Progressive Wednesday

This Wednesday: “One Love — We Get to Share It”

The facts and only the cold hard facts:

1. According to the United Nations, “about 24,000 people die every day from hunger or hunger-related causes.”
2. 36.9 million Americans live in poverty, and that’s more than the population of California. 13 million of those Americans are children, and that’s more than the populations of New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New Mexico combined.
3. A study conducted by Tufts University indicates that “mild under-nutrition experienced by young children … may lead to reductions in physical growth and affect brain development.”

So let’s do something from the relatively wealthy comfort of our computers.

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• Watch
• Quiz
• Click

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Watch:

Below you’ll find a video of Bono, the front man for the band of bands, U2. In case you weren’t aware, this Nobel Peace Prize nominee (2003, 2005, 2006) has dedicated a huge chunk of his life battling poverty throughout the world. A large portion of his efforts has to do with eradicating so-called “third world” debt, and the organization he founded with Bobby Shriver, DATA, recently joined forces with 10 other groups to form the ONE Campaign, whose motto is “The Campaign to Make Poverty History.” ONE, we ought to mention, is a grassroots organization partially funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

So we’ve found a video of Bono speaking about AIDS, poverty, and other pandemic diseases at the 2008 World Economic Forum. We find his words, though at times critical of the Western world, ultimately inspiring, as they were the impetus behind this week’s Wednesday. We hope you have a similar reaction to his words of innocence and experience.

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Quiz:

Okay, I’ve got to say it: this is the weirdest way to combat poverty that I’ve ever seen, but it’s fascinating and effective nonetheless.

Here’s how the site works: you take a vocabulary quiz, and for each correct answer you give, “20 grains of rice” are donated to poor people through the United Nations World Food Program. You might be thinking: “20 grains of rice? Seriously guys? That’s it?” Well, consider this, buckaroo: in the four months of Free Rice’s existence, “the site’s creator has given over $250,000 to the [World Food Program].” Keep this in mind, as well: that’s one billion grains of rice. And this sucker is a non-profit raising money through advertising.

So, the benefit here is twofold: you increase your vocabulary, which can only help you at work, or help you land a job, or help you ace the SAT or GRE; you donate food without doing much more than exercising your brain. (Just click the logo above to start playing this game that helps save lives.)

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Click:

Okay, people. This one's easy as a fried egg given one spatula flip. All you've got to do is give two clicks. First, click this sentence to be taken to the Hunger Site (you can read more about this organization here). Then click the button that reads “Click Here to Give — it’s FREE!– on that page. There – ” you've just help feed those suffering in poverty you generous little devil you. According to the site, over the past seven years “more than 300 million visitors have given more than 500 million cups of staple food.–

This website is run by the good folks over at Charity USA, a for-profit organization that funds health care, animal, literacy, and ecological reform through advertising. If you purchase gear, you can help raise even more of the green. We’ve previously written about the Rainforest Site, Breast Cancer Site, and Literacy Site, and trust us when we say that we’ve researched the hell out of this, vetted it more than a Vice Presidential candidate, and it's completely legit.

Food is good food.

One of the lingering problems with organic food is cost. While prices have fallen on many products (I do find some organic produce costs about the same as the artificially fertilized counterparts), many of the more processed foods or staples, like milk and eggs, can come with a pretty hefty price tag. This, of course, means that the poorest among us miss out on the goodness and healthfulness of organic foodstuffs.

So, along comes a progressive idea to help fuel our larger progressive revolution:

At the One World Café in Salt Lake City, customers set the price for their organic, fair-trade meals. Urbanite reports that One World provides options for all customers, from homeless patrons to business folks on their lunch breaks. A daily free entrée is always on the menu and the restaurant offers a “hand-up, not a hand-out” option by exchanging meal coupons for every hour of volunteer service. At the end of the day, says founder Denise Cerreta, the restaurant ends up with a fair price for the staff’s work.

Even though most of us don’t live in Salt Lake City, we can still be glad that such wonderful efforts are being made. And there are things we can do to help those suffering in poverty feed themselves better. Amongst many charities we could lend hand or buck is America’s Second Harvest. And what is America’s Second Harvest, pray tell? Here goes:

America’s Second Harvest– ”The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the nation’s largest charitable hunger-relief organization:

• A network of more than 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations
• Serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

The America’s Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. Each year, the America’s Second Harvest Network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

There’s not enough props we can give this organization. So here’s the deal — just give five. (All you’ve got to do is click this sentence.) Five bucks to most of us is next to nothing–a McMeal or a summer blockbuster we wish, afterwards, that we’d skipped. To an organization that feeds those with next to nothing, five bucks is nothing they’ll sneeze at (though, I imagine 100 dollars wouldn’t make them sneeze either… really I doubt any amount of would make them sneeze, so don’t worry about the infinitesimally small chance that you might make someone sneeze).

