I have but one wish for the New Year. Reverse the tragic upward trend of family homelessness. If you haven't heard, there was a 9 percent increase in family homelessness last year. Even that statistic is conservative at best, considering it is largely based upon shelter counts. Add the families who bunk with other family members or friends and those who are slogging through cold, lonely nights in motels, cars and public spaces and you're likely to reach a statistic that literally boggles the mind.
It's an outrage. It's unjust. It's inhumane. Yet, it's America.
Can we make 2011 the year that we take America back? Back from public policies forged for the wealthy and the "middle class," not the working poor. Back from a corporate obsession with profits over people. Back from a media universe that prefers vacuous punditry over slice-of-life reporting on the true perils overwhelming our public. And back from the mightiest class imbalance in our nation's history.
We have gone to depths we never quite imagined and most certainly did not prepare for. Yet, this is the year we must coordinate the climb back out of these depths. This is the year when we must ignore isolationist politics that have devoured the majority whole. This is the year for our own revolution of good, for it has always been the public that rises up to demand new principles.
This is my New Year's wish. And I've actually started putting that wish into motion just a little bit early.
I have been fortunate enough to lend a hand to a wonderful organization fighting such battles each and every day. Union Station Homeless Services offers a remarkable service continuum that helps moms and dads, sons and daughters rediscover hope and heal from the many tragedies associated with poverty. Just today, I assembled a short animated video for them that I'd like to share with you. Here's hoping it's one in a long line of little gestures that all of us can make in the year 2011.
May all your wishes come true too.