"Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander."- - The words over the door of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Universal Declaration of Human RightsArticle 25:(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html Toronto Marks 500th Homeless DeathGrim Milestone for Homelessby COLIN JOHNSON AND JOHN BREWIN; Tuesday, November 14, 2006 - Toronto Star
Imagine an entire busload of people dying in a horrible crash, because of faulty brakes. Cries of outrage, coupled with demands for improved safety inspections, would immediately dominate our newscasts, newspapers, government legislatures and water-cooler conversations.
Now try to imagine, if you can, 12 busloads of people perishing. Imagine the uproar that would provoke, especially if the victims were innocent schoolchildren.
We would all be appalled at such a terrible loss of human life. We all hold up the value of every human life and deplore needless deaths ... or do we?
(snip)
Five hundred lives - each as precious as yours or mine - snuffed out because of the lack of something as basic and simple as providing a roof over one's head.
As our wealthy society tolerates the growing death toll of homeless people, it's hard not to believe that some of us are deemed more valuable than others.
(snip)
While our society recoils from blatant discrimination against people of colour, Jews, Muslims and others who have suffered from prejudice, it apparently is still acceptable to discriminate against poor people. We are actively urging Anglicans to resist this mindset. We urge you to do the same.
http://mostlywater.org/toronto_marks_500th_homeless_death Related threads:
Please, if you have a printer, download, print & send this report (
“Without Housing: Decades of Federal Housing Cutbacks, Massive Homelessness and Policy Failure: http://wraphome.org/wh_press_kit/Without_Housing_20061114.pdf) to your Senators & Representative. Ask them what they will do to restore funding to Federal Housing Programs; ask them what they will do to alleviate the epidemic of homelessness in America.
Thank you!