So, here’s to good food (and tissues) for all.

The little “Plumpy’nut” that could.

I subscribe to more magazines than my eyes, noggin, and free time can handle, but subscribe to them I do. Often, this leads to a lot of skimming, looking for articles about topics I’m hungry to learn more about, looking for articles that might be pertinent to Progressive Wednesday.

A piece in an issue of Business 2.0 couldn’t be ignored. According to an article by Carleen Hawn, close to a billion people in the world live hungry. And then I read this:

Malnutrition kills more people annually than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, [and] the United Nations says a child dies from the complications of malnutrition every five seconds.

The average person reads 250-350 words per minute, which means that by the time you read the end of this post, approximately 30 children will have died from a lack of food.

All hope ain’t lost, though. There are many fantastic organizations out there battling this exact problem: World Food Programme, Unicef, America’s Second Harvest, Meds & Food For Kids, and Oxfam, amongst several others (all of which would graciously accept your donations).

But, once again, there’s a way to make money and make the lives of those suffering better. Nutriset, a French business that describes itself as a “company fully dedicated to humanitarian and social programs,” has developed a new product called “Plumpy’nut” (I gotta say, I would have come up with a less, I don’t know, goofy name). They doled out 500,000 of these über-nutritious bars last year. Each bar contains 500 calories, ground peanuts, whey protein, vitamins, and minerals. One of the most important features of this product is that it isn’t perishable.

Plumpy’nut succeeds where powdered milk fails because it doesn’t require clean drinking water. In Darfur alone, this product has cut malnutrition in half. And according a piece in the N.Y. Times, Plumpy’nut can even be fed to babies to help jump-start growth.

Here’s the amazing part for the company: they sold $25 million last year alone by saving people’s lives. And what do they do with that money? They reinvest 80 percent of their profits into research and development.

So here’s a business with a heart the size of a home, making money while helping to end malnutrition. I believe this drives home the point (without making a quick pit stop at 7-Eleven for a Big Gulp) we’re always trying to make at Progressive Wednesday: Baby, the end of big problems starts with small solutions.

Clergyman Charlie: On waging peace

I was spending the night in the home of one of our Hispanic pastors in the Bronx.  Suddenly he asked me, “Can you stay up late tonight?– I said I could.  So around midnight we got into his car and he said he wanted me to have an interesting experience.  We drove to the local precinct station of the New York Police Department (the NYPD).

When we entered, it was obvious that everyone knew him.  We went into a room near the back where a group of 25 or so police had gathered.  He read a Scripture to them and then offered a short prayer.  The prayer went something like this: “Lord, be with these men and women as they go out into the streets tonight and keep them safe.  Help them as they try to keep our community safe.  We thank you for them and ask you to guide them in all that they do.  Amen.– The police said “Amen– too.  Some crossed themselves.  Then they went to work.

I was quite impressed and asked him how this had come about.  He said, “Well, as you know, we've demonstrated a lot recently against police brutality, and there have been some cases of that.  But then I started meditation on the Scriptures that tell us to pray for those in authority and I realized we hadn't done that.  So I came over and asked the police captain if I could lead a short worship service for the police before their shift began. He said that I could, but reminded me that there were three shifts: at midnight, at 8:00 in the morning, and at 4:00 in the afternoon.”

“I knew I couldn't do that three times a day myself, with all my other duties.  So I asked the lay leaders in my church if they would take some of the shifts too.   I reminded them that these were not very convenient times.  8:00am was pretty early; 4:00pm was when children were coming home from school.  But I said we shouldn't start it if we weren't going to carry through. They said they would do it, and we've been doing this for several months now.”

“One day the police chief told me it was making him nervous; he hadn't believed we would continue for so long.  After all, some of the police were Muslim or people of no faith. I told him it was completely voluntary, only for those who wished to participate.  He seemed to think that was ok.”

“And you know what?  The attitude on the street has changed!  Police used to gaze at us with hostility.  We avoided them and considered them in many cases to be our enemies.  Now they wave at us. Recently one saw me in a store and said, – ˜Oh, Hi. You're that praying pastor.

“Maybe I shouldn't tell this part, but one stopped me for speeding the other day and when he recognized me wouldn't give me a ticket.  The whole attitude in this community is different now.–

Why am I telling you this story?  (It is true, by the way; I can tell you the pastor's name and address if you're interested.)  The reason, I hope, is obvious.  Peace making is what we are called to do.  Not war making.  Jesus told us that those who take the sword will perish by the sword. Violence leads to more and more violence.  He also told us to do good to those who persecute us, and to love our enemies.

Some people say that is naïve.  I would suggest that the path of violence hasn't worked too well so far. Some say Jesus' method wouldn't work.  I would suggest it has never been tried in a consistent way.

