Something Wrong

Sometimes I hate this country. Compare and contrast these Times headlines:

• Wall Street Pursues Profit in Bundles of Life Insurance. This is about a plan to buy life insurance policies from the old and sick, then securitize them. Gosh, this worked out so well with mortgages!
• Surge in Homeless Children Strains School Districts. Homeless children. Nobody should be homeless in this country. And school districts should be getting all the money they need to educate our young, pay teachers decent salaries, and have physically safe, functional, and beautiful schools.

Health Care Reform: Reason No.382

Firemen in Washington, D.C., are spending more time providing emergency health care to the poor than they spend fighting fires.

Update: And here's reason no. 383, a powerful article on the need for real reform (not insurance reform) by David Goldhill.

Your Local Food Bank

I just got email from Michelle Obama suggesting that I do what I have already done: donate to my local food bank. So I'm passing along her suggestion.

This is a tough year for far too many people, given the state of the economy, layoffs all over, foreclosures, and so on. Food banks have been hit from all sides, with fewer people in a position to donate and more needing their services.

Mrs. Obama's email provided a useful link, to Feed America (formerly America's Second Harvest). Click the link Find a Foodbank to locate your community's food bank. In my neck of the woods, it's the Alameda County Community Foodbank. In yours?