, cruel conditions in which we hold people. Prisoners who are serving time for drug related offenses, homeless people, people condemned to extreme poverty.
They are all better off than slaves, but . . . . that's no excuse for our inhumanity toward them.
How easily we judge historical figures. How easily we forgive our own immorality.
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)There may be a difference between a place you're not allowed to leave and told "Work for me or I'll beat the fuck out of you." and a place you're not allowed to leave and told "They're giving me money so you work for them or I'll beat the fuck out of you.", but it's one I can't spot.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)It's a sad state of affairs. No problem as long as it's not me. I kid.
littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)Clearly I am sex positive.
On second thought the video well done could be ... lol.
littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)I apologize for possibly hijacking this thread.But I have been up all night tracking a storm and monitoring property btw squalls. Tornado watch/warning ~shows how tired I am binary decisions are confusing me~
Any Way!
This legacy is a disgrace for us. NOW show me the data by gender, pregnancy while incarcerated data and that's a wake up call.
I enjoy reading your posts.
Love, Peace and Shelter. Lmsp
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,112 posts)And that includes the three I spent in England!
ReRe
(10,597 posts)When my kids were young, we never missed a fireworks display and always had a picnic with family. Now, we spend the 4th in our own home, because it's too hot for us outside. We have our picnic inside and watch the fireworks on TV and mill around the house or our garden. I have a crop of jalapenos I need to harvest out there, so I might fix some nachos to spice the afternoon up. If you can't be with family, call them up. Pull out your photo album or the photo file on your computer and look at your photos from England. Go rent a movie at the movie kiosk in your neighborhood.
Try to count your blessings. I will be thinking of you, for whatever that's worth.
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,112 posts)"1776" was on TCM at 10:30 am. We segued right into 7 part "John Adams" on HBO til 8pm. Bbq'd burgers, cornn & cooked up homemade potato salad (with onions & herbs from our garden). Time out. Macy's fireworks 10:30 - 11. And now listening to David McCollough talk about G Wasington and our improbable birth.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)I started watching it during the 2nd part! Well, good. All's well. Later, friend.