Years ago the Church developed criteria for a “just war.–   Some of those standards included items such as sparing civilians, making sure that every other method to solve a problem had been tried first, making sure that more good than harm would be done by the war, etc. Our occupation of Iraq violates all of those standards.

Our country has several institutions that teach the art of warfare: West Point, Annapolis, etc.  We don't have even one “Peace Academy.–

The humble story of one Hispanic pastor, whose prayers and outreaching love changed a community, can be a parable of what nations could do if they engaged in peacemaking, if they put as much money and energy into spreading compassion as they do into warfare.

If we spent the money we have spent on weapons into a type of “Marshal Plan– for the Third World, and people could feel hope as medical clinics were built, good education provided, and agriculture enhanced, they would not easily listen to terrorists who tell them that the U.S. is an evil country.

Many years ago I was going to seminary and serving a small church on weekends.  One member of the church was not highly educated but he was a very wise man.  He rarely attended services, but I visited him often.  He would say to me, “What are you preaching about, Boy?–   I'd tell him.

He would say, “Preach about Peace!  That's what we need to hear.–

I'm still trying to take that advice through this column today.

Thank you for the picture, officer.

Give a click for books.

On a previous Wednesday (see “A Book Does a Body Good”), we highlighted some simple ways you can help your own children and other children read, and read progressive stuff to boot. And as we put it then: plenty of children don't own any books, and many others don't even have access to books outside of school. And as progressives, we owe it to children, all children, to let them have as close to the same youth as we'd want for our own. We owe them this because we want to protect innocence. And we owe them this because want a caring, intelligent, articulate, and creative generation to come. We want a better world, so we want a world with more books.

In that vein, we give you The Literacy Site, a website that offers a rare opportunity: use your mouse to click one digital button and help raise funds to provide books to kids in poverty. This is achieved through advertising on the site (not unlike GoodSearch.com, which we touted this past Wednesday).

They put their motives behind their mission this way:

61 percent of low-income families have no books for children in their homes. Over 80 percent of childcare centers serving low-income children lack age-appropriate books and other print materials. By providing children from low-income families with books that they can take home and keep, together we target the only variable that correlates significantly with reading scores: the number of books in the home.

So, all you’ve got to do is click this sentence to be taken to The Literacy Site. Once you’re there, just click the button that reads “Fund Books For Kids.” There. That’s it. And the beauty part is that you can take this 7-second action every single day.

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Editor’s Note: We’ve researched this a great deal, and just so you know, the aforementioned website is totally legit. Check for yourself by clicking here or here.

A Book Does a Body Good

Problem:

You need to read to your little ones, and you need to find some books that they can read to you. You know all children's books, especially those designed for the younger sets, have morals, sometimes explicitly stated, sometimes not. You want to find books that espouse a world view that doesn't conflict with yours, and may even help encourage your wee ones to believe what you believe, baby.

Or maybe you don't have any tikes of your own, or, you know, maybe yours are a bit older and can be found flipping through the pages of the latest Danielle Steel offering, The Bible, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Supercharged Kama Sutra, and Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, which changed and inspired the lives of a few of the folks at Progressive Wednesday.

Regardless, odds are you believe in the important relationship between children and books. And here's the other problem: plenty of children don't own any books, and many others don't even have access to books outside of school. And as progressives, we owe it to children, all children, to let them have as close to the same youth as we'd want for our own. We owe them this because we want to protect innocence. And we owe them this because want a caring, intelligent, articulate, and creative generation to come. We want a better world, so we want a world with more books.

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Make Progress:

To take some action this Wednesday is simple, really. It's simple as A, B, C, D, one, two, three, four– ¦.

• Buy (or Borrow) & Read
• Find & Tell
• Recycle
• Give

Photo thanks to this picture-clicker.

The Nitty-Gritty from the Twin Cities: Shortest Social Security Article Ever

Social Security was not founded as a retirement program. It was a New Deal program meant to fight poverty.

Back in the day, people worked until they couldn't work any more (read: frail, sick, dead, etc.). Most (if any) had no pension, and the idea of saving for retirement didn't exist at that point, so the elderly were often in dire straits. Indeed, the official name of the Social Security program is OASDI: Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance.

This is an important distinction. Because if you see Social Security as merely a retirement account, then it becomes tempting to say that it's not doing the job compared to other options. However, if you recognize that it's a safety net on a number of fronts– payments to the disabled, widows, orphaned children, as well as a source of modest retirement income to keep people out of poverty — then it gets a bit harder to argue about dismantling it, either outright or through Trojan Horses like “private accounts.–

One other thing, though, regarding private accounts: we already have them. They're called Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs); they're optional, and a great way to put money away on a tax-advantaged basis. So, if you want private accounts, fund your IRA. If you want to dismantle Social Security, at least have the gumption to say it, and don't pretend you're “reforming– it.