Care for Homeless

Not having shelter isn't the only issue homeless sojourners deal with.  Many times the inability to procure health care is also an issue, either because of money, or because of not having a permanent address.  We need to care for sojourners in our midst not only through providing shelter, but allowing all people to have access to health care.  A persons health largely depends on opportunities available to them, as it has through history.  Life expectancies are the highest they have ever been, but for those without access to healthcare, or shelter, or food, or adequate clothing, the life expectancy rate drops significantly.  With rising homeless numbers in our midst, these issues become front and center and should be recognized by all people.

http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/stcharles/news/homeless-count-up-for-st-charles-lincoln-warren-counties/article_a5c4964f-3a21-5e32-b0ac-20ac5c61c26b.html

Yay for Richmond Heights

Richmond Heights, MO just passed a city ordinance that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation.  This would have been covered in the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, if it had passed, but even so, the state of Missouri ratified it in 1975.  This is a symbolically great thing, but should be something that is just natural to humanity (SHOULD BE).

 Richmond Heights Bans Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation

Homeless Camp Bulldozed

This is treating the symptom...not helping the problem.  Is bulldozing a homeless camp really how we're going to treat the homeless these days?  That doesn't quite seem like how God calls us to give shelter to those without.

Standing in Solidarity with Creation

Lakota Indians in South Dakota provided a minor distraction, but a large symbolic statement to the Keystone XL Pipeline development that brings oil from the tarsands in Canada through the U.S.  By standing in front of the trucks, the Lakota people made a statement that the mining of oil from the tarsands in Canada is destructive to "Mother Earth" no matter who the buyer and consumers are.

 Lakota's Standing in Solidarity with Creation.

Journal Update for Bib 2

Support for the deaf culture, within the deaf culture.  We get so divided into groups of "others" that even minority groups begin to divide into groups of others.  There is and has been a debate within the deaf culture of whether to treat hearing loss, or to embrace sign language.  It's yet another part of our society that divides us into more and more groups of others.  How or when or will society ever look to the larger issue of what brings us together as humans, rather than what divides us as people?

Are rich people more unethical?

Are Rich People More Unethical?

Interesting opinion article on CNN.  How does money influence decision making processes when it comes to personal expenditures vs. donations to charity, helping the poor, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, engaging in acts of justice that we have been called to do by God?

Posts for Bib 2 Journal

Missouri English Driver's License Mandate

In addition to the Missouri voter photo id requirement , the requirement for driver's license exams being given only in English is essentially creating a state language, so that English will be required to obtain a government issued photo id, which leads to the ability to vote in the state.  With the US not having a national language, and knowing English not being a requirement to be a citizen (yes it is a requirement to become a citizen if previous foreign citizenship was held) Missouri has no right to require English.  Yes it is expected that citizens should be able to read road signs posted in English, but being able to recognize road signs and understand their meaning can be done at a comprehension level lower than the level required to pass a written exam.