How can we change hunger and homelessness in the U.S.

I was drawn to respond to the question of why hungry and homeless people live in the wealthiest nation in the world, and how can we bring forth change. As I tried to prod the ideas into place, it became clear to me that unless we can answer these questions we could be facing the end of this country as we know it. As we watch our elected officials override our wishes and give away billions of our hard-earned dollars, people are losing their jobs and their homes. As Americans, we have an ingrained belief that we live in the land of opportunity and we will be rewarded for our efforts. Historically, we are a young nation. We sang siren songs of opportunity to bring others here. As our population grew, opportunity so diminished. Changes occured faster than most of us could comprehend, but that just made us chase harder. In the '80s, we joined the Faster Rats In the Ratrace era and tried to outrun our problems. We were too involved to see the crisis before it was upon us. 

Even as we began to acknowledge that we had a problem with homeless people in our country, we secretly hoped that those people were to blame for their own circumstances. We soothed ourselves with a reminder that the government took a big bite out of our wages to provide for the needy. Typically, we believed that people reap what they sow and we assumed that our government would take care those who couldn't. It pissed us off when we learned that our Public Institutions were releasing mental patients onto our streets. We were paying for social systems and for protection and we weren't getting our money's worth of either. Still, the issues were not only complex and overwhelming, they were an embarrasment we didn't want to smear on our international reputation. Needed corections on a government level would call too much attention to something so bad for business.

Once the grandest opportunities for wealth were within our borders.  But we were on the move as we took a hard turn into the Global Market without a backward glance. Maybe we found it easier to pledge our dollars so far from our nieghborhoods because we had become such strangers with our own neighbors.

So, to the second question; what can we do to change it? First, face the fact that government hasn't, won't and can't fix the problem. Prepare to do something about it yourself. Blaming the system is a perfect fit for the "singing to the pig" cliche. If you believe that you are owed the right to be heard, you have to own up to the reality that the machine makes too much noise for one voice to shout over. We need to know what is happening to us and to our neighbors and we need to stand up for each other before it will stop. Don't let your neighbors wither in shame and leave in the night as they lose their jobs, their homes and their pride in being an American. If it is really acceptable that we save the bank but not our neighbor, I predict a great future market in security fencing.